The UPSC exam's optional subject carries 500 marks. Therefore making the right optional choice is crucial to getting your name on the final UPSC selection list. Since many years ago, sociology has been a popular and safe optional subject in the civil services exam. With sociology as an option, many students have passed the UPSC civil services examination. It can earn between 315 and 350 marks in the UPSC mains exam. Even the UPSC civil services interview benefits from it.

According to previous patterns, sociology has been a popular choice among students for several years, with more than 1600 students choosing Sociology as an optional subject showing up for the Mains Examination on average every year for the past five or more years.  More than two students in the top ten and more than ten in the top hundred in the rank list over the previous years indicate that students who choose Sociology as an optional subject had a high success rate.

There is no requirement for a certain academic background because sociology is simply a brief study of the society that we are a part of. Students from any academic background can readily prepare for the sociology optional, in contrast to the optional subjects relating to science or engineering. It doesn't require any prior expertise or specialised training in the field.

Benefits of Sociology Optional subject

Clear and brief syllabus- The sociology optional has a short and succinct curriculum compared to other optional subjects like geography, history, political science, and international relations; as a result, one can complete it in a short duration of time with several revisions.

It is simple to score well- the score of the optional subject determines whether you will be included in the final list of UPSC civil services results or not. In many circumstances, sociology optional can earn an average of 270 marks, even 310-350, Which is the most significant factor in passing the civil services examination.

Helps with general studies papers- several sociology optional aspects are featured in GS paper 1, such as Indian society- women's empowerment, social empowerment, communalism, socialism, urbanisation, and globalisation, for example. As a result, you do not need to cover it individually; instead, you can learn it while studying sociology as an optional, so that you can prepare for another topic in the remaining time.

Optional Sociology Helps in Essay- The essay paper is once again the most dynamic, crucial to score that requires knowledge of many Indian and worldwide issues. Sociology gives additional aspects and perspectives. You can connect the dots using social studies, case studies, data, and so forth. It will also help you score well in your essay. You also do not need to prepare for the essay in any special way.

Sociology optional helps in the UPSC CSE interview- knowledge of societal concerns, diverse social challenges, and their impact on governance would allow you to offer impressive replies during the interview. It can also assist you to develop good analyses and varied points of view on any topic.

Overlaps in sociology optional papers 1 and 2- Numerous themes are common to both papers 1 and 2, such as religion, kinship, social movements, and so on. As a result, covering these topics will take a short time because you can cover the contents of two papers at the same time. To summarise, sociology is an engaging, easy to study, and easy to score optional that one can take to pass the UPSC civil services examination with a good rank.