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100+ Free BCS Written Sociology Practice Questions

Prepare for the BCS Written Post-Related Sociology, Subject Code 351, Total Marks 200 exam with instant access — no signup required.

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Key Facts: BCS Written Sociology Exam

200 marks

Official post-related Sociology paper (Subject Code 351)

BPSC written syllabus

100 / 100

Part I Introducing Sociology / Part II Social and Culture of Bangladesh

BPSC written syllabus

4 hours

Conventional duration for a BPSC 200-mark written paper

Longstanding BPSC sitting practice; confirm the current routine

50% aggregate

Written-stage qualifying standard on 900 marks

BPSC BCS examination page

Tk. 200 / Tk. 50

50th BCS application fee (general / reduced categories); no separate written fee

50th BCS circular reporting citing PSC

1793

Permanent Settlement of Bengal (Cornwallis)—syllabus OCR '1993' is a scan error

Cornwallis Permanent Settlement Regulation, 1793

BCS post-related Sociology is a 200-mark, 4-hour descriptive BPSC paper (Subject Code 351), 100 marks Part I and 100 marks Part II. Written-stage pass is 50% aggregate on 900 marks. This page offers 100 English MCQs as a study aid, not an official-paper simulation.

Sample BCS Written Sociology Practice Questions

Try these sample questions to test your BCS Written Sociology exam readiness. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.

1Who coined the term “sociology” for the scientific study of society?
A.Émile Durkheim
B.Auguste Comte
C.Herbert Spencer
D.Max Weber
Explanation: Auguste Comte introduced the name “sociology” (after briefly using “social physics”) in the Cours de philosophie positive. He is conventionally treated as the founder of the discipline in BCS introducing-sociology syllabi.
2Which statement best captures the nature and scope of sociology among the social sciences?
A.It studies society as a whole—relationships, institutions, and change—rather than only one specialized activity such as markets or votes.
B.It is a branch of biology that explains social life solely through genetic selection.
C.It is a normative philosophy that prescribes the ideal state without empirical enquiry.
D.It is limited to the study of preliterate tribes and has no bearing on modern nations.
Explanation: Sociology’s distinctive scope is society in the round: groups, institutions, culture, and change. Economics, political science, and anthropology overlap with it, but each starts from a narrower official object (markets, the state, or, classically, simpler cultures).
3In Durkheim’s research programme, what is a social fact?
A.Any opinion a single individual happens to hold in private.
B.A biological instinct shared by all mammals.
C.A way of acting, thinking, or feeling that is external to the individual and capable of exercising constraint.
D.A laboratory measurement of reaction time.
Explanation: In The Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim defines social facts as collective ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one person and constrain behaviour (law, morality, currency, language). Sociology’s method is to treat them as things.
4How is sociology conventionally distinguished from social anthropology in BCS introducing-sociology texts?
A.Sociology studies only animals; anthropology studies only plants.
B.Sociology classically focuses on complex, literate, modern societies, while social anthropology classically focused on simpler or preliterate cultures through fieldwork.
C.The two names are official synonyms with identical methods and no historical division of labour.
D.Anthropology studies only the state, while sociology studies only the market.
Explanation: The classical division of labour—now blurred—was that sociology analysed modern, large-scale, literate societies (surveys, statistics, historical comparison) while social anthropology specialised in intensive fieldwork among simpler or preliterate peoples. Both study culture and social structure.
5What does Max Weber mean by verstehen as a research orientation in sociology?
A.Counting only official crime statistics without asking what acts mean to actors.
B.Reducing every social action to a conditioned reflex.
C.Rejecting all comparison between societies.
D.Interpretive understanding of the subjective meaning actors attach to their social action.
Explanation: Verstehen is Weber’s method of interpretive understanding: the sociologist reconstructs the meaning an actor attaches to an action (instrumentally rational, value-rational, affective, or traditional). It complements causal explanation rather than replacing evidence.
6MacIver’s widely cited definition treats society primarily as which of the following?
A.A single factory owned by the state.
B.A written constitution only.
C.A web of social relationships.
D.A collection of buildings in one city.
Explanation: MacIver (with Page) defines society as a system or web of social relationships. Physical proximity or a legal document may support society, but the sociological object is the patterned relations among persons.
7According to Charles Horton Cooley, a primary group is best illustrated by which of the following?
A.The family, play group, and neighbourhood, marked by intimate face-to-face we-feeling.
B.A national civil service cadre whose members never meet.
C.A stock exchange whose traders interact only through anonymous orders.
D.A census category of all persons aged 65 and over.
Explanation: Cooley’s primary groups are small, intimate, face-to-face associations—family, children’s play group, neighbourhood—that form the looking-glass self. Secondary groups are larger, more impersonal, and purpose-specific.
8William F. Ogburn’s concept of cultural lag refers to which pattern?
A.Non-material culture always changing faster than tools and machines.
B.Material culture (technology) typically changing faster than non-material culture (norms, laws, and beliefs), leaving a strain of maladjustment.
C.All parts of culture changing at exactly the same speed.
D.Culture remaining frozen from one generation to the next.
Explanation: In Social Change (1922), Ogburn argued that material culture often advances first (machines, production methods) while family law, morals, and government adapt more slowly. The resulting gap is cultural lag and a source of social problems.
9E. B. Tylor’s classic 1871 definition treats culture as which of the following?
A.Only the fine arts of painting and music.
B.Only genetic inheritance.
C.Only the use of money.
D.That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
Explanation: Tylor’s definition in Primitive Culture is the standard textbook starting point: culture is the learned, shared complex whole of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, and custom. It is acquired as a member of society, not inherited biologically.
10In MacIver’s usage, how does a community differ from an association?
A.A community is always a joint-stock company; an association is always a village.
B.The two terms are interchangeable names for the modern state.
C.A community is a locality plus a we-feeling that covers the round of life; an association is an organized group formed for a specific limited purpose.
D.An association has territory and we-feeling; a community has only a written charter.
Explanation: MacIver’s community combines a territorial base with community sentiment (we-feeling) and a relatively complete way of life. An association (a trade union, a cricket club, a limited company) is deliberately organized for a specific interest. A village can be a community; a cooperative society is an association.

