Geography Optional Strategy - By Chandan Priya, Director, Perfections IAS

Q. Who should choose Geography as an optional? How to assess oneself before choosing it? What are the criteria for choosing it as optional?

Ans. In the UPSC mains exam, geography is a very popular optional subject.

• Because of the nature of the subject, it is especially popular among candidates having a science or engineering background.
• Because it is a science, it is appealing to such candidates. Geography as an optional subject for UPSC is also popular because it corresponds to the UPSC syllabus.
• In this article, we go over all of this and more, including a strategy for Geography as an optional subject for UPSC.

Pros

• Geography as an optional for UPSC will overlap with your mains and prelims studies. Every year in the general studies paper-1, there will be at least 10-20 questions that are directly related to the geography optional paper. It’s about 80-100 marks worth of questions that you’ll have to prepare anyway if you’re taking geography as an elective.
• Geography as an optional subject for UPSC also helps in the personal interview round, where you’ll probably be asked about your hometown’s geography, climate, and even vegetation.
• Geography as an optional subject for UPSC is a multidisciplinary subject that is simple to understand and prepare for aspirants from both the arts and the sciences.
• There are some theories and concepts that are simple to grasp but can help you earn a lot of points by answering multiple questions based on these theories. Furthermore, if your concepts about these theories are clear, there is less room for the deduction.
• Geography as an optional for UPSC allows you to draw flowcharts and diagrams to prove your point, and such a graphical representation of your answer can also help you get better grades.
• There will be some very high-scoring map-based questions.

Cons

• There is a large syllabus to cover in Geography as an optional subject for UPSC, and not everything can be memorized, and there are certain concepts that take a long time to learn.
• Questions asked in the paper I in Geography optional are quite difficult in nature. Lots of facts, locations, names and books of geographers have to be remembered to make the answer more appealing.
• Another difficult and time-consuming part of geography optional subject is lots of case studies and diagrams have to be prepared. These need to be added to each question. This consumes lots of time in the exams.

Q. What is its success ratio of Geography Optional in UPSC CSE? On an average, how many candidates appear with this subject?

Ans. Check the below table to know about the success rate of the candidates having Geography as an optional subject for UPSC in the last few years:

Last 7 years’ Success Rate of Geography Optional
Year	No. of Candidates Appeared	No. of Candidates Recommended	Success Rate (%)
2019	1916	105	5.5
2017	2669	147	5.5
2016	4049	236	5.8
2015	3391	115	3.4
2014	3515	255	7.3
2013	3158	178	5.6
2012	4351	314	7.2

Q. Is it a safe optional?

Ans. Choosing Geography as optional for UPSC Mains can be beneficial for the candidates as it is overlapping with the GS Paper 1 and at times useful for the essay paper also. But, studying Geography as an optional subject involves great effort because of the vast syllabus and complexity of the subject. But it is claimed as the most preferred optional subject by the UPSC candidates.

Q. What are the things that need to be kept in mind while preparing for Geography Optional? What is the ideal approach to prepare this subject?

Ans. To begin with, divide the syllabus for both papers so that you can cover it thoroughly and in-depth in a few months. This means that you should start preparing for your optional paper as soon as the prelims begin, and you should do so concurrently with your prelims preparation. The first month should be devoted to the most important aspects of physical geography.

Topic-wise Preparation Tips

• Geomorphology: Check the proper syllabus for the paper and prepare only those topics. Pay close attention to geomorphic cycles and landscape development concepts. Examine slope development, erosion, and its causes as well. There are numerous diagrams depicting these topics in a visual format that you should familiarise yourself with because they can be very useful in enriching your answers.
• Climatology and Oceanography: Because there are only a few topics from this section that appear on the exam, concentrating on the material found in online notes will suffice. Refer to D S Lal’s book on climatology, which is very detail-oriented and thus contains enough materials to prepare commendable notes.
• Biogeography and Environment Geography: Focus on preparing topics related to ecology in this section while preparing topics from this section. You’ll be asked a series of questions about social forestry and environmental management that are based on current events. Use the internet to highlight key points and to stay current on these topics, as well as to learn more about the fundamental concepts.
• Human Geography: Recognize the progression of geographical ideas over time. Prepare a list of theories, definitions, and terminologies, as well as a few examples. Memorize original Hartshorne, Fevre, and Semple as well as their theories. Topics such as regional languages, religion, cultural regions, and HDI are important, and you must understand how they relate to geographical thought in order to get the best marks on this paper.
• Economic Geography and Regional Planning: The NCERT books for classes 11 and 12 are especially helpful in preparing these sections. Make it a habit to use the world map and examples to support your point of view while preparing notes and answers. You’ll need a thorough understanding of the world map for this.
• Population and Settlement Geography: This is a high-scoring topic, so it’s important to pay close attention to it. Prepare definitions and ensure that you have a thorough understanding of terms such as conurbation, metropolitan region, slums, satellite towns, and so on. Also, do some research to find up-to-date statistics that you can use in your responses. The population as a source of social capital, social well-being, and quality of life should be carefully planned.
• Practice the previous year’s papers on a regular basis once you’ve completed all of the sections of the paper.
• Simultaneously prepare for each topic by solving practice papers and mock tests on that topic so that you have a firm grasp of it.

