INFORMATION PRIMER FOR INDIAN CIVIL SERVICES

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Subjects available at the Exam

Subjects at both the Preliminary and the Mains level can be distinguished into two categories: the compulsory and the optional(s).

Subjects at Preliminary Level
Subjects at Mains Level

Subjects at Preliminary Level

At the Preliminary Level, you have two papers: one General Studies, which is compulsory; and another optional paper, which you can select from:

  • Agriculture

  • Animal husbandry and veterinary science

  • Botany

  • Chemistry

  • Civil Engineering

  • Commerce

  • Economics

  • Electric Engineering

  • Geography

  • Geology

  • Indian history

  • Law

  • Mathematics

  • Philosophy

  • Physics

  • Political science

  • Psychology

  • Public administration

  • Sociology

  • Statistics

  • Zoology

General Studies syllabus consists of subject matter from:

  • History of India

  • History of freedom struggle

  • Politics and political institutions in India, including Indian Constitution

  • Current affairs

  • Physics (science subjects are of Higher Secondary level)

  • Chemistry

  • Biology

  • General Mental Ability, mainly simple mathematical questions

  • Economics of India

  • Geography of India and the world

  • and other miscellany

Subjects at Mains Level

At the Mains level, there are nine papers:

  1. General Studies Paper I

  2. General Studies Paper II

  3. Essay

  4. English language

  5. Indian language

  6. Optional Subject I Paper I

  7. Optional Subject I Paper II

  8. Optional Subject II Paper I

  9. Optional Subject II Paper II

The first five papers are compulsory. You can write the Essay paper in any of the Indian languages, and the Indian language paper has to be given in the same medium. The available languages are:
 

Language

Script

Assamese

Assamese

Bengali

Bengali

Gujarati

Gujarati

Hindi

Devanagari

Malayalam

Malayalam

Manipuri

Bengali

Marathi

Devanagari

Nepali

Devanagari

Sanskrit

Devanagari

Sindhi

Devanagari or Arabic

Tamil

Tamil

Telegu

Telegu

Urdu

Persian


Optional subjects at the Mains level include:

  1. Agriculture

  2. Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

  3. Anthropology

  4. Botany

  5. Chemistry

  6. Civil Engineering

  7. Commerce and Accountancy

  8. Economics

  9. Electrical Engineering

  10. Geography

  11. Geology

  12. History

  13. Law

  14. Management

  15. Mathematics

  16. Mechanical Engineering

  17. Medical Science

  18. Philosophy

  19. Physics

  20. Political Science and International Relations

  21. Psychology

  22. Public Administration

  23. Sociology

  24. Statistics

  25. Zoology

  26. Literature of one of the following languages:

    1. Arabic

    2. Assamese

    3. Bengali

    4. Chinese

    5. English

    6. French

    7. German

    8. Gujarati

    9. Hindi

    10. Kannada

    11. Kashmiri

    12. Konkani

    13. Malayalam

    14. Manipuri

    15. Marathi

    16. Nepali

    17. Oriya

    18. Pali

    19. Persian

    20. Punjabi

    21. Russian

    22. Sanskrit

    23. Sindhi

    24. Tamil

    25. Telegu

    26. Urdu

NOTE: Candidates will not be allowed to offer the following combination of subjects:

  1. Political Science & International Relations and Public Administration

  2. Commerce and Accountancy and Management

  3. Anthropology and Sociology

  4. Mathematics and Statistics

  5. Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

  6. Management and Public Administration

  7. Of the Engineering subjects, not more than one subject

  8. Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science and Medical Science

General Studies would include mainly:

  • General Science

  • Current events of national and international importance

  • History of India and Indian National Movement

  • Indian and World Geography

  • Indian Polity and Economy

  • General Mental Ability (mainly Statistics)


This gives a basic overview of the subjects. To get a better perception you must look into the detailed syllabus as well at previous years' questions. The syllabus is available with the Notification published every year. If you have missed that, you can get it from a bookstore which stock relevant books- various publishers come out with IAS syllabi. Don't jump into the fray by just looking at the list of subjects as they give a very misleading notion. Officially the standard of questions is of degree (BA, BSc, BTech, BBA level), but they can ask you MA/MSc level questions rampantly.

 

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