In the UPSC Civil Services Main Examination (written), candidates are allowed to choose one optional subject. Which is the favourite optional subject of most aspirants? Any guesses?
The Most Popular Optional Subject in UPSC Civil Services Main Examination:
Geography.
Geography is now the most preferred subject among the optional subjects chosen by the candidates, followed by History, Public Administration and Sociology.
Among the candidates who qualify to write UPSC Mains (written exam) every year, around 3000 candidates prefer Geography as the optional subject.
Geography is chosen by more than 3000 candidates who write UPSC Mains
Number of candidates who wrote Mains with Geography as optional
- 3391 candidates (in UPSC Mains 2015)
- 3515 (in UPSC Mains 2014)
History is chosen by more than 1500 candidates who write UPSC Mains
The number of candidates who had written UPSC Mains with History as optional
- 1821 candidates (in UPSC Mains 2015)
- 1560 candidates (in UPSC Mains 2014)
Public Administration is chosen by more than 1500 candidates who write UPSC Mains
The number of candidates who had written UPSC Mains with Pub Ad as optional:
- 1795 candidates (in UPSC Mains 2015)
- 2852 candidates (in UPSC Mains 2014)
Sociology is chosen by around 1500 candidates who write UPSC Mains
The number of candidates who had written UPSC Mains with Sociology as optional:
- 1479 candidates (in UPSC Mains 2015)
- 1819 candidates (in UPSC Mains 2014)
Are candidates choosing the subject of their graduation as their optional subject?
Mostly NO.
Analysing the previous year trends, it can be seen that candidates prefer a Humanities subject as an optional irrespective of their background – engineering, medicine, science, or humanities.
In 2015, as far as academic backgrounds of the recommended candidates are concerned, 55.2% were from Engineering, followed by 25.3%, 13.7% and 5.8% from Humanities, Medical Science and Sciences respectively.
However, 84% of optional subjects opted by the recommended candidates were related to Humanities (including the literature of languages), followed by 7.2%, 6.1% and 2.7% related to Science, Medical Science and Engineering respectively.
This shows that most of the candidates have made a cross-domain shift from their original stream (i.e., Engineering, Science and Medical Science) to humanities.
What can be the reason for the preference of Humanities optional subjects?
It’s actually a herd mentality.
Earlier most of the coaching institutes had only a few faculties for taking optional subjects. Their expertise was in subjects like Public Administration, History, Geography, Sociology etc. Whatever be the academic background of candidates, these ‘civil service gurus’ brainwashed candidates to pick one of these optional subjects. They spread the notion that so optional subjects are high scoring while others are not.
Are there easy or high-scoring optional subjects?
Whether a subject is easy or difficult is relative.
One candidate may find History easy, while another candidate may find memorizing history very hard.
In actual UPSC exam, there is a process of scaling or normalisation across optional subjects to ensure parity. So taking these popular optionals does not mean that you will score high.
How should you choose your UPSC Mains optional subject?
We recommend the following process:
Go through the previous year UPSC CSE Mains question papers (at least 3 years) of the optional subjects you like. Also, go through the UPSC syllabus of optional subjects. Which subject do you feel comfortable now?
Do you have a passion for that subject?
Will you be able to find study materials (online or offline for the same) and practise model question papers?
Choose that subject as your optional subject, whether or not that is your graduation subject. All the best!
Aspirants also read:
General Studies Paper 4 (GS4) Question Paper – UPSC Civil Services Main Exam (Written) 2019
UPSC Releases Admit Card for Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2020
Medical Science has the highest success rate among UPSC optional subjects, says report
UPSC Notification for Civil Services Examination 2020 Released: 796 Vacancies; Apply Now!
Sir ! I am thinking to take my optional subject as Physics; but I haven’t any study material related Physics . I have only material of Physics related my graduation.
Please describe , Is my graduation’s Physics enough to attempt my mains exam successfully (or I will have to study more than my graduation)?
Thanks.
No dear Mains exam is based on post graduation level or doctorate level. so your graduation material is not enough.
Sir iam 12th pass student from non medical .i wanna be ias .which sub. Should i choose in graduation. I want chose BA .but u don’t know which subject is better.please guide me sir
Sir I Miss in a very big dilemma in choosing optional. I completed my post graduation in physics. But I don’t want to take it. People are saying that there is a huge competition for popular optionals.l like geography, political science, Sociology, History, public administration. Any subject it may be but I have to start reading it from beginning. So please suggest me a way and direction sir. Please give me reply sir I don’t know anyone to ask
public administration will be better option according to me and u can also take geography as optional subject because geography is easier than other,, easy to learn n remember..
Sir mene economics s post graduate kia h and mene last 5 years k papers b dekhe h economics k muje economics as a optional lena thk lg rha h but is k liye kon c books mai pdhu wo smj nhi a rha. Kya mai apne pg ki books pdh skti hu economics k liye. Please reply
Sir currently I am doing BA in (history+political science) but i am thinking for agricultural as optional ,is it safe to choose as I
Hello sir I’m Aadil from kashmir, as i have done my graduation in physics in 2018.After the day when i gave last papper of my final exam, i went to city for GS couching after one year couching of GS but i was not pretty sure which subject i should choose for optional but i was keen intrest to study science subjects like geography,physics,maths but some aspirants told me that they are bulky subjects and their syllabus is so vast as they became tough to prepare in short duration of time.
Now sir it made me little bit of frustated about my optional, as i firstly thought to go for sociology as optional but it made me liitle bit of bouring subject and I’m not fully engaged with this subjet.
Please sir if you help me which subject i should choose to for optional in upsc mains 2020.
Which optional subject is best to study easily?
And should we start with praparing for mains or with prelims examination . Please explain
If we started studying with mains which papers should we study first
Sir, out of 9 papers in mains, we need to select the optional subjects in order to write out of which 2( English and language) are compulsory . Is it correct?
Why upsc asking to study optional subject?what is the reason?Because,upsc has the reason in subjects that why a person want to become a civil servant need to study this!
Sir I’m agriculture graduate ,wanna to take agriculture as optional bt besides it have to take other optional paper or agriculture is divided into paper-1 ,nd paper 2
Is market having enough study material for Public Administration as an optional? If yes, than which book you mostly prefer for Pub. Ad.
Hello sir, my name is Aman Kumar
Recently I have completed 12th with science background. Which subjects will be better in b.a .I like reading Hindi, geography, history. This time I am totally confused to chose such subject. sir which subject should I choose to take help in upsc(especially 4 optional subject).
Sir, should i choose literature or economics to get good marks in optional subject?????
Sir I have completed my 12th in science stream but sir I want to be an ias officer.so sir what is the best subject in BA to crack upsc.