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
At the Preliminary Level, you have two papers: one General Studies,
which is compulsory; and another optional paper, which you can select
from:
General Studies syllabus consists of subject matter from:
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History of India
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History of freedom struggle
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Politics and political institutions in India, including Indian
Constitution
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Current affairs
-
Physics (science subjects are of Higher Secondary level)
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Chemistry
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Biology
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General Mental Ability, mainly simple mathematical questions
-
Economics of India
-
Geography of India and the world
-
and other miscellany
At the Mains level, there are nine papers:
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General Studies Paper I
-
General Studies Paper II
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Essay
-
English language
-
Indian language
-
Optional Subject I Paper I
-
Optional Subject I Paper II
-
Optional Subject II Paper I
-
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:
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Agriculture
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Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
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Anthropology
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Botany
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Chemistry
-
Civil Engineering
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Commerce and Accountancy
-
Economics
-
Electrical Engineering
-
Geography
-
Geology
-
History
-
Law
-
Management
-
Mathematics
-
Mechanical Engineering
-
Medical Science
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Philosophy
-
Physics
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Political Science and International Relations
-
Psychology
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Public Administration
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Sociology
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Statistics
-
Zoology
-
Literature of one of the following languages:
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Arabic
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Assamese
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Bengali
-
Chinese
-
English
-
French
-
German
-
Gujarati
-
Hindi
-
Kannada
-
Kashmiri
-
Konkani
-
Malayalam
-
Manipuri
-
Marathi
-
Nepali
-
Oriya
-
Pali
-
Persian
-
Punjabi
-
Russian
-
Sanskrit
-
Sindhi
-
Tamil
-
Telegu
-
Urdu
NOTE: Candidates will not be allowed to offer the following
combination of subjects:
-
Political Science & International Relations and Public
Administration
-
Commerce and Accountancy and Management
-
Anthropology and Sociology
-
Mathematics and Statistics
-
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
-
Management and Public Administration
-
Of the Engineering subjects, not more than one subject
-
Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science and Medical Science
General Studies would include mainly:
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General Science
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Current events of national and international importance
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History of India and Indian National Movement
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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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