Q. Are study materials available for it? Which books can be referred to for it?

Ans. Yes, there are various source materials are available for geography optional.

Basic Books

• NCERT-Class XI & XII
• Made Simple Series by Rupa Publication-Vol-I & II
• Certificate Physical And Human Geography by Goh Cheng Leong

Reference Books

• Physical Geography - by Savindra Singh (If one wants to avoid specialised books for Physical Geography syllabus). There are 5 specialised books by Savindra Singh that have certain specific chapters which are not covered by the above book. The above mentioned Physical Geography text book covers almost 80% of the physical geography syllabus. For the other topics of the Physical Geography syllabus, one has to refer to about 2-3 chapters from each of the below books: One can take photocopies of the select chapters from libraries and study rather than buying these books.
• Geomorphology - by Savindra Singh
• Oceanography - by Savindra Singh
• Climatology - by Savindra Singh
• Environment Geography - by Savindra Singh
• Biogeography - by Savindra Singh
• Indian Geography - by D R Khullar
• Human Geography - by Majid Hussain
• Models and Theories - by Majid Hussain
• Geographical Thought - by Dikshit
• Geographical Thought - by Sudipta Adhikary ( A good supplement for Thought topics)
• NCERT class X text book, (Old Edition) is good for Economic Geography coverage. It will also help GS geography topics like- World Industries, World Resources distribution and trade.
• Settlement Geography - by K Siddhartha

Other References:

• Like in all other subjects, and in GS, students must read up various magazines and current affairs-based enrichment. Some of the sources one can be regular with are:
• Yojana
• Kurukshetra
• Geography and You
• NITI Aayog reports (particularly, those on Agriculture, Infra, Regional development, Rural development, etc.)
• Select UN documents on Population, Development & Environment (UNDP is most helpful)

Q. How to start preparation?

Ans. In the beginning, you can adopt the following approach:

Start with NCERTs

• Build a strong foundation and clear your fundamentals with the NCERTs as concepts are explained in simple, easy-to-understand language.
• Once you are clear with the fundamentals, you can proceed to the advanced version of books such as Physical Geography by Savindra Singh for Geography preparation.

Refer to Atlas

• Geography preparation is incomplete without referring to the atlas. It is essential to keep an atlas by your side for adequate preparation. Not only will it help you to understand the concepts better, but it will also help you to retain them for a longer period.
• There are two prominent Atlas available in the market, Oxford Atlas and Orient Blackswan Atlas. You can use any one of them.

Interlink Static and Dynamic Portion

• Do focus on current affairs related to Geography while preparing for the static part. Gone are the times when the UPSC used to ask questions from the static part only. The times have changed, and it is normal to find questions related to current events.
• Hence, it is advisable to focus on current affairs while preparing for the static part. For the same, you can refer to Yojana, Kurukshetra, and Down to Earth magazine.

Focus on Maps & Statistics

• Maps are big magnets that can attract good marks if prepared and practiced correctly during your preparation.
• You should consider preparing region-wise maps from textbooks that should include topics like physical features, soil, terrain, agriculture, rivers, monsoon, drainage, etc.
• Make sure to include maps, diagrams and all the relevant data in your answers to make them more optional-oriented, rather than writing GS type answers.

Follow the Integrated Preparation Approach

• Focus on an integrated preparation to make your preparation more productive.
• While writing answers for Paper-II, you can use the relevant concepts/models studied in Paper-I to make your answers more appealing.
• Integrated preparation will give you an edge to your exam preparation.

Make Notes and Refer to Previous Year Questions

• Note-making and referring to previous year questions are an inevitable part of the UPSC exam preparation.
• While self-prepared notes will serve as an ultimate guide and save you crucial time during revision, previous year’s questions will help you understand the type of questions asked in the exam.

Q. Will it help in General Studies/ Essay/Interview also?

Ans. The key aspect here is the interlinking and overlapping of the GS Paper and Mains, where theme-wise preparation will help you maximize marks in the UPSC CSE preparation.

• How do we understand the overlap of a subject? When an applicant chooses an optional subject, one should consider certain subjects that overlap with the subject GS Paper. Choosing an overlapping subject will also save you a lot of time in your main preparation.
• For example, the Geography General Studies Paper overlaps with the optional syllabus. The overlapping areas are-important geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activities, cyclones, and other natural disasters, as well as changes in essential geographical features (such as water bodies and ice caps) and flora and fauna, and the consequences of these changes.
• Overall, the syllabus of Geography optional will help you in various sections of the GS papers and also in Essay and Interview.