How to choose right Optional Subject for IAS Main Exam?

 The Union Public Service Commission conducts the Civil Services Exam each year in two phases. Commonly, they are called as IAS Prelims and IAS Mains Exam. IAS Prelims Exam is of qualifying in nature and the marks in the IAS Main Exam are counted for the final merit of the Civil Services Exam.

The IAS Main is a subjective exam and the major factor which can change the final result is the marks in the IAS optional subject. To choose a right optional subject is the key to success in the IAS Main Exam. Here we are providing tips about the selection of the right optional subject for the IAS Main Exam.

For many, the selection of optional subject for the Main written exam is difficult. Though the weightage for the optional paper is only 500 marks out of the total 2025 marks (i.e. 25% of total marks) allocated for the Main, it plays a deciding role in the final selection due to the unpredictability associated with the essay and general studies papers and the personality test.

For the benefit of IAS aspirants, who are going to appear for the Civil Services Examination 2018, Utkarsh is providing a useful checklist that helps in choosing the right optional subject. It is given below.

Academic background

Academic background plays an important role in optional selection. By taking the same optional subject that you have studied in your under graduation or post graduation, you can save a lot of time and energy. Since, the questions asked in the Main examination are of the honours level, it eliminates the necessity for coaching. If you are not comfortable with your academic subjects, it is advisable to choose an optional on the basis of your interest areas.

Interest areas

The next best method to choose the right optional is on the basis of your interest areas. Despite having mathematics or general science background, we find many people are inclined towards subjects offered in humanities such as psychology, literature, history, political science, etc. By choosing the subjects of your interest, you can complete the studies at a faster pace.

However, aspirants should not choose the optional for Main exam solely on the basis of the academic background or interest areas. The other important factors to be considered for choosing the right optional subject are given below.

Most scoring

Majority of the candidates deny the role of ‘scaling factor’ in the allocation of marks in the Main exam. However, we often hear that the candidates with a particular optional subject getting marks in double digits despite  performing well in a exam. Some may attribute this to high standard of question papers in a particular year. However, aspirants don’t have the privilege to experiment with those optional subjects that are not performing of late. So, aspirants are advised to choose those optionals with which many candidates cleared the exam in recent years.

The distribution of successful candidates across different optional subjects for the CSE 2014 and 2015. The data is taken from the annual reports of the UPSC. Those optionals that are choosen by more than 200 candidates are taken for the consideration.

S.No.	Optional Subject	Success Rate (Percent)
		2014	2013
1.	Law	17.0%
2.	Medical Science	19.9%	16.4%
3.	Psychology	15.8%	9.8%
4.	Economics	12.1%
5.	Anthropology	11.0%	11.8%
6.	Sociology	10.6%	9.1%
7.	Commerce &Accountancy	10.3%	7.5%
8.	Mathematics	10.0%	6.1%
9.	Geography	7.3%	5.6%
10.	Philosophy	7.0%	7.9%
11.	History	6.5%	7.7%
12.	Political Science & International Relations	6.3%	6.1%
13.	Literature of Hindi Language	5.4%	4.2%
14.	Public Administration	5.3%	6.2%

The distribution of appeared and recommended candidates in CSE 2013 and CSE 2014 among various optional is give in the below table. Those optionals that are choosen by more than 200 candidates are taken for the consideration.

Optional Subject	CSE 2014		CSE 2013
	Appeared	Recommended	Appeared	Recommended
Law	235	40	144	35
Medical Science	356	71	293	48
Psychology	373	59	348	34
Economics	214	26	188	38
Anthropology	619	68	449	53
Sociology	1819	193	1647	150
Commerce & Accountancy	214	22	200	15
Mathematics	351	35	329	20
Geography	3515	255	3158	178
Philosophy	908	64	736	58
History	1560	102	1303	100
Political Science & International Relations	907	57	651	40
Literature of Hindi Language	407	22	284	12
Public Administration	2852	151	2840	176

Availability of guidance

Even if an optional is of your interest and also performing well in recent years, you should not check the availability of guidance before arriving at the final decision. Availability of study material and access to selected candidates with same optional and affordability of coaching should be taken into consideration before choosing the optional. Remember, preparation can’t be done in isolation and one must have a supporting environment to sail through the exam successfully.

Conclusion

By taking the above mentioned into consideration, you should shortlist at least 2-3 optional subjects that are most suitable for you. Before shortlisting, one should analyse the syllabus and the question papers of the previous years. With this, you can understand the standard of the questions asked in the exam and the extent of the syllabus.

In the next step, write pro’s and con’s for each and every optional, and finally choose the right optional for you.