How to Prepare UPSC Mains Psychology Optional Subject 2024 – IAS Mains

UPSC Mains Psychology Optional Subject: Check out How to Prepare UPSC Psychology Optional subject 2024 – Study Strategy. UPSC Mains Psychology Optional subject Preparation Tips are provided here. UPSC Notification 2022 has released. Today we’ve provided a Preparation strategy for UPSC Psychology optional Paper (यूपीएससी मेन्स साइकोलॉजी वैकल्पिक विषय). UPSC has already announced the IAS / Civil Services Exam Dates. Before going to start the preparation strategy for UPSC, know UPSC Mains Syllabus. You can check Suggested Strategy for Psychology optional for the UPSC IAS mains exam.

How to Prepare UPSC Mains Psychology Optional Subject 2024

UPSC Mains Psychology Optional Subject: Psychology is an optional subject that is reasonably popular among IAS aspirants. It may not be as popular as history or public administration, but it still fares better than many other subjects. In 2015, a total of 1163 candidates had opted for this optional out of which 92 were recommended for the UPSC interview round. That gives it a success rate of 7.9% that year. Civil Services Psychology part (As part of GS or as optional) requires vast but focused reading.

• know your UPSC Civil Services Exam syllabus
• Select Best Reference Books
• Prepare a Study plan
• Prepare own Preparation Notes
• Practice Previous Question Papers
• Practice few Mock Test Papers

Why Psychology optional?

Psychology is the study of the behavior of human beings and animals and the application of it for the benefit of mankind. It is equally favorite among all streams of students irrespective of their background to appear in the Civil Services Main Examination. Besides being interesting in nature its simplicity and more marks fetching character attract the students. Civil Services preparation is not just preparation but strategic preparation. To be successful not only hard work, determination, dedication, etc required but also a wise selection of subjects. Psychology is the subject which provides limited course and the adequate gap with other options thus enhancing the chances of selection.

UPSC Preparation Tips

UPSC Mains Psychology Optional Subject: UPSC Aspirants should follow exam tips to write the exam. Preparation tips are needed for any exam. UPSC exam should be conducted once in every year. Planning and hard work are very important to face any competitive exam. Below are some of the tips for preparation. The Paper I of Psychology Optional paper is which is like the foundations of paper II. But Paper-II of Psychology the answers should be in theory so all the concepts/theories from paper 1 to support what you are saying.

Step 1: Know UPSC Psychology syllabus

In the previous article, we’ve provided UPSC Mains Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science Syllabus. You can check and find what are the applicable topics and chapter for UPSC IAS Mains Exam.

Check– UPSC Psychology Syllabus 2024 – IAS Mains Optional Subjects

Step 2: Select Best Reference Books for UPSC Psychology

To prepare the UPSC Psychology Optional Subject, UPSC aspirants should prepare some reference books. We’ve already provided UPSC Reference Books for All optional papers. You can check our best-recommended books for the IAS exam at the given link below. The suggested books are included in optional and language Subjects.

Check – UPSC Mains Psychology Reference Books

Recommended books for Psychology:

• Psychology Robert A Baron
• Psychology XI & XII Std NCERT
• Social Psychology Baron & Byrne
• Social Psychology by Robert Baron, Branscombe, Gopa Bhardwaj, Byrne
• Statistics for Psychology by Aron, Aron, Coups
• Systems & Theories of Psychology Krawiec & Chaplin
• Tests, Measurements and Research Methods in Behavioural Sciences by A K Singh (Bharti Bhawan publications)
• The Psychology of Small Groups Shaw
• Theories of Personality Hall & Lindzey
• Social Psychology by Robert Baron, Branscombe, Gopa Bhardwaj, Byrne

Step 3: Prepare a Study Plan

A study plan is very important for every exam preparation. It plays a key role in the success of getting a good score in the UPSC exam.  Prepare a study plan for the UPSC exam. Make a monthly plan, weekly plan and daily schedule to prepare UPSC Psychology Optional Paper. Allot the time for exam preparation and set the time for playing, eating, watching TV, and studying.

Daily prepare a few hours and spend at least 8 hours for IAS exam preparation.

UPSC Psychology Preparation Plan for 3 months

If you have 3 months of preparation time for the UPSC Mains exam, you can prepare 8-9 hours per day.

Step 4: Prepare UPSC Mains Psychology Important Topics

Psychology Paper I and Paper II Important Topics

For paper 1, answer writing is very straight forward and simple if one is clear about the basics of the topic. It just needs the incorporation of all what is asked in the question in a clear manner. However, it’s not advisable to completely compartmentalize paper 1 and paper 2. There can be some questions in paper 1 that are application based and requires things to be written from there. Mainly Paper 1 of Psychology deals with the theoretical aspects and covers the basic principles and Paper 2 is all about the application part and its use in various fields.

As you know the marks of the optional paper are crucial to deciding your ranking in the final list, you to have to perform exceptionally well in the paper of your choice. Since the rest of the papers are compulsory for all, its only the optional paper that can make or break your fortune. So don’t try to do selective reading and gamble, as there is only one optional paper now.

Final Step: Prepare UPSC Mains Psychology Previous Question Papers & Practice papers

Download UPSC Mains Psychology Question Papers. We’ve provided UPSC mains Psychology Previous Question papers for download in PDF format.

Click Here: UPSC Mains Psychology Question Papers Download in pdf

Who should opt for Psychology?

UPSC Mains Psychology Optional Subject: Candidates with a background in psychology. Candidates with a non-psychology background but with a keen interest in the subject. If they don’t have a particular area of expertise (in any other option offered) they can opt for this optional. It is very interesting especially to those people who have always been fascinated by the inner workings of the human mind. It is a good optional for MBBS graduates who do not wish to take up medical science as their optional subject.

How much time does it take to prepare?

UPSC Mains Psychology Optional Subject: 4-5 months, if you study Psychology 12-15 hours per week. This should be enough. Also, it depends on how much can you recall your graduation concepts.

Ideally, aspirants need 4-5 months to complete the optional subject solely. Here we are giving the best suitable strategies for Psychology optional for UPSC IAS Mains Exam.

• Aspirants should have an exhaustive knowledge about the syllabus of Psychology optional.
• Candidates should know the basic concept of Psychology to tackle Paper-II.
•  It is advised to skip the questions from the dicey chapters like community psychology and instead answer ones from the topics which have defined course content.
• Joining test series is another way of improving your answer writing skills as critical feedback helps an aspirant to know where he/she stands and can improve. Test series discussion also helps in gaining a better perspective, interactive sessions build one’s confidence and one can learn how to present an answer in a critical yet concise manner.
• A standard format should be adopted for answering questions involving attitude and behavior change. Use principles of operant conditioning, modeling, social psychology, and persuasive communication, etc. in the framework and cover every nook and corner of the syllabi. It is advised to skip the questions from the dicey chapters like community psychology and instead answer ones from the topics which have defined course content.
• The essential part of UPSC IAS Exam preparation is solving the previous year’s UPSC Mains questions papers. Psychology also aspirants should go through the Previous year question paper to extract an idea about exam patterns, trends, etc.

This article titled “How to Prepare UPSC Mains Psychology Optional Subject 2024 – Study Strategy – Suggested by Toppers ” gives the detailed information about the tips for the preparation of the UPSC exam for all optional papers यूपीएससी मेन्स साइकोलॉजी. Additional information like Reference books for UPSC Mains, IAS Previous question papers are also given above. Students should follow those tips and prepare well for the exam and download the links for more information about UPSC.