BPSC TRE 4.0 Subject-Wise Vacancy: Which Level Should You Apply For?
BPSC TRE 4.0 Subject-Wise Vacancy: Which Level Should You Actually Apply For?
The BPSC TRE 4.0 form opens on 21 September 2026 under Advt. 14/2026, after the 31 August postponement notice pushed the original 1 September start. That gives you about two weeks. And here is the uncomfortable part: for most of you, the level you can apply for was decided years ago, by whichever certificate is sitting in your folder right now.
There are 32,388 posts on the table. They are not spread evenly. One level holds almost half of them, another holds barely one post in eight, and inside those levels a single subject can carry more seats than an entire level. This article gives you the full subject-wise table for all four levels, checks that every one of them adds up, and then turns it into a decision you can actually make.
The short answer, before the tables
If you hold only one eligibility certificate, your level is already fixed and the rest of this article is about picking your subject, not your level. If you hold two (say CTET Paper-2 and Bihar STET Paper-2), then you have a real choice, and the numbers below tell you which side of that choice is thicker.
One line worth remembering: Classes 11-12 is the biggest level by a distance, but for every single language subject, the biggest block of seats sits at Classes 6-8. That surprised me too.
How 32,388 splits across the four levels
Read that column on the right again. Classes 11-12 alone is 49.71% of this recruitment. Add Classes 6-8 and the two of them are 24,664 posts, or 76.15% of everything. The two levels that most Bihar aspirants prepare for by default, primary and secondary, together account for 7,724 posts, 23.85%.
Put differently: Classes 11-12 has 4.19 times the posts of Classes 1-5 and 4.15 times the posts of Classes 9-10. Our TRE 1.0 to 4.0 vacancy history traced how this happened: primary lost 95.19% of its seats across four cycles while senior secondary became the centre of gravity.
Classes 11-12: all 22 subjects, and the number that stops you
Chemistry has 3,695 posts. That is 22.95% of the entire PGT level. It is also 96.05% of the whole Classes 1-5 level and 95.31% of the whole Classes 9-10 level. One subject, at one level, is almost the size of two complete levels.
The top five subjects (Chemistry, Physics, English, Botany, Psychology) hold 8,882 posts between them, 55.16% of the PGT level. The bottom five (Entrepreneurship, Accountancy, Philosophy, Business Studies, Economics) hold 475 posts in total. If your PG is in Entrepreneurship, there are 58 seats in the whole of Bihar for you this cycle. That is not a reason to give up, but it is a reason to know the number before you build a six-month plan around it.
These 22 rows add up to exactly 16,101, which is the official level total. We checked that sum before printing the table, and we recommend you do the same with any table you find online.
Classes 6-8: six subjects, 8,563 posts
Notice that Mathematics and Science is a single combined post at this level, not two. Those 2,188 seats are 2.12 times the Classes 9-10 Mathematics and Science posts put together (570 plus 463 equals 1,033). A B.Sc graduate with CTET Paper-2 is looking at the single largest subject block in the entire recruitment outside the PGT science subjects.
English at 1,929 is the second biggest. Sanskrit at 1,225 is bigger than the entire Classes 9-10 English, Hindi and Sanskrit blocks combined would suggest at first glance, and Urdu at 935 is the smallest here yet still larger than 14 of the 22 PGT subjects.
Classes 9-10: the thinnest level, and where the odd rows are
Two rows deserve a warning label. Music has 2 posts. Not 200, not 20. Two. Physical Education has 47. If you hold STET Paper-1 in either of those, treat this level as a lottery ticket and put your serious preparation somewhere else, because the same Music subject at Classes 11-12 has 736 posts, which is 368 times as many.
Social Science at 756 is the largest block here, and Hindi at 361 is much smaller than most aspirants assume, which brings us to the busted table further down this page.
