BPSC TRE Syllabus 2026: General Studies and Subject Topics
BPSC TRE Syllabus 2026: General Studies and Subject Topics
The TRE 4.0 syllabus has two parts that matter and one that does not. General Studies carries 40 marks of merit, the concerned subject carries 80, and language carries 30 marks that never reach your merit score.
One honest note before the topic lists. Advertisement 14/2026 published a syllabus built for a Prelims plus Mains structure. That structure was withdrawn on 27 August 2026, and BPSC has not yet published the revised advertisement with the final single stage syllabus. What follows is the established TRE scope, which has been stable across TRE 1.0 to 3.0. Check the annexure for your level when the reissue lands.
How the syllabus maps to the paper
If you are preparing for Class 1-5, skip ahead to the primary section. Your syllabus is a genuinely different animal and copying a Class 9-12 plan will cost you. For the marking rules behind these numbers, see the exam pattern page.
Part I: Language, 30 marks
You choose the language paper the advertisement permits for your level, usually Hindi, Urdu, Bangla or English depending on the post. The scope is school level comprehension and grammar.
- Unseen passage comprehension
- Grammar: sandhi, samas, karak, upsarg and pratyay for Hindi; tense, voice, narration, articles and prepositions for English
- Synonyms, antonyms and idioms
- Error spotting and sentence correction
- Vocabulary in context
You need 9 marks out of 30. Budget a weekend, not a month.
Part II: General Studies, 40 marks for Class 6-12
Indian and Bihar History
- Ancient India: Indus Valley, Vedic period, Mahajanapadas, Mauryan and Gupta empires
- Medieval India: Delhi Sultanate, Mughals, Bhakti and Sufi movements
- Modern India: 1857, national movement, Gandhian phase, Constitution making
- Bihar focus: Magadha, Nalanda and Vikramshila, 1857 in Bihar, Champaran Satyagraha, Bihar's role in the Quit India movement
Geography
- Physical geography of India: relief, rivers, climate, soils, vegetation
- Economic geography: agriculture, minerals, industries, transport
- World geography basics: continents, oceans, latitude and longitude
- Bihar: rivers and flood geography, agro-climatic zones, districts, minerals
Indian Polity
- Constitution: preamble, fundamental rights and duties, directive principles
- Union and state executive, legislature, judiciary
- Panchayati Raj and urban local bodies
- Constitutional and statutory bodies
- Bihar: state legislature, Bihar panchayat structure
Economy
- Basic concepts: GDP, inflation, budget, banking
- Five Year Plans and NITI Aayog
- Poverty, unemployment and major central schemes
- Bihar economy: agriculture, migration, state schemes
General Science
- Physics: motion, force, work and energy, light, sound, electricity
- Chemistry: matter, atoms and molecules, acids and bases, metals and non-metals
- Biology: cell, human body systems, nutrition, diseases, environment and ecology
Current Affairs and Bihar Special
- National and international events of the last 12 months
- Sports, awards, appointments, summits
- Bihar government schemes, education department initiatives, state news
Mental Ability and Basic Mathematics
- Series, coding decoding, analogy, blood relations, direction sense
- Syllogism, Venn diagrams, calendar and clock
- Number system, percentage, ratio, average, profit and loss, time and work
- Data interpretation from simple tables and graphs
Forty marks spread across seven heads means roughly five to six questions per head. Depth is not the demand here. Coverage is. A candidate who knows Bihar geography well and skips economy entirely will lose more than one who knows all seven heads moderately.
Part II for Class 1-5: General Studies, 120 marks
The primary level has no subject paper. All 120 merit marks sit in this one section, which changes both its scope and its weight.
The scope widens to cover what a primary teacher actually teaches, plus the general awareness and reasoning component common to all levels.
Here is the thing primary aspirants underestimate. A Class 9-12 candidate needs 40 marks from General Studies and treats it as a support section. You need 120 marks from it. Every head in that table is a scoring head for you, and there is no subject paper to rescue a weak area.
Build your plan around Mathematics and EVS first. Those two carry the most predictable marks at primary level and they are the two where school textbook revision pays immediately. Bihar Board and NCERT books for Classes 6 to 8 cover the level well.
The Bihar special checklist most candidates skip
Bihar content appears inside every General Studies head rather than as a separate section, which is exactly why it gets missed. National guides written in Delhi cover it thinly, and this is the part of the paper where a local candidate should be beating an outsider by five or six marks.
