Families focused on JEE or NEET sometimes see social studies as unrelated to their child's academic direction. There are still genuine reasons a science-focused student benefits from ISSO-style social studies literacy.
It Builds Reading Comprehension and Context Skills
Social studies questions, particularly at higher grades, require synthesizing information from a passage or scenario — a skill that directly supports comprehension-heavy sections in exams like SAT, CLAT, or even the reading-heavy portions of competitive exams generally.
Board Exams Still Include Social Studies
Up through Grade 10 in most Indian boards, social studies remains a graded subject regardless of a student's eventual stream — genuine understanding, not last-minute memorization, makes this a lower-stress part of board preparation.
It Builds Well-Rounded General Awareness
Civics and current-events literacy support general awareness sections that appear in various later exams and interviews — a foundation built early through something like ISSO pays off well beyond the exam itself.
It Doesn't Compete Meaningfully for Time
Because ISSO preparation overlaps heavily with what's already covered in school social studies, dedicated additional prep time is modest — the marginal effort for a science-focused student is genuinely low relative to the broader-literacy benefit.