Contents:
- The Journey to 90%: One Student’s Story
- 8 Tips to Help You Pass the CSE with Confidence
Introduction
Let’s face it: the idea of passing the Civil Service Examination (CSE) can sound overwhelming at first. But here’s the good news—it’s absolutely doable, even easier than you think... IF you know how to prepare for it the smart way.
Civil Service Eligibility is your ticket to joining the Philippine government workforce. You can earn it by:
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Passing the Career Service Examination (CSE),
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Being a bar or board exam passer, or
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Qualifying under special laws or CSC issuances.
If you're going the CSE route, you have two options:
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CSE-PPT (Pen and Paper Test) – Open to anyone who meets basic qualifications. No specific degree required!
CSC application schedule for 2025
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COMEX (Computerized Exam) – A more flexible, digital option.
CSC COMEX details
The CSC offers several kinds of exams under the Pen and Paper Test system, including:
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Career Service Exam for Foreign Service Officer (CSE-FSO)
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CSE for Professional and Subprofessional Levels
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Basic Competency on Local Treasury Examination (BCLTE)
Full exam schedule for 2025
This post is about how one student, known here as “Student Brain Boost Cooler,” passed the CSE-PPT—and how you can, too.
The Journey to 90%: One Student’s Story
You’ve probably heard stories from people who passed the CSE. This one is mine (I took the CSE Professional Level). Looking back, I honestly believe that early preparation was the key to my success—preparation that started way before I ever signed up for the exam. Here’s how it unfolded:
📚 Elementary Years: The Reading Habit Begins
Before I stepped into a classroom, my parents were already teaching me. My dad—an avid reader and a freelance photographer—always had a magazine or book in hand. I watched him go through Reader’s Digest, Time Magazine, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and even Popular Photography. It was from him that I caught the reading bug.
My mom taught me how to read, and that was the key that unlocked everything else.
By Grade 3, I started using The American Heritage Dictionary, complete with maps, illustrations, and profiles of U.S. presidents. It wasn’t just a reference—it was a book I read for fun. I even used to spend my lunch breaks in the school library. When I got my first library card, I felt like I had leveled up in life!
By Grades 5 and 6, daily quizzes on vocabulary and reading comprehension became my training ground.
✍️ High School Years: Finding My Voice
In high school, one of the first things I did was—guess what? Get another library card.
I remember being one of the few people who actually spent time in the school library. It was dusty and quiet, but to me, it felt like a treasure trove. There, I found “The Practical Stylist” by Sheridan Baker (1965, Paperback)—a book that made me fall in love with writing. It taught me that writing is personal, like a painter’s signature.
That’s when I started experimenting with style, new words, and how to express thoughts clearly. I also discovered the thesaurus, which helped me expand my vocabulary even more. Later, a relative gave us a set of encyclopedias (The New Universal Library Volumes 1-15 published in 1969 by The Caxton Publishing Company) and illustrated dictionaries (The Universal Dictionary Illustrated Vols. 1 & 2), and I read those for fun too. (Nerdy? Maybe. Worth it? Definitely.)
🎓 College Years: Full Immersion
College was when everything came together. The university library became my sanctuary. Thousands of books, scientific journals, quiet halls—it was heaven.
This was also when I discovered speed reading. No, I wasn’t born a fast reader, but I trained myself a little. It helped me finish exams with time to spare and even review my answers before submitting my Bluebook.
Playing Scrabble and Boggle became a pastime too—games that secretly train your brain for word recognition and pattern thinking.
And even though I majored in Food Technology, I took electives like Computer Science (Introduction to Computer Science) and Statistics (STAT 162: Experimental Designs I). Why? Because being curious and open-minded makes you better at learning. Even math, once scary, became fascinating once I understood its beauty.
8 Tips to Help You Pass the CSE with Confidence
If I had to boil it down, here’s what helped me most:
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Start early. Build your vocabulary by reading a simple dictionary from cover to cover.
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Surround yourself with English materials. Magazines, articles, and science content build your reading comprehension.
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Be curious in class. Don’t just aim to pass—aim to learn.
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Find your writing voice. Use new words. Express your thoughts clearly.
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Level up your references. Use a thesaurus, read encyclopedias—even the old ones!
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Gamify your learning. Play word games like Scrabble and Boggle.
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Fall in love with libraries. Whether digital or physical, make books your friends.
Understand root words, prefixes, suffixes, and etymology. Many difficult words become easier once you recognize their parts. Learning root words, along with common prefixes (like pre-, un-, re-) and suffixes (like -tion, -able, -ment), helps you figure out the meaning of new words fast. Studying etymology—where words come from—deepens your vocabulary and gives you a big advantage in reading comprehension and vocabulary tests.
What’s the Real Secret?
We passed the CSE not just because we studied hard before the exam, but because we built a habit of learning over time. Our “stock knowledge” came from years of reading, asking questions, being curious, and pushing beyond what was required.
Fast Forward to Today…
Yes, those were different times. We didn’t have smartphones, TikTok, or AI tools to distract (or assist!) us. But the principle is still the same:
Your habits now create your success later.
Today, you can still build your own stock knowledge by being intentional—choosing to read, to explore, to question, and to grow. The CSE may be a test on paper, but what it really measures is how much you’ve learned, understood, and practiced over the years.
So if you're thinking of taking the CSE—whether it’s soon or still far off—know this: you can do it. Start now. Build the habit. Be curious. The journey might just surprise you.
❓ Question and Answer
1. Could Student Brain Boost Cooler have passed the Civil Service Examination – Professional Level right after high school?
🟢 Our personal opinion? Yes.
If he had taken the exam immediately after graduating high school, we believe he could have scored at least 80%—enough to pass. His 99th percentile score in the NCEE and successful entry into the University of the Philippines through UPCAT are strong indicators of solid academic grounding. In fact, we personally think the UPCAT is tougher than the CSE—but again, that's just our opinion. We could be wrong, and that's okay. What matters is how well you prepare, regardless of age.
2. What’s the best way to pass the CSE?
🔑 Short answer: Know the correct answers.
Easier said than done, right? But really, the best way to pass is to build your stock knowledge as early as possible. That’s what this whole post is about—preparation over time. It’s not about cramming or last-minute reviewers. It’s about what you’ve been feeding your brain for years through reading, curiosity, and learning beyond the classroom.
3. How did we manage to score 90%?
📊 Here’s our honest breakdown:
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60–80% came from stock knowledge—what we already knew from years of reading, studying, and engaging with different subjects.
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10–20% was logical reasoning—common sense, process of elimination, and connecting the dots.
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5–10% was pure luck—because sometimes, you just guess right. The correct answer is already in the choices; you just have to find it.
MORE
Students Brain Boost Cooler: Once Upon a Time, There Was the NCEE
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