Table of Contents
Introduction to Humanities and Social Sciences GATE:
Humanities and Social Sciences encompass a wide range of disciplines that study human society, culture, behavior, and interactions. These disciplines include sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, economics, political science, literature, linguistics, and more. The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all-India examination conducted jointly by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on behalf of the National Coordination Board (NCB)-GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India.
While GATE is primarily known for its engineering and science subjects, it also includes a paper for Humanities and Social Sciences (XH) to provide an opportunity for candidates interested in these fields. The Humanities and Social Sciences GATE examination assesses candidates’ knowledge, critical thinking, and analytical abilities in various disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.
Humanities and Social Sciences Subject Code: XH
Topic wise detailed syllabus for GATE 2023: Humanities and Social Sciences
General Aptitude
| Verbal Ability | Numerical Ability |
| English grammar; Sentence completion, Instructions; Verbal analogies, Word groups; Critical reasoning, Verbal deduction. | Numerical computation; Numerical reasoning; Numerical estimation; Data interpretation. |
Reasoning and Comprehensions
| Sections | Topic Name |
|---|---|
| Section 1 | Reading Comprehension |
| Section 2 | Expression |
| Section 3 | Analytical reasoning |
| Section 4 | Logical reasoning |
Economics
| Sections | Topic Name |
|---|---|
| Section 1 | Microeconomics |
| Section 2 | Macroeconomics |
| Section 3 | Statistics, Econometrics and Mathematical Economics |
| Section 4 | International Economics |
| Section 5 | Public Economics |
| Section 6 | Development Economics |
| Section 7 | Indian Economy |
English
| Section 1 | Multi-genre literature in English—poetry, the novel and other forms of fiction including the short story, drama, creative nonfiction, and non-fiction prose—with emphasis on the long 19th and 20th centuries |
| Section 2 | Especially in a comparative context, anglophone and in English translation, literature from India and, extending to some degree, the larger Indian subcontinent |
| Section 3 | Literary criticism and theory; critical and cultural intellectual-traditions and approaches widely referred to and used in the discipline of English |
| Section 4 | History of English literature and English literary studies |
| Section 5 | Research approaches and methodologies, including interpretive techniques responsive to literary forms, devices, concepts, and genres |
Linguistics
| Sections | Topic Name |
|---|---|
| Section 1 | Language and Linguistics |
| Section 2 | Phonetics and Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics |
| Section 3 | Historical Linguistics |
| Section 4 | Sociolinguistics |
| Section 5 | Areal Typology, Universals, Cross-linguistic Features |
| Section 6 | Methods of analysis |
| Section 7 | Applied Linguistics |
Philosophy
| Sections | Topic Name |
|---|---|
| Section 1 | Classical Indian Philosophy – Orthodox Systems: Sānkhya, Heterodox Systems: Cārvāka, Upaniṣads, Bhagavadgītā, and Dharmaśāstras, Kāṣmira Śaivism, Śaivasiddhānta, Vīra Śaivism, Śāktism and Vaiṣṇavism |
| Section 2 | Contemporary Indian Philosophy – Vivekananda |
| Section 3 | Classical and Modern Western Philosophy – Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, Logic |
| Section 4 | Contemporary Western Philosophy |
Psychology
| Sections | Topic Name |
|---|---|
| Section 1 | Research Methods and Statistics |
| Section 2 | Psychometrics: Foundations of Psychological measurement; Basic components |
| Section 3 | Biological and evolutionary basis of behaviour |
| Section 4 | Perception, Learning, Memory and Forgetting |
| Section 5 | Cognition: Thinking, Intelligence and Language |
| Section 6 | Personality: Theories of personality |
| Section 7 | Motivation, Emotion and Stress and Coping |
| Section 8 | Social psychology, Development across the life span, Applications of Psychology |
Sociology
| Sections | Topic Name |
|---|---|
| Section 1 | Sociological Theory |
| Section 2 | Research Methodology and Methods |
| Section 3 | Sociological Concepts |
| Section 4 | Agrarian Sociology and Rural Transformation |
| Section 5 | Family, Marriage and Kinship |
| Section 6 | Indian Society / Sociology of India |
| Section 7 | Social Movements |
| Section 8 | Sociology of Development |
GATE Humanities and Social Sciences Cut-off By Year
| Paper Code | General | OBC- (NCL)/ EWS | SC/ ST/ PwD |
| XH: Humanities and Social Sciences (C1- Economics) | 55.5 | 49.9 | 37 |
| XH: Humanities and Social Sciences (C2- English) | 51.9 | 46.7 | 34.5 |
| XH: Humanities and Social Sciences (C3- Linguistics) | 53.1 | 47.7 | 35.4 |
| XH: Humanities and Social Sciences (C4- Philosophy) | 50.7 | 45.6 | 33.8 |
| XH: Humanities and Social Sciences (C5- Psychology) | 62.1 | 55.8 | 41.4 |
| XH: Humanities and Social Sciences (C6- Sociology) | 59.7 | 53.7 | 39.8 |
Number of students appearing for GATE Humanities and Social Sciences Exam
| Year | Registered candidates | Candidates appeared | Qualified candidates |
| 2022 | 6325 | 3795 | 984 |
Previous Year Question Papers
Download previous year question papers from the official GATE website click here.
Video Links For Humanities and Social Sciences
Humanities and Social Sciences Introduction