UPSC Best Optional Subject – Top 10 Best Optional Subjects For IAS Mains

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The last two papers of UPSC Mains are in the hands of candidates. The students can choose their own optional subject from the 48 given subjects. Out of the total, 23 of these subjects are modern indian languages and the rest are different academic disciplines.

Everyone is concerned about their final score, thus choosing an optional should be a well thought decision. This is because making the right choice can really help you score well. This is the only advantage that you have over other candidates. 

You can always look at  UPSC Optional Subject Syllabus to get an idea of what the paper will look like. That is a great option to get an overview of the subject. But other than that, learning from previous UPSC aspirants may impact your decision.

The success rate of each optional subject is an important element to consider. And over that subject overlap is another criteria to look at. We have narrowed the subjects according to these criteria. Let’s look at these factors before you choose your UPSC Best Optional Subject.

UPSC Optional Subjects Success Rate

The Department of Personnel & Training updates the  success rate of the optional subjects every year. The success rate for the UPSC 2017 remains the latest report as of now. This data will help you make a decision about your optional subject.

We will cover the number of candidates who took the optional exam, their recommendation on choosing the subject and then the success rate based on it. We have data from the year 2017 and 2016. 

UPSC Optional Subjects Success Rate 2017

No. Optional SubjectCandidates AppearedCandidates RecommendedSuccess Rate
1Agriculture891112.4
2Anthropology880859.7
3Chemistry 126118.7
4Accounts 2242812.5
5Electrical Engineering193199.8
6Geology 3725.4
7Law 3041434.1
8Mathematics 441265.9
9Medical Science 3133210.2
10Physics 1401410
11Psychology 1932110.9
12Sociology 14211379.6
13Animal Husbandry2328.7
14Botany 44511.4
15Civil Engineering124118.9
16Economics 233166.9
17Geography 26691475.5
18History 1074595.5
19Management 8678.1
20Mechanical Engineering1701911.2
21Philosophy 755537
22Political  Science 12461179.4
23Public Administration116511910.2
24Statistics 300
25Zoology 484183.7

UPSC Literature Optional Subject Success Rate 2017

No. Optional SubjectCandidates AppearedCandidates RecommendedSuccess Rate
1English Literature 2129.5
2Assamese Literature 300
3Manipuri Literature 137.7
4Hindi Literature 267197.1
5Maithili Literature 7856.4
6Bodo Literature 11100
7Odia Literature 500
8Punjabi Literature 39615.4
9Marathi Literature 1700
10Gujarati Literature 10187.9
11Kannada Literature 11543.5
12Bengali Literature 300
13Sindhi Literature 2150
14Tamil Literature 10754.7
15Telugu Literature 7211.4
16Urdu Literature 26519.2
17Sanskrit Literature 7057.1
18Nepali Literature 100
19Malayalam Literature 11187.2

UPSC Optional Subjects Success Rate 2016

No. Optional SubjectCandidates AppearedCandidates RecommendedSuccess Rate
1Agriculture2204118.6
2Medical science981616.3
3Animal husbandry 65812.3
4Economics3263711.3
5Psychology106111610.9
6Anthropology3453710.7
7Public administration320133710.5
8Political science1320856.4
9Geography40492365.8
10Sociology1555895.7
11Chemistry12475.6
12Accountancy266155.6
13History38702125.5
14Law365195.2
15Philosophy2092844
16Zoology484183.7
17Mathematics27782.9

UPSC Literature Optional Subject Success Rate 2016

No. Optional SubjectCandidates AppearedCandidates RecommendedSuccess Rate
1Assamese5240
2Punjabi19526.3
3Gujarati42716.7
4Kannada841416.7
5Marathi42716.7
6English40615
7Urdu29413.8
8Tamil2252912.9
9Sanskrit122108.2
10Malayalam6757.5
11Pali255187.1
12Telugu14796.1
13Hindi974565.7

Most Opted UPSC Optional Subject

This is an average number of candidates that appeared for each of the optional subjects. The reason may vary for this choice. But the most prominent reason is overlap of subjects in more than two papers. We will look at that as well below. 

Optional Subject(Approx) Number of Aspirants
History3500
Geography3500
Public Administration3000
Political Science1800
Sociology1800
Philosophy1000

UPSC Optional Subject with Syllabus Overlap with Mains and Prelims

These are few of the subjects that have overlapping UPSC Syllabus. The candidates can consider choosing these subjects if they want to save time while preparing.

This will help you prepare from the prelims and give an advantage of scoring more in the paper. Though it is an individual choice and you can always go for the subject that you find interesting. 

  1. History – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I
  2. Geography – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I
  3. Political Science – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper II
  4. Economics – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper III
  5. Mathematics – Prelims CSAT
  6. Public Administration – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper II and IV
  7. Sociology – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I, II and Essay
  8. Philosophy – Essay and Mains General Studies Paper IV
  9. English – Prelims, Mains English Paper, Modern Indian Language and Essay
  10. Hindi  – Modern Indian Language and Essay

Top 10 UPSC Optional Subject

According to data  collected above, we have selected these subjects as the top 10 UPSC Optional Subjects. This is after considering the success rate of all the subjects, the most opted UPSC subjects and lastly the syllabus overlap. 

  1. Agriculture
  2. Medical Science
  3. Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science
  4. Economics
  5. Chemistry
  6. Commerce and Accountancy
  7. History
  8. Law
  9. Psychology
  10. Any Literature Subject

Guide to Choose the Best UPSC Optional Subject 

  • It is a good idea to look at all the optional subjects before choosing. This is to make sure that you don’t miss out on any potential subject. Devote at least a few minutes if not more to each subject before finalizing one. 
  • Consider choosing a subject that you already have an idea about. This can be from school or your major subject from college. This will definitely help you cover the syllabus faster and understand them better. 
  • Then choose a subject which you find interesting. Because the UPSC goes in depth of each topic. And this makes it important for a candidate to have some interest in the subject to understand and score better. 
  • Literature is one of the best subjects to choose if that is your native language. This is because it is very light in studying and people with fluency in a particular language can read the stories and poems in past time or in between GS breaks. This is one of the reasons why literature success rates are higher. 
  • You can look at previous year UPSC question papers as well to know if this is your cup tea or not. Then look at the availability of preparation resources near you. Some of the subjects are often hard to study because of lack of resources. 
  • One other thing to consider is your interest in practical subjects and theoretical subjects. The best practical UPSC subjects are mathematics and statistics mainly, and if you are interested in them then they work the best in this category.  And if you love theory then history and polity remain the most preferred subjects. 

Conclusion 

The UPSC Optional Subjects are hard to crack, and the candidates should be mindful before choosing their option. This article will guide you step to step about the decision making about UPSC Best Optional Subjects.

The article will cover the success rates of all optional subjects, most opted optional subject, optional subject with most syllabus overlap with other papers and lastly a guide to select the optional subject.

All the aspirants should go through it once before appearing for the mains exams. This article can make your selection process easier. 

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4 Responses

  1. akhilesheragolla says:

    Can we take optional Indian language as English..?

  2. Ruksar Khan says:

    How we can chose optional subject Indian language as Hindi..? which subject is very help for UP PCS Exam..

  3. Avinash Kumar says:

    Is literature subject are easy to score or Other subjects are easy to score

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