- History: Magadha and its capitals, Nalanda and Vikramshila, Sher Shah Suri, 1857 in Jagdishpur under Kunwar Singh, Champaran Satyagraha 1917, Bihar's role in Quit India
- Geography: the Ganga and its northern tributaries, the Kosi and its flood behaviour, agro-climatic zones, district count and reorganisation, minerals and the post-2000 shift after Jharkhand separated
- Polity: Bihar Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad, the three tier panchayat structure, Bihar's reservation framework
- Economy: agriculture dominance, outward migration, the Bihar Industrial Investment Promotion Policy, state schemes in education and skill development
- Current affairs: Education Department initiatives, teacher recruitment policy changes, state budget highlights, Bihar in sports and awards
- Art and culture: Madhubani and Manjusha painting, Chhath, Sama Chakeva, folk forms and major fairs
Give this list one focused week. It is the cheapest marks in the paper for anyone who grew up in the state.
Part III: Concerned Subject, 80 marks
This is the section that decides your selection, at 66.67% of merit. The subject is the one you applied in, and the standard rises with the level.
Class 6-8 subject options
Class 9-10 subject options
Hindi, Urdu, English, Sanskrit, Bangla, Maithili, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Physical Education, Fine Arts, and Dance and Music. The standard here is graduation level in the concerned subject, tested with school teaching application in mind.
Class 11-12 subject options
This is the widest list, which is why 16,101 posts sit here.
- Languages: Hindi, Urdu, English, Sanskrit, Maithili, Bangla, Arabic, Farsi
- Sciences: Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Mathematics
- Social sciences: History, Geography, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy
- Others: Home Science, Commerce and Accountancy, Computer Science, Music, Agriculture
The standard is postgraduate level. A PGT Physics paper is not a harder school paper, it is a degree level paper written for people who studied the subject for five years.
Bangla, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Arabic, Farsi and Agriculture have a supplementary requisition pending, so post counts in these subjects may change. Confirm your subject appears in the final annexure before paying the fee.
How to split your study time
Subject gets slightly less than its merit share because it is the section where you already have a degree behind you. General Studies gets slightly more because it is the section where most candidates are starting from scratch. Language gets almost nothing, and that is deliberate.
The preparation strategy page turns this into a week by week plan with a time budget for the exam hall itself.
ExamAtlas has a free mock test series for TRE General Studies with topic-wise accuracy analytics, which tells you which of the seven GS heads is actually weak rather than which one feels weak. The full cycle overview sits in the BPSC TRE complete guide.
Frequently asked questions
Has BPSC released the TRE 4.0 syllabus for the single stage exam?
Not yet. Advertisement 14/2026 carried a syllabus written for the Prelims plus Mains structure, which was withdrawn on 27 August 2026. The revised advertisement with the final single stage syllabus is awaited on bpsc.bihar.gov.in.
What is the General Studies syllabus for BPSC TRE?
History, geography, polity, economy, general science, current affairs with Bihar special content, and mental ability with basic mathematics. It carries 40 merit marks at Class 6-12 and 120 merit marks at Class 1-5.
Is there a subject paper for Class 1-5 in BPSC TRE?
No. The primary level has 30 marks of qualifying language and 120 marks of General Studies. All merit marks come from General Studies.
What standard is the Class 11-12 subject paper?
Postgraduate level in the concerned subject. Class 9-10 is graduation level and Class 6-8 is up to Class 10 level.
How much Bihar specific content is in the syllabus?
Bihar content runs through history, geography, polity, economy and current affairs. It is a consistent scoring area in every TRE cycle and is the part national study material covers worst.
Does the language section have a syllabus worth studying?
Only lightly. It is school level comprehension and grammar, you need 9 marks out of 30, and nothing above that adds to your merit score.
Which books cover the TRE General Studies syllabus?
NCERT and Bihar Board textbooks for Classes 6 to 12 cover the core. Add a current affairs source for the last 12 months and a dedicated Bihar general knowledge compilation, since that is where national guides fall short.
Final word
Syllabus pages tempt you into collecting topics. Resist that. The list above is a checklist to tick off, not a library to acquire.
Start with the 80 mark subject if you are at Class 6-12, or with Mathematics and EVS if you are at Class 1-5. Add General Studies in parallel. When the revised advertisement lands, the topic heads are unlikely to move much, because they have held steady across three TRE cycles already.