Sociology

      Sociology is a perspective and an academic discipline that examines the human being as a social being, who is a product of social interaction, socialization, and social patterns. Sociology tries to concern itself with the nature of the human being, the meaning and basis of social order, and the causes and consequences of social inequality. It focuses on society, social organization, social institutions, social interactions, and social problems.
Sociology as an option for civil services :

• One may be from any background like science/arts/eng/medical etc.,.but as a member of society ,we are well aware about society and it's day to day happenings.Sociology as an optional only needs refinement and indepth understanding of our general awareness about society.
• Sociology creates interest on the part of the student, as everyone feels part on it.
• With changing trend,sociology is the most useful optional which helps in general studies(Specifically paper -1) and essay papers.

Sociology Scoring / Non - Scoring

• First of all there is a myth among students community that some optionals are scoring and others are not .But UPSC has no pre-conceived notion about any optional.
• Regarding sociology,the most important factor to score high marks is the interest in the subject.

Sociology as a Mains optional

• Firstly,targeting 350+ for any optional before starting preparation is impractical.
• A descent score of 315-330 is sufficient to get a rank for IAS.
• In sociology ,to secure 330+ , the student should have complete command over the basic concepts.The ability to include basic concepts as part of vocabulary gives high score.
• Rigorous answer writing practice before examination and practice of using sociological vocabulary makes the answer sociological and gives more than 330+ marks.
• Sociology should be opted as 1st optional rather that 2nd optional because only conceptual clarity (Which is possible only by opting as 1st optional helps in writing qualitative answers.

Sociology as a Prelims optional

• Almost 85% of questions are conceptual.
• Does not with over-burden a student with lot of study material.
• Compernsates loss is G.S as scoring high (More than 80 ) with negative marking is very easy in sociology.

Books to be Referred for preliminary examination

• Though there is no dearth of books and study material in the market,sociology does not need a long list of books to crack prelims.Complete command over concepts relaxes 90 % of burden of preparation.
The following books are must and sufficient to clear prelims :

1) NCERT Sociology : Class XI to XII (4 Volumes)
2) IGNOU : B.A(Sociology) Study material (Specifically,ESO-II,ESO-12 and ESO-14)
3) Sociology : Themes and Perspective : Micheal haralambous & R.M.Heald
4) Social Anthropology : D.N.Majumdar & T.N.madan.
5) Indian Social System : Ram Ahuja.
6) Dictionary of sociology : W.P Scott.
Important : Repeated practice of previous years question papers (from 1993 onwards)