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IAS exam Preparation: One of the most common question the IAS aspirants come across is that which stream makes it easier to prepare for the IAS exam? This question should be answered considering the following parameters: –

1. Overall Syllabus of UPSC Prelims and Mains Examination.
2. Statistics of the Candidates passing with particular subjects.
3. Relativity of the Subjects with UPSC topics.

IAS exam Preparation: As the UPSC syllabus is very vast and the understanding of the topics is essential, the graduation stream play a significant role in UPSC preparation. The right selection of stream during graduation will help the aspirants to minimize the efforts to be put into every topic. Here are few guidelines which can be considered before selection of the graduation stream: –

• The aspirants should read and understand the syllabus.
• Once the coverage of the syllabus is understood, the aspirants can compare the relevance of the stream.
• While choosing particular stream, the aspirants should understand the success ratio of the candidates recommended by the Union Public service commission.
• Check the list of Optional Subjects. UPSC provides a wide variety of subjects which can be taken as Optional. Some of the most rated optional subjects are History, Geography, Political Science, Sociology etc.

The 68th UPSC annual report highlights: –

• The 68th UPSC annual report comprises statistics about distribution of candidates who appeared at this exam, by Optional subjects in CSE 2016.
• As per the report, the candidates belonging to the various streams are as follows: –
  • 59.3% – Engineering
  • 21.9% – Humanities
  • 10.3% – Medical Science
  • 8.5% – Science
• Besides this, 84.7% of optional subjects opted by the recommended candidates were related to Humanities (including literature of languages), followed by 6.8%, 5.4% and 3.1% related to Science, Medical Science and Engineering respectively. 
• This shows that most of the candidates have made a cross domain shift from their original stream (i.e., Engineering, Science and Medical Science) to humanities.
• The most preferred subject among the optional subjects is Geography by Sociology and Public Administration.
• Out of 45 Optional subjects offered by UPSC for CSE 2016, the most popular ones in descending order were; Geography, Sociology, Public Administration, History, Political Science & International Relations, Anthropology, Philosophy, Maths, Medical Science, Law, Literature of Hindi Language, Psychology and Economics.

IAS exam Preparation: How the Humanities subjects help in the UPSC preparations?

The aspirants who have the Social Sciences and Humanities as their graduation subject will gain a better understanding of related subjects. They will enjoy the benefits of critical understanding and analytical reading of the social science subjects. This will enhance the writing skills and reduce time spent on reading. This will help the aspirants to secure good marks in the exam.

Thus, the UPSC aspirants can be benefitted with the Humanities subjects.

The Subjects related to the Humanities stream

• History
• Geography
• Political Science
• English
• Economics

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Mathematics
• Home science
• Public administration
• Computer science

IAS exam Preparation – Some Courses that come under the Humanities

• A Bachelors in Economics, Psychology, History, Geography, Language and Literature, Humanities, Philosophy, Fine arts, Management, Music, Hotel Management, etc.
• Law courses like BA+LLB or BBA+LLB
• Course Architecture or Bachelors in Computer Applications.
• Management courses like BBA or BMS.