Alerts and Updates for BPSC TRE Higher Secondary History

History shares ground with the General Studies section in a way most subjects do not. Part II at this level is reported to cover elementary mathematics, general awareness, general science, the Indian national movement and geography, so the freedom-struggle material a History candidate already knows reappears there for marks that do count. The 80 questions of Part III are the degree-level paper, reported as ancient, medieval and modern India with world history and the history of Bihar. Part I, combining English with one of Hindi, Urdu or Bangla, is qualifying at 30 per cent and excluded from merit. One-third negative marking is reported by most portals; one syllabus write-up says there is none, so verify it in the Commission's notification. Read the structure below as the pattern for the written examination, not as a settled number of stages. BPSC's calendar of 14 August 2026 places TRE 4.0 under two-phase PT plus Mains exams; the Chief Minister announced a single-phase exam on 27 August 2026; and BPSC has published no corrigendum resolving the two as of 22 September 2026. The question paper described here is the one candidates must prepare for either way, because a single-phase exam would use it and a two-phase exam would use it as the main paper.

This schedule is common to every subject and every level in TRE 4.0, so the History paper has no notification, application window or examination date of its own. Nothing here is fixed until BPSC issues the revised advertisement and then a separate examination notification.

History candidates commonly assume that because the subject overlaps General Studies, the General Studies section will look after itself. The overlap is real but partial: it covers the Indian national movement and little else. The larger misjudgement is about level. The 80 subject questions are degree and post-graduate history, and in TRE 3.0 unreserved History candidates selected at 76 out of 150, a score that leaves almost no room for guesswork under negative marking.

General Studies at higher secondary level is reported to include the Indian national movement alongside elementary mathematics, general awareness, general science and geography. For a History candidate the national-movement questions are effectively free, and they matter, because General Studies supplies 40 of the 120 counting marks. But the freedom struggle is one strand of five. The elementary mathematics and general science questions are where History candidates lose the section, and they are also the cheapest to fix, resting on a fixed senior secondary body of material. A History candidate who prepares only the historical strand of Part II is leaving twenty or more accessible marks on the table.

The class 11-12 History syllabus is reported as ancient, medieval and modern India together with world history and the history of Bihar. In an eighty-question objective paper, modern India and the national movement typically carry the largest share because the material is dense with dates, sessions, acts, commissions and named individuals that convert directly into single-line questions. Ancient and medieval India reward source and inscription knowledge, dynastic chronology and the architecture and administration of specific regimes. The Bihar strand, from Magadha and the Mauryas through Pataliputra, the Pala period and Bihar's role in the freedom struggle, is finite and disproportionately worth learning thoroughly.

TRE 3.0 higher secondary History closed at 76 for unreserved men, 73 for unreserved women and EWS men, 71 for EWS women, 68 for Extremely Backward Class candidates of both sexes, 59 for Scheduled Caste, and 43 and 51 for Scheduled Tribe men and women. With one-third of a mark deducted per wrong answer as reported, three uncertain guesses cancel one correct answer. At a closing score around 76 out of 120 counting marks, the difference between selection and rejection is a handful of marks, so a disciplined attempt policy on the questions where two options cannot be eliminated matters as much as additional reading.

Two portals report 608 higher secondary History posts and a third reports 696. That is a meaningful gap for a candidate deciding how realistic the attempt is, and it is the only one of the four main humanities subjects where the reported counts diverge by that much. Geography is reported consistently at 176 and Hindi at 739, while English varies between 1,321 and 1,358. BPSC has indicated a revised advertisement is coming, which is the document that will settle the History allocation along with the closing date. No preparation decision should be built on either figure until then.

Part I combines English with one of Hindi, Urdu or Bangla across 30 questions, qualifying at 30 per cent, marks excluded from merit. For a History candidate this is simply a bar to clear, unlike the English and Hindi papers where the qualifying section interacts with the subject. Separately, higher secondary posts are reported to require a post-graduate degree in the relevant subject with 50 per cent, a B.Ed, and STET Paper-II in the relevant subject, which for these posts means STET in History rather than in another social science. Age is reported as 21 minimum and 37 for unreserved men, with category relaxations.