html select dropdown wont stay selected - html

Question

I have a select dropdown list on my website(www.irishbonus.comule.com/en/). However when I select an option from the dropdown list and press submit I would like that the option stay selected.
Here is the code for the select:
<form action="" method="post">
<strong> Select Subject:</strong>
<select name="formSubject" class="dropdown">
<option value=">>>">">>>"</option>
<option value="Accounting">Accounting</option>
<option value="Agricultural Science">Agricultural Science</option>
<option value="Agricultural Economics">Agricultural Economics</option>
<option value="Applied Mathematics">Applied Mathematics</option>
<option value="Arabic">Arabic</option>
<option value="Art (jc only)">Art (jc only)</option>
<option value="Biology">Biology</option>
<option value="Business (jc only)">Business (jc only)</option>
<option value="Business Studies">Business Studies</option>
<option value="Chemistry">Chemistry</option>
<option value="Civic (jc only)">Civic (jc only)</option>
<option value="Classical Studies">Classical Studies</option>
<option value="Construction Studies">Construction Studies</option>
//more options
<option value="Typewriting (jc only)">Typewriting (jc only)</option>
</select>
<table width="300px">
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<strong>Insert Mark:</strong>
<input type="text" name="formMark" maxlength="2" size="4" value="<?=$mark;?>"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<input type="submit" />
</form>

Answer 1

You need to use a server-side language for this. You already seem to be using PHP so just add some PHP code to do it. The best solution would be storing your options inside an array and then iterating over the array, outputting the <option> tags and adding the selected attribute if the value matches the submitted value.
<select name="formSubject" class="dropdown">
<?php
$options = ['Accounting', 'Agricultural Science', '...'];
$selected = isset($_POST['formSubject']) ? $_POST['formSubject'] : '';
foreach($options as $option) {
echo '<option value="'.$option.'"'.($selected == $option ? ' selected' : '').'>'.$option.'</option>';
}
?>
</select>

Answer 2

He forgot the array(), that is why the parse error is there
here:
<select name="formSubject" class="dropdown">
<?php
$options = array('Accounting', 'Agricultural Science', '...');
$selected = isset($_POST['formSubject']) ? $_POST['formSubject'] : '';
foreach($options as $option) {
echo '<option value="'.$option.'"'.($selected == $option ? ' selected' : '').'>'.$option.'</option>';
}
?>
</select>

Answer 3

while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
$selected = "";
if(isset($_GET['spec'])) {
if($_GET['spec'] == $row['id']) {
$selected = "selected='selected'";
}
}
print "<option ". $selected ." value='". $row['id'] ."'>". $row['ime']. "</option>";
}
$result->free();