The UPSC Civil Services Examination is conducted in three stages, namely Preliminary, Mains and Interview. UPSC Preliminary Examination consists of 2 objective type papers. However, there are 9 papers in the UPSC mains exam, which are of descriptive type. 2 out of these 9 papers are for optional subjects which you have to choose. There are many candidates who are confused about understanding and selecting optional subjects.

Simply saying that this subject is a popular elective or the highest scoring subject is not really enough to serve the purpose until the candidates get a clear picture of the subject. Therefore, here we try to give an idea about how to choose the best optional subject for IAS Exam by providing information related to it.

The success rate of a good elective subject makes that subject the most popular one. Therefore, here we have brought the list of 10 best optional subjects for the UPSC Civil Services Main Examination. These subjects have been taken on the basis of the number of candidates who chose these subjects as the optional and the success rate of these subjects in the final result. The list given below is based on the research conducted on UPSC Civil Services Main Examination results.

S.No.	Optional Subject (Top 10 Popular Subject)	Total Number of Students Appearing in the Exam	Total Number of Successful Candidates	Success Rate
1	Agriculture	220	41	18.6
2	Medical Science	98	16	16.3
3	Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science	65	8	12.3
4	Economics	326	37	11.3
5	Psychology	1061	116	10.9
6	Anthropology	345	37	11.3
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

In addition, many candidates had selected literature as an optional subject, here we are presenting them as a separate list below.

S.No.	Optional Language Subject	Total Number of Students Appearing in the Exam	Total Number of Successful Candidates	Success Rate
1	Assamese	5	2	40
2	Punjabi	19	5	26.3
3	Gujarati	42	7	16.3
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

We recommend everyone to not just go to the subject’s success rate, instead look for the total number of candidates who have chosen a particular optional subject with the total number of candidates recommended along with it. Candidates should also remember that these are just lists and they should choose a subject in which they are comfortable themselves, rather than how popular or scoring the subject is.

One should also think about the availability of study material related to that subject before choosing an optional subject as you do not have to waste your precious time and money to find the material for the optional subject.

IAS aspirants, who are willing to take the UPSC exam in 2020 or any other time in future, can get a roadmap for the selection of optional subject through the list as they still have time to decide which Optional subject should be selected and then prepare for UPSC 2020 accordingly.

How to Choose the Best Optional Subject for IAS Exam

Candidate’s Interest in the Subject

The most important basis of the subject selection should be the deep interest of the candidate towards that subject. This is also true because if we are interested in a subject, then we are able to study more in less time and our understanding also becomes deeper. While studying interesting subjects, we experience energy and enthusiasm instead of fatigue, which is also helpful in the study of general studies.

It should be kept in mind that the interesting nature of the subject is also largely dependent on the fact that how many interesting books or good teachers are available in that subject.

Choose a Subject That Can Fetch More Marks

The subject should be such that in which more marks can be expected on the basis of equal effort. To determine this, you should find the marks of optional subjects of the toppers of the last 4-5 years which you can find on the internet.