Same subject, three different levels: the cross-table
This is the table that actually answers the question in the headline. Look at the last column. For English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu, the thickest block is Classes 6-8, not Classes 11-12, even though 11-12 is nearly half the recruitment. English at 6-8 has 46.03% more posts than English at 11-12. Urdu at 6-8 beats Urdu at 11-12 by a narrower 6.61%.
Now look at the science row. The four PGT science subjects together (Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology) come to 6,980 posts against 463 for Science at Classes 9-10. That is a ratio of 15.08 to 1. For a science postgraduate, there is no argument here at all.
Mathematics is the close call. Classes 11-12 has 657 against 570 at Classes 9-10, a gap of just 15.26%, and the 11-12 paper is harder. This is one place where I would let your comfort with the syllabus decide rather than the vacancy count.
The certificate gate: what actually decides your level
Here is the timing problem nobody is spelling out. Bihar STET 2026 applications only close on 15 September 2026, and as of today the exam date has not been announced. The TRE 4.0 form opens on 21 September. There is no version of that calendar in which a STET 2026 certificate exists in time for this recruitment.
So the certificate in your hand today is the certificate this cycle sees. If you are sitting for STET 2026 with the hope of using it here, plan for TRE 5.0 instead and use the STET cycle to widen your options for next time. Our TRE 4.0 eligibility and STET rules guide goes through the qualification detail subject by subject.
Honest caveat: BPSC has occasionally allowed "result awaited" candidates in past cycles. No dated source says it will this time, and the revised advertisement is not out. Do not build a plan on it.
Age limit as on 1 August 2026
Bihar also runs 35% horizontal reservation for women domiciled in Bihar across every category, which is visible in the women-reserved columns of the official vacancy tables.
The exam is the same for everyone, the subject block is not
Since the 27 August decision scrapped the Prelims and made TRE 4.0 a single 150-mark paper in 2 hours 30 minutes, the arithmetic is clean: 60.0 seconds per question, flat. The language section is a bar you step over with 9 marks out of 30 and it then vanishes from your score. The real fight happens in the 120 marks that count.
And 80 of those 120 marks, exactly 66.67%, come from your chosen subject. That single fact is why this article is really about subject choice. Two-thirds of your merit position is decided by content you either know from your degree or do not. Our breakdown of the single-exam pattern change and the single-paper strategy piece cover the section-wise time plan.
Salary by level: a 28% pay gap against a 319% seat gap
PGT basic pay is Rs 32,000 against Rs 25,000 for a primary teacher, a difference of 28.00%. The seat difference between those same two levels is 318.53%. If you are eligible for both and you are choosing on numbers alone, the vacancy gap is more than eleven times the size of the pay gap. Pay should not be your tiebreaker here. Full figures are in our post-wise salary breakdown.
Four questions that settle your level in ten minutes
- Which certificates do you hold today? Write them down. If the answer is one, your level is fixed. Skip to question three.
- If you hold two, which one covers your strongest subject? Not your favourite subject. The one you could teach without opening a book.
- Look up that subject in the tables above at every level you are eligible for. Write the three numbers next to each other. This is the only comparison that matters.
- Ask whether the bigger number is bigger by enough. A 15% gap is noise. A 15 to 1 ratio is not.
What you should not do is pick a level because a coaching video said the cut-off there is lower. Nobody knows the cut-off. BPSC has not released application counts for TRE 4.0, so any "competition ratio" circulating right now is invented. We are not printing one either.
Two tables online that do not add up
The first bust is arithmetic you can check in thirty seconds. A widely shared teaching blog dated 29 July 2026 prints the Classes 9-10 subject list with Hindi at 961. The correct figure is 361. It also labels the 756 Social Science posts as "General Science". The result is that its own nine rows sum to 4,477 against its own stated level total of 3,877, an overshoot of 600 posts, or 15.48%. A table that contradicts its own total is a table you close.
The second is a different failure: saying the data does not exist when it does. A guide dated 3 September 2026 states plainly that the PGT subject-wise breakdown "kisi ke paas nahi hai" and that 16,101 is only a departmental requisition figure. The 22-row table has been publicly available since at least 18 August, and it reconciles to 16,101 exactly. Being late to a document is not the same as the document not existing.
