What is Elite History Optional Foundation Course?

• The Indian History and culture are considered as the significant part of both the Civil Services Preliminary Exam and the Main Examination. A substantial segment of the total questions asked in General Studies Paper I for the IAS exam come from Indian History that blended with culture.  We can use the trend (graph) here.
• In the preliminary exam, All these sections are completely covered in the History syllabus, if one chooses it as an optional subject. In the Main examination, paper-I of GS covers approximately 75-100 marks of Art & Culture, Modern India & Contemporary world that are part of History optional syllabus. 

• The choice of an optional subject depends on your inclination and aptitude. If you are the one curious to understand the past and want to analyse how our past shaped the present and how it could have been different, then history is your subject.
• Like other optional subjects, History is also a scoring paper, one can score 270-280 marks easily and even 300 plus marks are also common.
• Mapping section of the history optional is highly scoring and command over it can give you the upper edge.
• “UPSC Syllabus for History Optional”  connects ancient India, with contemporary incidents, for example as it connects urbanization of Indus Valley Civilization and Magadhan empire to today’s smart city concepts.
• It is a very important subject in the UPSC Civil service exam because history is included in the IAS prelims exam and the IAS mains general studies papers as well.
• Here, you can optimise time by preparing for optional and GS papers.
• It is by and large a static subject. So, if you cover this subject once, it will not change in the next two-three years.
• Although the syllabus of history appears vast but by observing previous year’s questions we can conclude that its focal area is very small i.e. there is no need to read large volumes of the book.
• A student of any background may opt History as an optional subject. There is no requirement that those having a background in History should opt this optional. The main requirement for this optional subject is scientific temper to grasp the subject.

On an average 15-20% weightage is given to History. 

out of 100 questions, approximately 16-18 questions are from History (Art & Culture, Ancient India, Medieval India & Modern India).

Writing about the historical perspective of things gives depth to your arguments. Here, history preparation can help.

There is ample study material available for this subject.

You do need to remember a few dates and names in history. You don’t need to mug up the facts as most of the dates and names which are important will be at your fingertips after multiple readings.

No, it is only a part of the Mains examination.