About the BCS Written Sociology Exam

BCS Written Post-Related Sociology (Subject Code 351) is a 200-mark descriptive paper in the BPSC written stage. Part I (100 marks) examines introducing sociology: definition and methods, primary concepts, stages of society, family and marriage, property and economic systems, the state, stratification and mobility, deviance and control, population, and theories of social change. Part II (100 marks) examines the people of Bangladesh, major archaeological sites, the Indus Valley civilization, social history from pre-British Bengal to 1971, rural and urban structure, family and kinship, industrialization and urbanization, Chakma, Marma, Garo, and Santal societies, selected social problems, and social change in Bangladesh. Official answers are written, often in Bangla or English as permitted. This free bank is an English-language MCQ study adaptation of that syllabus—not an official translation, format simulation, or substitute for writing practice.

Assessment

Official paper: 200 marks in 4 hours, Part I Introducing Sociology (100 marks) and Part II Social and Culture of Bangladesh (100 marks). Technical/professional cadre and dual-cadre applicants sit this post-related paper as part of the 900-mark written stage. This bank is an English-language MCQ study adaptation, not an official translation or format simulation.

Time Limit

4 hours (duration used for BPSC 200-mark written papers; confirm the current routine)

Passing Score

50% aggregate on the 900-mark written examination (BPSC official page); per-paper minima also apply as set by BPSC. Confirm the current circular.

Exam Fee

Tk. 200 general (50th BCS); Tk. 50 for ethnic-minority, disability, and third-gender categories. Single application fee; no separate written or viva fee. Confirm the live circular. (Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC))

BCS Written Sociology Exam Content Outline

15% of this bank

Part I — Introducing Sociology: concepts and methods

Definition, nature, scope, origin, sociology and other social sciences, research methods, and primary concepts (society, community, association, institution, group, culture, civilization, cultural lag, social structure).

15% of this bank

Part I — Institutions and stages of society

Pre-industrial through post-industrial stages; family and marriage types and functions; property, primitive communism, capitalism, socialism, and mixed economy; state, government, legitimacy, power, authority, Marx on the state, and democracy.

20% of this bank

Part I — Stratification, deviance, population, and change

Slavery, estate, caste, class; functionalist and conflict theories; Dahrendorf and Lenski; mobility; crime and social control; Malthus, demographic transition, and optimum population; linear, cyclical, and planned theories of social change.

