Sociology is one of the most popular optional when it comes to UPSC. It is also an
optional which is dependent to an extent on your answer writing abilities.
There are some people who say that writing skills cannot be improved. You either have
the skill or you don’t. So they suggest that you mug up as many facts as possible and
write it on the answer sheet on the day of the examination. These are also probably the
kind of people who are unable to clear the mains and then they blame it on unfair
checking by UPSC.
There is nothing in this world that cannot be improved with practice and perseverance.
And you are sure to fail if the first paper you write is your actual UPSC mains paper.
Even if your writing skills are good, you are not writing a novel or a poem. You need to
present an answer to the examiner with suitable references and examples within 150-
250 words.
Thus answer writing practice is must so that you are able to write a decent answer
within the word limit.
Knowing how to write the answer is not enough. You should also be able to attempt all
the 5 questions in the three hours time period. This is not as easy as it sounds. Each of
the questions has three or five sub questions of 10 and 20 marks.
Sociology is a very popular optional. This unfortunately leads to increase in competition
as well. Leaving even one question in the paper may prove disastrous for you. It is thus
important to aim at attempting 100% of the examination paper. Time management
should thus an important part of your answer writing strategy. This can only come by
practicing writing the entire question paper in simulated environment. This can be
achieved by writing a sociology test series.
The answers should not only have good points but they should also be relevant to the
core point asked in the question. The answers should not deviate from the main issue
that is being asked. Unnecessary stuffing of answer with sociological thinkers may
prove counterproductive.
Often many open ended questions are asked in sociology. An aspirant might think that
they have written an excellent answer with multiple sociological thinkers and case
studies written in the answer. However they may not be relevant to what the question
specifically asks for. You might thus be left wondering why you received a low score for
your answers.
While you may ask your peers and friends to evaluate your answer sheet, it may not get
you the desired results. Your fellow aspirants are learning answer writing just like you.
They thus might not be able to give you crucial tips to improve your answer writing. It is
also important to remember that they are, after all, your competitors.
At IAS Gurukul, Pranay Sir personally checks all the answer sheets. He then gives his
expert opinions on areas that he feels you need improvements in.
Regular paper discussions are held at IAS Gurukul center. Pranay Sir also encourages
personalized discussions with students if they still have any doubts remaining after the
group discussions. Model answers are also provided for certain questions.
After joining the sociology test series with Pranay Sir, you will not need to search for
guidance anywhere.
A number of question papers of IAS Gurukul sociology test series are from specific
parts of the syllabus. This helps the aspirant in evaluating his strengths and
weaknesses.
For example, you might get a decent score in sociology test series every time. But if you
have specific tests for portions of syllabus, you will find which areas you need to put a
little extra effort in to drive up your score. You might be excellent in sociological thinkers
but poor in the research and methodology part of the syllabus. The sociology test series
will help you improve that specific portion of the syllabus also.
Also the unpredictable ones. You may just attempt a few previous year questions and one or two tests. However this will not make you comfortable with the entire spectrum of questions. Writing the sociology test series will, however, help you cover an entire range of questions.
IAS Gurukul also provides access to answer sheets of previous year’s toppers.
This will help you assess your answer sheets with respect to the UPSC toppers who
have studied sociology.
Following are links to answer sheets of various toppers:
| Name of Students | Download Answer Sheets |
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Neha Bhosle Rank - 15, 2019
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Paper-I
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Paper-II
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Neha Bandhu Rank - 121, 2019
|
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Paper-I
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Paper-II
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Srushti Deshmukh Rank - 5, 2018
|
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Paper-I
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Paper-II
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Sanya Chhabra Rank - 84, 2018
|
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Paper-I
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Paper-II
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Gaurav Kumar Rank - 34, 2017
|
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Paper-I
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Paper-II
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Sudhir Kumar Rank - 42, 2017
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Paper-I
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Paper-II
|
Once you have a look at the topper’s answer sheets you will notice that they have not written excellent answers to all the questions. Time does not permit an aspirant to write beautiful answers to each and every question. You are expected to write decent answers to all the questions. It should not be the case that you write excellent answers to couple of questions and then you have to leave other questions due to lack of time. These time management and answer writings skills can be developed only by joining a good sociology test series.