UPSC is one of the most privileged recruitment bodies in India. Any one who wants to become an IAS, IFS or any other civil service officer. Once you decide that you want to take the UPSC exam, there is an important step of choosing the optional subject for the mains examination. One might think this is just another subject they have to learn along with all the current affairs, NCERT texts, etc. But choosing the right optional subject can be very helpful in boosting your score and even one single mark can make a difference in the UPSC exam. If you want to learn how to choose the optional subject that suits you the best, continue reading.

The optional subject is split into two papers of 250 marks each. The candidates are offered twenty-six optional subjects to choose from. The twenty-six subjects offered are Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Anthropology, Botany, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce and Accountancy, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, History, Law, Literature, Management, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science and International Relations, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Statistics, and Zoology.

In Literature, candidates can choose from any of the following subjects: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and English. Candidates can find the detailed syllabus for all the subjects above on the official UPSC website.

How to select the best optional subject for you?

• Analyze your strengths and weaknesses. Think of subjects that sparked your interest during school and college days. You need to be invested in the subject to get the best scores. Look for subjects with the highest scores.
• Pick the subject that is the closest to your undergraduate degree. For example, if you studied Psychology for three years in college, you are bound to know more about it than any other subject. If you studied courses like Engineering where you have learned multiple subjects, choose something that you find the easiest to learn.
• Choose subjects that have contents overlapping with the four General Studies papers. Some of those subjects are History, Geography, Law, Political Science, and International Relations.
• Study the syllabus closely before choosing an optional subject. One can be proficient in English but might know nothing about English literature or various in-depth subject details. It is important to familiarise yourself with the subject and test your proficiency before opting for it.
• The availability of study materials is very important. If your selected subject has little to no study material available, you will have to spend a lot of money and time collecting all the texts. Also, attempting to study everything from scratch with no guidance on how to learn can lead to scoring lesser marks.
• Take the statistics of the subjects with some of the highest scores from previous years and see if they match with any subjects that you like.
• If you are confused between two or three subjects, solve a few practice papers or previous year’s question papers. Compare the scores and see in which subject you have the best performance rate. While calculating your performance, also compare the time taken to solve it.

A well-thought-out decision using all the above-mentioned tips will get you the best results. Choose what is best for you instead of simply choosing something out of peer pressure or advice from others. Take your strong suits into consideration before making a choice and you can ace the exams. Good luck!