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 Subject | Candidates Appeared | Candidates Recommended | Success Rate |
| 1 | Agriculture | 89 | 11 | 12.4 |
| 2 | Anthropology | 880 | 85 | 9.7 |
| 3 | Chemistry | 126 | 11 | 8.7 |
| 4 | Accounts | 224 | 28 | 12.5 |
| 5 | Electrical Engineering | 193 | 19 | 9.8 |
| 6 | Geology | 37 | 2 | 5.4 |
| 7 | Law | 3041 | 43 | 4.1 |
| 8 | Mathematics | 441 | 26 | 5.9 |
| 9 | Medical Science | 313 | 32 | 10.2 |
| 10 | Physics | 140 | 14 | 10 |
| 11 | Psychology | 193 | 21 | 10.9 |
| 12 | Sociology | 1421 | 137 | 9.6 |
| 13 | Animal Husbandry | 23 | 2 | 8.7 |
| 14 | Botany | 44 | 5 | 11.4 |
| 15 | Civil Engineering | 124 | 11 | 8.9 |
| 16 | Economics | 233 | 16 | 6.9 |
| 17 | Geography | 2669 | 147 | 5.5 |
| 18 | History | 1074 | 59 | 5.5 |
| 19 | Management | 86 | 7 | 8.1 |
| 20 | Mechanical Engineering | 170 | 19 | 11.2 |
| 21 | Philosophy | 755 | 53 | 7 |
| 22 | Political Science | 1246 | 117 | 9.4 |
| 23 | Public Administration | 1165 | 119 | 10.2 |
| 24 | Statistics | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | Zoology | 484 | 18 | 3.7 |
UPSC Literature Optional Subject Success Rate 2017
| No. | Optional Subject | Candidates Appeared | Candidates Recommended | Success Rate |
| 1 | English Literature | 21 | 2 | 9.5 |
| 2 | Assamese Literature | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Manipuri Literature | 13 | 1 | 7.7 |
| 4 | Hindi Literature | 267 | 19 | 7.1 |
| 5 | Maithili Literature | 78 | 5 | 6.4 |
| 6 | Bodo Literature | 1 | 1 | 100 |
| 7 | Odia Literature | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Punjabi Literature | 39 | 6 | 15.4 |
| 9 | Marathi Literature | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Gujarati Literature | 101 | 8 | 7.9 |
| 11 | Kannada Literature | 115 | 4 | 3.5 |
| 12 | Bengali Literature | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Sindhi Literature | 2 | 1 | 50 |
| 14 | Tamil Literature | 107 | 5 | 4.7 |
| 15 | Telugu Literature | 72 | 1 | 1.4 |
| 16 | Urdu Literature | 26 | 5 | 19.2 |
| 17 | Sanskrit Literature | 70 | 5 | 7.1 |
| 18 | Nepali Literature | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | Malayalam Literature | 111 | 8 | 7.2 |
UPSC Optional Subjects Success Rate 2016
| No. | Optional Subject | Candidates Appeared | Candidates Recommended | Success Rate |
| 1 | Agriculture | 220 | 41 | 18.6 |
| 2 | Medical science | 98 | 16 | 16.3 |
| 3 | Animal husbandry | 65 | 8 | 12.3 |
| 4 | Economics | 326 | 37 | 11.3 |
| 5 | Psychology | 1061 | 116 | 10.9 |
| 6 | Anthropology | 345 | 37 | 10.7 |
| 7 | Public administration | 3201 | 337 | 10.5 |
| 8 | Political science | 1320 | 85 | 6.4 |
| 9 | Geography | 4049 | 236 | 5.8 |
| 10 | Sociology | 1555 | 89 | 5.7 |
| 11 | Chemistry | 124 | 7 | 5.6 |
| 12 | Accountancy | 266 | 15 | 5.6 |
| 13 | History | 3870 | 212 | 5.5 |
| 14 | Law | 365 | 19 | 5.2 |
| 15 | Philosophy | 2092 | 84 | 4 |
| 16 | Zoology | 484 | 18 | 3.7 |
| 17 | Mathematics | 277 | 8 | 2.9 |
UPSC Literature Optional Subject Success Rate 2016
| No. | Optional Subject | Candidates Appeared | Candidates Recommended | Success Rate |
| 1 | Assamese | 5 | 2 | 40 |
| 2 | Punjabi | 19 | 5 | 26.3 |
| 3 | Gujarati | 42 | 7 | 16.7 |
| 4 | Kannada | 84 | 14 | 16.7 |
| 5 | Marathi | 42 | 7 | 16.7 |
| 6 | English | 40 | 6 | 15 |
| 7 | Urdu | 29 | 4 | 13.8 |
| 8 | Tamil | 225 | 29 | 12.9 |
| 9 | Sanskrit | 122 | 10 | 8.2 |
| 10 | Malayalam | 67 | 5 | 7.5 |
| 11 | Pali | 255 | 18 | 7.1 |
| 12 | Telugu | 147 | 9 | 6.1 |
| 13 | Hindi | 974 | 56 | 5.7 |
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 |
| History | 3500 |
| Geography | 3500 |
| Public Administration | 3000 |
| Political Science | 1800 |
| Sociology | 1800 |
| Philosophy | 1000 |
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.
- History – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I
- Geography – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I
- Political Science – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper II
- Economics – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper III
- Mathematics – Prelims CSAT
- Public Administration – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper II and IV
- Sociology – Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I, II and Essay
- Philosophy – Essay and Mains General Studies Paper IV
- English – Prelims, Mains English Paper, Modern Indian Language and Essay
- 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.
- Agriculture
- Medical Science
- Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science
- Economics
- Chemistry
- Commerce and Accountancy
- History
- Law
- Psychology
- 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.