20% of this bank

Part II — People, archaeology, Indus Valley, and social history

Racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and environmental features of Bangladesh; Mahasthangarh, Mainamati, and Paharpur; Indus relics and significance; pre-British village communities, the 1793 Permanent Settlement, English education, the middle class, Pakistani-period society, and the social background of 1971.

20% of this bank

Part II — Rural–urban life, kinship, industry, and ethnic societies

Rural and urban stratification and power; family, marriage, and kinship in Bangladesh; industrialization, urbanization, and urban problems; Chakma, Marma, Garo, and Santal societies.

10% of this bank

Part II — Social problems and social change in Bangladesh

Population, poverty, illiteracy, dowry, and unemployment (causes, consequences, and solutions without unpublished census percentages); present social structure; causes, consequences, problems, and prospects of social change.

How to Pass the BCS Written Sociology Exam

What You Need to Know

  • Passing score: 50% aggregate on the 900-mark written examination (BPSC official page); per-paper minima also apply as set by BPSC. Confirm the current circular.
  • Assessment: Official paper: 200 marks in 4 hours, Part I Introducing Sociology (100 marks) and Part II Social and Culture of Bangladesh (100 marks). Technical/professional cadre and dual-cadre applicants sit this post-related paper as part of the 900-mark written stage. This bank is an English-language MCQ study adaptation, not an official translation or format simulation.
  • Time limit: 4 hours (duration used for BPSC 200-mark written papers; confirm the current routine)
  • Exam fee: Tk. 200 general (50th BCS); Tk. 50 for ethnic-minority, disability, and third-gender categories. Single application fee; no separate written or viva fee. Confirm the live circular.

Keys to Passing

  • Work through all 100 available questions
  • Review every answer and explanation
  • Track weak areas and revisit them
  • Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

BCS Written Sociology Study Tips from Top Performers

1Write Part I as theory with named authors (Comte, Durkheim, Weber, Marx, Ogburn, Davis–Moore, Dahrendorf, Lenski, Malthus, Sorokin, Toynbee)—MCQs here only lock the claims you must expand in essays.
2Treat the syllabus OCR 'Permanent Settlement Act of 1993' as 1793 (Cornwallis); do not reproduce the scan error in a written answer.
3For Part II sites, pair place with district and significance: Mahasthangarh–Bogura–Pundranagara; Mainamati–Cumilla–Shalban Vihara; Paharpur–Naogaon–Somapura Mahavihara (UNESCO 1985).
4For Chakma, Marma, Garo, and Santal items, contrast language family, kinship, religion, and region rather than inventing population percentages.
5Do not quote unpublished or guessed census percentages in essays; use official BBS releases if you cite a figure, and otherwise argue causes and consequences.
6After drilling these MCQs, practise timed 200-mark descriptive answers in the language you will use in the hall.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is BCS Written Post-Related Sociology?

It is the 200-mark post-related written paper (Subject Code 351) in the Bangladesh Civil Service examination conducted by BPSC. The official syllabus splits it into Part I Introducing Sociology (100 marks) and Part II Social and Culture of Bangladesh (100 marks).

Is the official paper multiple choice?

No. The official assessment is a descriptive written paper (short and long answers) worth 200 marks. This bank is an English-language MCQ study adaptation, not an official translation, format simulation, or substitute for writing practice.

Who sits the Sociology post-related paper?

Technical and professional cadre candidates sit a 200-mark post-related subject instead of the extra general-cadre papers. Dual-cadre applicants sit that extra 200-mark post-related paper as well. Confirm cadre rules in the live BPSC circular.

How long is the paper and what is the pass mark?

BPSC 200-mark written papers are conventionally 4 hours; confirm the sitting routine. BPSC's official page requires 50% aggregate on the 900-mark written examination, and per-paper minima also apply as set by BPSC.

Is there a separate fee for the written Sociology paper?

No. For the 50th BCS the application fee is Tk. 200 general and Tk. 50 for ethnic-minority, disability, and third-gender categories, paid via Teletalk. It covers preliminary, written, and viva. Confirm the live circular.

Does this bank use unpublished census percentages?

No. Part II items test structure, institutions, and well-documented historical facts (for example the 1793 Permanent Settlement). They do not invent unpublished census shares for religion, poverty, or literacy.

In what language is this practice bank?

User-facing items are in English, while official names (Bangla terms, cadre names, site names) are preserved. The official written paper is descriptive and is not an English MCQ test; this is a study adaptation, not an official translation.