10 Best Optional Subjects for UPSC Civil Services Main Exam/Best optional subject for UPSC/Which optional subject is easy for IAS?/Which optional subject is best for IAS?/Which subject is best for UPSC Exam?/Which subject is best for IAS?
Just saying that this subject is a popular optional subject or most scoring subject does not really serve the purpose until and unless candidates’ get the big picture. Hence, here we bring the big picture and small details behind the best optional subjects. Read on to get an idea about how to conclude the best optional subject for IAS exam.
Get the full list of optional subjects for UPSC here
The Success rate is what makes a subject as the most popular optional subject. So, here we bring the 10 best optional subjects for UPSC Civil Services Main Exam and these subjects were taken based on the number of the candidates who had chosen these subjects as optional and the final recommendation. The below mentioned list is based on the UPSC 2016 Civil Services Main Exam.
Sl. No. |
Optional Subject |
Number of candidates appeared |
No. of candidates recommended |
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 |
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 |
Following the above mentioned 10 best optional subjects below-given are other subjects that are taken as optional by candidates who appeared for the UPSC 2016 Exam and were recommended:
Sl. No. |
Optional Subject |
Number of candidates appeared |
No. of candidates recommended |
Success Rate |
1 |
Chemistry |
124 |
7 |
5.6 |
2 |
Commerce and Accountancy |
266 |
15 |
5.6 |
3 |
History |
3870 |
212 |
5.5 |
4 |
Law |
365 |
19 |
5.2 |
5 |
Philosophy |
2092 |
84 |
4 |
6 |
Zoology |
484 |
18 |
3.7 |
7 |
Mathematics |
277 |
8 |
2.9 |
Also, check UPSC Syllabus for Civil Services (Main) Exam
Also, there were many candidates who chose literature as optional subject, though few literature subjects made it in the 10 best optional, but here we are presenting as a separate list, read through to know the top literature subjects as optional.
Sl. No. |
Literature Optional Subject |
Number of candidates appeared |
No. of 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 |
Now you have the best optional for UPSC Civil Services IAS Mains Exam in your hand, all we advise don’t go on the success rate instead look for the total number of candidates who have taken a particular optional subject and total number candidates recommended with that optional subject. Candidates’ should also remember that these are just merely lists and they should choose the optional subject that is of their interest rather than deciding on which subject is popular or scoring. They should also think of availability of study materials of the optional subject before choosing it as the finding the source for the optional subject should not eat up all their precious time.
IAS Aspirants’ who are willing to take the UPSC 2018 exam or any year in future can go through the list as they still have time left to decide on which optional subject to choose and then to carry on with their UPSC 2018 Preparation.
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