The most preferred Optional subjects for IAS Exams as per 2014 and 2015 data are as below. We can see that Geography is by far a subject that is chosen by most candidates with history coming in second in the list.
| Subject | 2015 | 2014 |
| Geography | 3391 | 3515 |
| History | 1821 | 1560 |
| Public Administration | 1795 | 2852 |
| Sociology | 1479 | 1819 |
Success Rates of Optional Subjects
From the data that we have studied, the success rates for each optional subject don’t seem to correspond to the popularity of the subjects. Below is the success rate of each optional subject and then the literature subjects.
| Optional Subject | Candidates Appeared | Candidates Recommended | Success Rate |
| Agriculture | 220 | 41 | 18.6 |
| Medical science | 98 | 16 | 16.3 |
| Animal husbandry and veterinary science | 65 | 8 | 12.3 |
| Economics | 326 | 37 | 11.3 |
| Psychology | 1061 | 116 | 10.9 |
| Anthropology | 345 | 37 | 10.7 |
| Public administration | 3201 | 337 | 10.5 |
| Political science | 1320 | 85 | 6.4 |
| Geography | 4049 | 236 | 5.8 |
| Sociology | 1555 | 89 | 5.7 |
| Chemistry | 124 | 7 | 5.6 |
| Commerce and Accountancy | 266 | 15 | 5.6 |
| History | 3870 | 212 | 5.5 |
| Law | 365 | 19 | 5.2 |
| Philosophy | 2092 | 84 | 4 |
| Zoology | 484 | 18 | 3.7 |
| Mathematics | 277 | 8 | 2.9 |
| Optional Subject | Candidates Appeared | Candidates Recommended | Success Rate |
| Assamese | 5 | 2 | 40 |
| Punjabi | 19 | 5 | 26.3 |
| Gujarati | 42 | 7 | 16.7 |
| Kannada | 84 | 14 | 16.7 |
| Marathi | 42 | 7 | 16.7 |
| English | 40 | 6 | 15 |
| Urdu | 29 | 4 | 13.8 |
| Tamil | 225 | 29 | 12.9 |
| Sanskrit | 122 | 10 | 8.2 |
| Malayalam | 67 | 5 | 7.5 |
| Pali | 255 | 18 | 7.1 |
| Telugu | 147 | 9 | 6.1 |
| Hindi | 974 | 56 | 5.7 |
We can see that Assamese Literature has the highest success rate at around 40%, followed by Punjabi at 26.31%. We need to understand that these numbers are not absolute indicators of the success rate of an optional subject because the more popular subjects go down on success rate because of the number of applicants taking that subject as an optional. For example, there are 4049 candidates taking up Geography as against 5 taking up Assamese.
Also Read: 6 Best Optional Subjects in UPSC: Guide to Choose Most Scoring Non-technical Subjects
Most Scoring subjects:
Again, the most scoring subject seems to be another different list.
- Sociology
- Agriculture
- Medical Science
- Literature Subject (Any)
- Anthropology
- Public Administration
- Psychology
- Law
- Geography
- History
Choosing your optional
There are a few things to consider when choosing your optional subject for UPSC. First look at the subjects available and look at the overlap of the syllabus with the mains papers. Below is a table showing the overlap of a few subjects with the Mains papers.
| Optional Subject | Syllabus Overlaps with |
| History | Prelims, GS I |
| Geography | Prelims, GS I and GS III |
| Public Administration | Prelims, GS II |
| Political Science | Prelims, GS II |
| Sociology | GS I, GS II, Essay |
| Philosophy | GS IV. Essay |
If any of these subjects interest you, you could choose that as an optional and make your preparation more through as the syllabus to be covered will be considerable lessened as compared to taking an optional with no overlap.
Some students take up technical subjects like Mathematics, that are theoretically supposed to fetch higher marks, as the subjectivity of the examiner is reduced in checking the paper. However, we have seen that even though 55.2% of the recommended candidates were from Engineering, followed by 25.3%, 13.7% and 5.8% from Humanities, Medical Science and Sciences respectively, 84% of optional subjects opted by the recommended candidates were related to Humanities (including literature of languages), followed by 7.2%, 6.1% and 2.7% related to Science, Medical Science and Engineering respectively.
| Subject | % of Students with Graduation Subject | % of Students with Optional |
| Engineering | 55.2% | 2.7% |
| Humanities | 25.3% | 84% |
| Medical Science | 13.7% | 6.1% |
| Sciences | 5.8% | 7.2% |
The reason behind such a shift could be the overlap of the subjects with the mains paper and also a question of availability of notes and material on the optional subject. Many coaching classes also push the students towards more popular optional simply because they don’t have capable faculty or material in each optional subject.
Finally, it should be a well thought out decision of the candidate, not based on herd mentality but by their interest, overlap of the subject with mains and availability of material and guidance for studying. If a candidate is confident enough, they can even go with an optional just based on their interest. One good way to figure out the interest is to check out the question papers of the last 3 years of the optional subjects you are considering.
Also Read: A Detailed Guide to Choosing the Best Optional Subject for UPSC Exam
