UPSC Civil Services Exam is conducted annually. This exam is one of the toughest exams in the world. The aspirants who appear for this exam are expected to study day and night and follow the syllabus to the point. But do you know about the two subjects without which any UPSC aspirant's preparation would be incomplete? Know below which two subjects are the most important and also check the reasons for their importance below.
UPSC IAS 2022: Most Important Subjects For Prelims and Mains
As soon as you would begin your UPSC Civil Services preparation, anyone who is guiding you would hand you the syllabus and ask you to read a newspaper without fail every day. This is because you cannot consider skipping Current Affairs. It is a well-known fact now that current events comprise more than 30% of the UPSC Prelims and Mains exam.
Apart from Current Affairs, there are 2 major subjects that every UPSC aspirant has to study without skipping any chapter.
The 2 subjects are History and Polity. Candidates cannot afford to skip any part or topic of these two subjects because of the following reasons listed below.
UPSC IAS: Why is Studying History and Polity Important?
Students and candidates who wish to appear for UPSC Civil Services begin their preparation with the two subjects- Indian Polity and Indian History. The candidates cannot expect zero questions from these two subjects. In fact, almost 25% of the paper is comprised of questions from these two subjects. It has been a pattern of UPSC CSE for the last 10 years.
Indian History:
History is divided into three parts- Ancient Indian History, Medival Indian History and Modern Indian History. Polity is a single subject alone comprising 25-30 chapters to be read and revised.
In UPSC CSE 2021 Prelims, the percentage of modern history questions was 7.4% overall. From 2013 to 2021, the average number of questions per year from the Modern History of India alone has been 7. In 2020, 7 questions were there, which was 1 less in 2019 and 2018's paper had 13 questions from modern history alone.
No candidate can afford to lose 7-8 questions in Prelims as in UPSC CSE even 1 mark deficit leads to failure.
Indian Polity:
The questions from Indian Polity in 2020 comprised 15.3% of the entire Prelims exam paper. Take a look at the table below to understand the importance of Indian Polity in UPSC CSE.
| Year | Number of Questions |
| 2020 | 17 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2018 | 12 |
| 2017 | 19 |
| 2016 | 9 |
| 2015 | 13 |
Can you as a UPSC aspirant leave the subject or even neglect some of its topics if at least 11 questions are being asked per year?
We do not recommend this at all. Neglecting Indian Polity while preparing for UOSC Civil Services is out of the question because the qualified candidates would be dealing with the matters of polity and public administration every day.
Moreover, the candidates cannot leave any part of history as well. Many candidates think that they can manage to leave a few chapters from Medieval Indian History, but in the past 5 years, UPSC has begun framing questions from the chapters in Medieval Indian History as well. Since 2014, every year at least 2-to 3 questions have been asked from Medieval India.
The candidates must also not skip reading History and Polity as the answer writing skills in UPSC Mains are polished by these two subjects. You may have to quote theories from Polity and History to support your answers in Geography, Economics and International relations.
Also, these subjects are helpful in writing good essays and in Ethics exams. Thus, candidates of UPSC Civil Services 2022 must not at all avoid the revision of these two subjects- History and Polity.
Comments
All Comments (0)
Join the conversation