[Books] UPSC Sociology & GS : Previous years’ questions

If you are not going through previous year questions of Sociology, you may be working hard, however, not smartly.

Previous year questions of UPSC Sociology help you focus on what to read when you are going through a particular topic. For example, suppose you are reading the topic “Black money (currently in news),” and you have gone through previous year questions. You would pause for a while, and think about the functional role of black money, if any. UPSC has already asked a question on functional role of corruption (2014).

Secondly, practising previous year questions would tune your mind and approach to the nature of questions asked in UPSC. This is because test series may, inadvertently, deviate from what UPSC expects.

Most importantly, questions are repeated in UPSC Sociology. E.g. RTE question in 2016 has been asked earlier.

Hence, please do not ignore previous year questions (last 5 years) at any cost!

Chronicle UPSC Sociology Previous year question with SOLUTIONS (till 2017) ========= Pros: ========= -Among the only few books available in market for Q&A -Answers are not entirely off the mark – though there is room for value addition -Gives a BASIC idea of what and how to write a Sociology answer -Gives some insight into lesser known but important topics like CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION ========= Cons: ========= -Answers are generalistic in nature, sociological terms are missing -Critical approach is missing at many places – we are expected to present a 360 degree analysis of the topic -Diagrams/ flowcharts could be added to improve presentation ======= How to extract maximum benefit from the book? ======= 1. Read a particular topic on your own 2. Attempt to answer previous years questions without looking at the answers of this book 3. Compare your answer with the one in the book 4. Jot down points in this book. The points that you think are missing in this answer. You may use sticky notes in case of space crunch in the book. 5. In the end, you will have a handy material for quick revision
UPSC Sociology Categorised Papers 1964 – 2017 [by New Vishal] Pattern of UPSC Sociology questions was changed in 2008. You can through questions from 2008. Must attempt/discuss questions from 2010. Some of them are repeated. If time permits, you can do a highly selective discussion of pre-2008 questions.
Fundamental Sociology (Paper 1) by Vikas Ranjan If you are a late starter, you can go for this book. Some portions have been borrowed from IGNOU, Google search etc. You can always refer to this book for sections not covered in conventional books.
Applied Sociology (Paper 2) by Vikas Ranjan Many candidates are confused about the sources of Paper 2. This book has a compilation of articles for paper 2. You can use this as an add on to your conventional reading sources. The book is helpful if you are running out of time.
IAS Mains GS Solved Papers 2018-2001 Sociology students can refer to Society questions in GS1. Please work on controlling your Sociology knowledge from getting reflected in GS Society questions. If examiner feels from your answer that your optional is Sociology, it may backfire. Write some GS Society questions; get it evaluated by someone from non-Sociology optional. This book would help in other UPSC GS papers as well.