Candidates who want to pursue their career in civil services like IAS, IPS or IFS should qualify the civil service examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. This examination is conducted in two stages, preliminary examination and main examination. Those who have qualified the preliminary examination can write the main examination in which the candidates can select optional subjects according to their interest.  Candidates who score good marks in the main exam will be called for the interview.

Optional subjects in main exam

There will be total nine papers for the main exam. Candidates can select two optional subjects. There will be two papers for each of them. Then there will be two papers for general studies and one paper for essay. Candidates also need to answer two language papers, one of them in General English and another in any Indian language. Optional subjects given for the main examination are given below

• Agriculture
• Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
• Botany, Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Commerce and Accountancy
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering
• Geography
• Geology
• History
• Law
• Management
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Medical Science
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Political Science and International Relations
• Psychology
• Public Administration
• Sociology
• Statistics
• Zoology

Apart from these twenty three subjects there will be two extra papers which can be chosen as optional subjects. Those two extra papers are Anthropology and Management. Thus twenty five optional subjects will be given for the main examination.

How to select a subject from optional subjects?

While choosing the optional subjects, candidates should ensure they are not choosing the combinations given below.

• Political Science and International Relations and Public Administration
• Commerce and Management
• Anthropology and Sociology
• Maths and Statistics
• Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
• Management and Public Administration
• Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science and Medical Science
• Any two branches of engineering

Candidates should select those subjects in which they are interested. A subject can be studied well only with interest. Also, the candidates can score good marks on selecting interested subjects. Civil service examination is very competitive in nature. Those who want to clear this exam should prepare well for the exam using good study materials. If selected optional subjects have less study materials, then it will adversely affect the preparation. Therefore the candidates should select those subjects which have enough study materials so as to prepare well for the exam. The important thing to be considered while choosing the optional subject is the subject knowledge. Candidates can score high marks only if they possess sufficient knowledge in the concerned subject. It is better to choose the subject which was studied during graduation as it can be followed easily.