And the older errors are still live. One teaching blog still prints 46,595 posts for TRE 4.0 and another still prints 44,000. The figure is 32,388.
What we could not verify, said plainly
- The subject-wise tables are aggregator-hosted. They are presented as being from the official PDF, and every level table sums exactly to its official level total while the four level totals sum exactly to 32,388, which is why we print them. No BPSC-hosted vacancy PDF was reachable today. Verify against the official PDF before you finalise a subject.
- Negative marking is not stated in any dated source. One undated page says there is none. We are not treating that as settled.
- The exam date is contradicted. Early-August pages said 22 to 27 September; reporting after the 31 August postponement points to December or January. Both are still in circulation.
- No applicant numbers exist yet, so no honest competition ratio can be calculated.
- Every percentage and ratio in this article is our own arithmetic on the vacancy figures above.
Your next fourteen days, before the form opens
- Days 1 to 3: pull out your certificates, check the subject name printed on each one against the subject names in the tables above. Mismatched subject names are the most common rejection reason in Bihar teacher recruitment.
- Days 4 to 6: complete your BPSC OTR and lock your profile. Six fields lock permanently, so read them twice.
- Days 7 to 10: take one full 150-mark paper in 150 minutes on your chosen subject. Not to score well. To find out whether 80 marks of subject content is realistic for you in three months.
- Days 11 to 14: if that mock says no, this is your last cheap moment to switch levels or subjects. After 21 September, switching means a fresh form.
ExamAtlas has a free TRE 4.0 General Studies mock series with AI analytics that break your accuracy down topic by topic. One honesty note about it: the slug still says "prelims" because it was built before BPSC scrapped the Prelims on 27 August. The 40-mark GS block it drills is exactly the GS block in the new single paper, so the practice is current even though the name is not. If you are heading for Classes 9-10, the Bihar STET Paper-1 Social Science series covers the certificate you will need first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I apply for two levels in TRE 4.0?
BPSC has allowed multiple applications in earlier TRE cycles where a candidate held the relevant certificate for each level, with a separate fee for each. The revised Advt. 14/2026 is not out yet, so treat the earlier practice as likely and not certain, and read the notification clause before paying twice.
Which level has the most posts in TRE 4.0?
Classes 11-12, with 16,101 posts out of 32,388. That is 49.71% of the recruitment, and 4.19 times the 3,847 posts at Classes 1-5.
Which single subject has the most vacancies?
Chemistry at Classes 11-12, with 3,695 posts. It is 22.95% of the PGT level and larger than the whole of the Classes 9-10 level, which has 3,877 posts across nine subjects.
I am appearing in Bihar STET 2026. Can I use it for TRE 4.0?
No. STET 2026 applications close on 15 September 2026 and the exam date is not announced yet, while the TRE 4.0 form opens on 21 September. The certificate will not exist in time. Use the certificate you already hold.
Is Classes 6-8 a weaker choice than Classes 11-12?
Not for language candidates. English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu all have more posts at Classes 6-8 than at Classes 11-12. For science and Psychology postgraduates the answer flips completely.
How many marks decide my rank?
120 of the 150. The 30-mark language section is qualifying, needs 9 marks, and does not enter the merit list. Of the 120 that do count, 80 come from your chosen subject and 40 from General Studies.
Final word
Most TRE 4.0 advice right now is about how to study. This one is about a decision you make before you study anything, and it is the decision with the largest effect on your result. A candidate with the right certificate in a 3,695-post subject and a candidate with the right certificate in a 58-post subject are preparing for two completely different exams, whatever the syllabus says.
Open the tables above, find your subject, write down the numbers, and then go check them against the official PDF the day the revised advertisement drops. If the numbers move, the decision may move with them, and that is worth ten minutes of your time on 21 September.