Is it possible to crack IAS mains with Economics as an optional subject

First of all, i will like to say that whether economics is a good optional or not or whether this one is a scoring or not is completely depending on your own approach to this master subject.

If you want to have a good score in your optional subject, you should keep some things in your mind,

• Optional subject is completely of your own choice and in short to say we can say that it is your chosen field so your own chosen subject must be filled up with your deep interest and your deep love for that particular one you have selected.
• You should have a smart strategy for that optional subject and then you should work hard. There is no need to work hard blindly. Pay your own focus on your strategy always. If you strategy goes on the wrong track, no better things will happen with you.
• Keep yourself updated with the previous years’ question papers and try to know that for the last 5/10 years where the maximum questions had been coming from and according to that give much importance on those areas.
• Always make your base strong and then go to the advance level and when you will make your base strong, follow everything in details. Don’t skip anything. Follow everything line by line and if possible, highlight the important portions and revise as much as possible.
• Always keep an eagle eye on the base part.
• Select some good books and revise those for thousand times but never select a pile of books and never revise those for one time.Don’t make yourself confuse with lots of books.
• After making your base strong and covering everything start practicing answer writing and giving mock test.

Optional subjects are not different from gs papers and here you have to follow those strategies which you follow for gs papers but here you have to take a special attention with those strategies where this optional subject is your choice. So, here a single fault may go for your weakness and will make the commission think that you are not comfortable in your own field. So we have to decide carefully and then we have to move for this section with a special care followed by the basic strategies.

Next point is that you have asked me about the pros and cons of economics if you select it as your optional one

Pros of economics

• It is a logical and rational subject.
• It is a scoring subject.
• If you take economics as your optional one, you will have two benefits. First is that in the recent years in prelims 30/40% questions come from economics and the next is that if you select economics as your optional, you will have benefits in gs paper 3 as well.
• For this subject study material is available in everywhere.
• If you don’t like mugging up and if you giver much importance on the understanding of the subject, it is really apt for you.
• If you have a clear conception on this subject, you can also clear this paper without taking coaching.
• If you are an expert in understanding and using graphs, you can score high marks in this subject.
• If you are good enough in mathematics, you can go for this subject.

Cons of economics

• If you have a deep interest in this subject, you can choose this one otherwise you should not.
• It is a technical subject. Here are lots of things related to mathematics and graphs. So if you are not good in math and if you are not efficient in making graphs, you should keep this subject away.
• It is a logical subject and here in every bit you have to present you answers logically by showing graphs and calculation. So, if you are not good enough in the logical part, don’t go for this.

NCERT Book

The three NCERTs books of 11th&12th comprise of Indian Economic Development which has to be read thouroughly(also for gs-3). Then move on to the Micro and Macro books available to you. Go through both the books equally well and finish them cover to cover. If you have any doubts regarding the concepts, get yourself an economics dictionary of Collin’s.

Let me inform you here that as you start with the optionals preparation, it may feel like you dont understand anything(during your first read), but stay patient and read anyway. Plan out your strategies and categorise your topics and stick to your plan. During the second read of the books, you may feel a little out of place but as you go further you will see that you know some things in the books from the first read and that will keep you motivated. Make notes on the third read of the books and by the time you are on your fourth reading, you will have become the master of the subject.

And most important of all, read good books on Economics. By the time you have cleared your basics you would have a pretty great knowledge about where your standards lie. If you are comfortable with Indian Authors, you can go ahead with their books. If you are comfortable with foreign authors, you can read their work. After covering the basics and gaining control of economics papers, you can go ahead with the works of various economists around the world. Starting from Chanakya, Adam Smith to Jean Drèze everything you will read will be helpful for you. Since economics has a vast syllabus, covering every type of economics you can come across, make sure you are in sync with the syllabus. Dont go on reading everything and anything.

If you have any other doubt you can comment.I will surely reply for same