Subscription 
Desirous to become an IAS? - (Part - IV)-
Civil Services Preliminary exams:
The Preliminary exams comprises 2 divisions of objective type questions for 450 marks. It is mandatory to answer all the questions. The first paper comprises questions for 150 marks in General Knowledge and the second paper consists of questions for 300 marks in the optional subject.
It is possible to select anyone of the following subjects: agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, Indian History, Law, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Political Science, General Administration, Sociology, Statistics and Zoology.
Information regarding examination center is available in Annexure-12.
The duration of each paper is 2 hours. The questions will be of objective type in English and Hindi, based on the Degree syllabus . Details on a few specific optional subjects can be found in Annexure -3.
Preliminary exam is a filtering exam. The marks of this exam are not taken into consideration for the preparation of the final list. Every year approximately 5000 persons are selected in the Preliminary exams, that is in the ratio of 12-13 persons for 1 vacant position.
Civil Services Main Exams:
The Civil Services Exams comprise 2 stages. They are
1. Written exam
2. Interview
The written exam consists of Essay type answers involving 9 subjects.
Subject – 1 Anyone Indian language 300 marks.
Subject – 2 English 300 marks
Subject – 3 Essay 200 marks
Subject – 4 General knowledge -1 300 marks
Subject – 5 General Knowledge -2 300 marks
Subject – 6 Optional subject –1 Part –1 300 marks
Subject – 7 Optional subject –1 Part – 2 300 marks
Subject – 8 Optional subject –2 Part – 1 300 marks
Subject – 9 Optional subject –2 Part – 2 300 marks
It is compulsory to select 2 Optional subjects from 4 for the Main Exams. Of the two, one can be a subject you have done in the Degree course; but, it is not compulsory to choose this subject only. The Optional subject can be agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, Indian History, Law, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Political Science, General Administration, Sociology, Statistics, Zoology and Liteature in anyone of the Indian languages.
The following subject pairs cannot be selected.
1) Political Science and International relations- Public Administration.
2) Commerce, Accountancy – Management.
3) Anthropology – Sociology
4) Mathematics – Statistics
5) Agriculture – Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science.
6) Management – General Administration.
7) Animal husbandry and Veterinary science – Medical science
8) Should not select more than one Engineering subjects such as Civil, Electrical, and Electronics
