Admissions open — next batch begins 18 Aug 2026

Guidance · 10 June 2026

Choosing optional subjects for CSS 2027

Six hundred of your twelve hundred marks sit in optional subjects. Pick them against your degree and your reading speed, not against a scoring rumour.

Optional subjects carry half the written marks, so the selection matters more than any single month of preparation. Candidates still choose them on hearsay.

Three questions settle it in most cases. Which subjects overlap with your degree, so that the syllabus is revision rather than a new language? Which have a past-paper pattern you can actually see, session after session? And which can you read at speed, because a subject you read slowly will eat the time your compulsory papers need.

We do this selection in the first counselling sitting, with your transcript on the table. It takes an hour and saves months.

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Admissions open for Batch 26

Thirty seats, classes begin 18 August. Counselling sittings run every weekday afternoon until the batch fills.