CSS Subject Selection Complete Guide 2024

The Central Superior Services CSS is an elite permanent bureaucratic authority, and the civil service that is responsible for running the civilian bureaucratic operations and government secretariats and directorates of the Cabinet of Pakistan. If you are in search for CSS Subject Selection Complete Guide 2024, then you are at right place as we have provided a detailed bundle of information about CSS Subject Selection Complete Guide 2024. There are six compulsory subjects containing 100 marks each, which include Essay, English, Everyday Science, Current Affairs, Islamiat and Pakistan Affairs. Optional courses are divided into groups and each optional course carries either 100 or 200 marks. CSS Subject Selection Complete Guide 2024 is being dispatched over here in detail form.

CSS Subject Selection Complete Guide 2024

Complete Guide 2024CSS Subject Selection for Beginners

The beginners have varied perceptions about the preparation and a good number of them are not aware of the realities of the same. They begin but on wrong lines, they go astray and meet failures in initial attempts. It takes them a year or years to be conscious of the realities and that too, at the cost of some attempts. Some take attempts without preparation just to gain some experiences because they do not have a good guide to suggest them that attempts are precious and must not be wasted this way. This article has relevance in the above-mentioned context.

Fectors for CSS Subject Selection Complete Guide 2024

As a matter of fact there are there factors, which must be considered during subject selection. These three factors are:

• The academic background of the candidate.
• Personal interest and aptitude.
• Scoring potential of the subjects.

The compulsory subjects do not give very high marks usually. The average on the higher side in the compulsory subjects is roughly between 55 to 60%. Almost all the candidates, qualifying written exam, fall in this bracket as far as their score in compulsory subjects is concerned. The real difference in the marks of written exam in created on the basis of optional subjects, only if the subjects chosen are high scoring.

Compulsory Subjects (600 Marks)

• English Essay: 100 Marks
• English (Precis and Composition): 100 Marks
• General Science & Ability: 100 Marks
• Current Affairs: 100 Marks
• Pakistan Affairs: 100 Marks
• Islamic Studies OR Comparative Study of Major Religions (For Non Muslims): 100 Marks
• Total Marks: 600

Optional Subjects (600 Marks)

Group-I: (To select one subject of (200 marks) only)

• Accountancy & Auditing: 200 Marks
• Economics: 200 Marks
• Computer Science: 200 Marks
• Political Science: 200 Marks
• International Relations: 200 Marks

Group-II: (To select subject(s) of 200 marks only)

• Physics: 200 Marks
• Chemistry: 200 Marks
• Applied Mathematics: 100 Marks
• Pure Mathematics: 100 Marks
• Statistics: 100 Marks
• Geology: 100 Marks

Group-III: (To select one subject of 100 marks only)

• Business Administration: 100 Marks
• Public Administration: 100 Marks
• Governance & Public Policies: 100 Marks
• Town Planning & Urban Management: 100 Marks

Group-IV: (To select one subject of 100 marks only)

• History of Pakistan & India: 100 Marks
• Islamic History & Culture: 100 Marks
• British History: 100 Marks
• European History: 100 Marks
• History of USA: 100 Marks

Group-V: (To select one subject of 100 marks only)

• Gender Studies: 100 Marks
• Environmental Sciences: 100 Marks
• Agriculture & Forestry: 100 Marks
• Botany: 100 Marks
• Zoology: 100 Marks
• English Literature: 100 Marks
• Urdu Literature: 100 Marks

Group-VI: (To select one subject of 100 marks only)

• Law: 100 Marks
• Constitutional Law: 100 Marks
• International Law: 100 Marks
• Muslim Law & Jurisprudence: 100 Marks
• Mercantile Law: 100 Marks
• Criminology: 100 Marks
• Philosophy: 100 Marks

Group-VII: (To select one subject of 100 marks only)

• Journalism & Mass Communication: 100 Marks
• Psychology: 100 Marks
• Geography: 100 Marks
• Sociology: 100 Marks
• Anthropology: 100 Marks
• Punjabi: 100 Marks
• Sindhi: 100 Marks
• Pashto: 100 Marks
• Balochi: 100 Marks
• Persian: 100 Marks
• Arabic: 100 Marks

Approaches for CSS Subject Selection Complete Guide 2024

There can be two approaches for the selection of the subjects.

• In the first approach, the candidates can enlist those subjects in which they have interest and aptitude or which are relevant to their academic background. Then from that list, the subjects carrying 600 marks can be taken which are known to be high scoring.
• The second approach is vice versa. In this approach, the student can first make a list of those subjects which are scoring. They will have a list of about 15-20 subjects. From that list they can choose subjects, which coincide with their academic or aptitude. I would personally recommend the second approach because in this way the candidates will have more variety of subjects to consider.

Those who get proper guidance at the time of selecting their optional subjects, they remain very comfortable throughout their preparation and also get the desired result in the long run. So the subject selection must be given due consideration in the beginning.

Academic Background and Interest/Aptitude for Subjects Sellection

Here, I would like to add that academic background and interest / aptitude must be secondary consideration in the subject selection. I would quote my own example. I did Masters in English Lit. and LLB. But I neither took English nor any subject of law as my optional. I went for entirely new subjects, the subjects in which I had the interest. My combination included Islamic History, Urdu, Sociology and Journalism. It was mainly because if these scoring subjects that I managed to score 76% marks in optional subjects and hence secured 2nd position overall.

Some people argue that it is difficult to study altogether new subjects. My point of view is that most of the candidates take the attempt of CSS after Masters or 16 years of education. At that time, they are mentally mature, their knowledge-base is strong and their vision broad. On the other hand, the course of most of the subjects is of Hons. Level. So having 14 or 16 years of education at their credit, it must not be difficult for them to prepare a new subject and get command over it.

There is another commonly found myth that the subjects carrying 100 marks are more scoring them those carrying 200. I would totally disagree with this. There are many subjects of 200 marks which are very high scoring. So there must not be any discrimination among the subjects on this basis.