Candidates preparing for the UPSC examination should practice the previous year’s UPSC question paper. The question papers are reliable and resourceful study material for those who wish to analyze the exact exam pattern. Aspirants can understand the type of questions in the exam and the weightage of marks. Candidates must download and practice the UPSC question paper for the Prelims and Mains exams. UPSC’s old papers will help scan through ample information and filter out the suitable ones that the service commission may ask for.
Aspirants must focus on solving at least 10 previous years’ question papers to improve their academic and time management skills. Practicing last year’s question papers aids candidates in understanding the general exam pattern, strengthening their aptitudes and confidence. Candidates should put in immense hard work, perfect strategy, seriousness, and dedication towards cracking the IAS exam. Researching UPSC question papers helps applicants realize the number of fixed and dynamic queries asked over the years.
Which are the UPSC Optional Subjects asked in the Exam?
As per the IAS experts and toppers, aspiring individuals should practice last year’s papers to become desired civil servants. Solving previous year’s UPSC questions will help candidates to enhance their precision and indicate some of the critical portions of the syllabus.
The Mains exam contains UPSC optional subjects in Paper 6 and 7. The UPSC mains exam comprises 2 mandatory papers, 1 to 7, which include:
- 1 Essay paper.
- 4 GS papers.
- 2 optional subject papers.
Candidates can choose any desired subject for the Exam from the list of optional topics. There are 48 optional subjects in UPSC, divided into subject-specific topics and literature optional topics.
The official notification of UPSC shows a list of optional subjects. Aspirants get the freedom to choose any of their favorite or scoring topics from the list. The overall weightage for the optional subjects is 500. Before selecting any optional subject, candidates must have complete knowledge of it or have completed UG or PG.
Aspirants must select only one subject from the list of optional topics, and the marks obtained in them are assessed while calculating the final merit score. Therefore, a candidate must choose an optional subject for UPSC very cautiously.
List of Optional Subjects:
Number of Subjects | UPSC Optional Subjects |
1 | Medical Science |
2 | Physics |
3 | Zoology |
4 | Botany |
5 | Public Administration |
6 | Electrical Engineering |
7 | Civil Engineering |
8 | Management |
9 | Agriculture |
10 | History |
11 | Philosophy |
12 | Psychology |
13 | Mechanical Engineering |
14 | Geography |
15 | Mathematics |
16 | Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science |
17 | Geology |
18 | Anthropology |
19 | Sociology |
20 | Statistics |
21 | Chemistry |
22 | Law |
23 | Commerce & Accountancy |
24 | Economics |
25 | Political Science & International Relations |
UPSC Optional Subjects for Literature:
Serial Number | Optional Subjects |
1 | Nepali |
2 | Maithili |
3 | Dogri |
4 | Gujarati |
5 | Sindhi |
6 | Bodo |
7 | Assamese |
8 | Oriya |
9 | Telugu |
10 | Tamil |
11 | Punjabi |
12 | Santhali |
13 | English |
14 | Hindi |
15 | Sanskrit |
16 | Urdu |
17 | Konkani |
18 | Malayalam |
19 | Bengali |
20 | Kashmiri |
21 | Kannada |
22 | Marathi |
23 | Manipuri |
Many optional subjects for UPSC overlap with general studies of UPSC Mains. The topics are – Psychology, Law, Sociology, Literature, Agriculture, Geography, History, Anthropology, Medical Science, and Public Administration. UPSC conducts two papers on the optional subjects, and each paper is 250 marks.