Updates as of September 22, 2026
Mathematics carries 570 of the 3,877 secondary (class 9-10) posts advertised under BPSC Advertisement No. 14/2026 dated 18 August 2026, which covers 32,388 school teacher vacancies in all. Within the secondary block only Social Science (756) and English (696) are larger; Urdu has 660, Science 463, Hindi 361 and Sanskrit 322.
PW (reporting the notification)The number of stages in TRE 4.0 is unresolved, and it is the single biggest open question in this cycle. BPSC's own exam calendar, dated 14 August 2026, lists TRE 4.0 at serial 30 with 32,388 vacancies under the heading 2 PHASE EXAMS (PT + MAINS), and records the exam date as TBD with the remark that the date of the PT shall be published after the completion of the advertisement period. On that document, TRE 4.0 is a two-stage recruitment with a screening preliminary test.
BPSC Exam Calendar dated 14 August 2026 (official)On 27 August 2026, nine days after Advertisement 14/2026 was issued, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary announced that TRE 4.0 would be held in a single phase, scrapping the PT and Mains structure. The announcement followed a campaign by candidate representatives under the slogan One Exam, One Result. This is a state government statement rather than a BPSC order, and it directly contradicts the Commission's own calendar.
Testbook news report on the 27 August announcement (reported)As of 22 September 2026, BPSC has published no corrigendum on the TRE 4.0 examination pattern. The Commission's notices page carries corrigenda for the 72nd CCE and notices on the Stenographer examination and the new fifth answer option, but nothing on TRE. The 14 August calendar still shows PT plus Mains and has not been revised. The unresolved pattern is the most plausible reason the application window was postponed for procedural changes, and candidates should expect the revised pattern and the reopened window to be announced together.
BPSC notices page, checked 22 September 2026 (official)The online application has not opened. It was first scheduled for 1 to 30 September 2026, then a 21 September restart circulated widely and also did not happen. BPSC is reported to have held the process back because changes were needed in the recruitment process and the online application system. No revised date has been announced.
Notifyhere (coaching portal, sole source)The secondary paper is reported as 150 objective questions in 2 hours 30 minutes: Part I Language 30 marks and qualifying only, Part II General Studies 40 marks, Part III the concerned subject 80 marks. One-third of a mark is deducted for a wrong answer, and the notification text shows five options lettered A to E rather than the earlier four.
Adda247 (reporting the notification)In TRE 3.0 the class 9-10 Mathematics cut-off was reported at 102 marks for unreserved candidates, 101 for EWS and 92 for unreserved women. That was the highest of the secondary subjects reported: Hindi 87, Social Science 83, Urdu 80 and Science 73 on the same scale.
Career Power (coaching portal)TRE 4.0 is reported to move to a two-stage selection with a preliminary paper followed by a main paper of 150 marks over 2 hours 30 minutes, replacing the single written test used in TRE 3.0. BPSC has not published a separate scheme document confirming this, and no interview stage is involved either way.
APDSC (job portal, unconfirmed)A vacancy figure of 46,595 is circulating on job-alert aggregators for TRE 4.0. None of the aggregators carrying it cites an advertisement number or a date, and it is contradicted by both official BPSC documents that do carry a number: Advertisement 14/2026 of 18 August 2026 and the exam calendar of 14 August 2026, which state 32,388. Until BPSC publishes a corrigendum, 32,388 is the figure to plan against.
BPSC Exam Calendar dated 14 August 2026 (official)The class 9-10 Mathematics paper at a glance
| Part | Content | Marks | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part I | Language: English plus Hindi, Urdu or Bangla | 30 | Qualifying only, reported minimum 30 per cent |
| Part II | General Studies: elementary mathematics, reasoning, general science, social science, Indian national movement, geography | 40 | Yes |
| Part III | Mathematics, the subject chosen at application | 80 | Yes |
| Whole paper | 150 multiple-choice questions, five options A to E, one-third negative marking | 150 | 2 hours 30 minutes |
Only 80 of the 150 questions are Mathematics. Part II is a general paper shared with every other secondary subject, and Part I does not enter the merit list at all, so the mathematics specialist competes on 80 marks plus a general studies section that a mathematics graduate has no particular advantage in. The five-option format is a change from the four options used in earlier TRE cycles and is visible in the notification text itself. 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.
Dates and windows
| What | When | Status |
|---|---|---|
| BPSC exam calendar lists TRE 4.0 as a two-phase PT + Mains recruitment | 14 August 2026 | Confirmed |
| Advertisement No. 14/2026 published | 18 August 2026 | Confirmed |
| Chief Minister announces a single-phase exam, scrapping PT + Mains | 27 August 2026 | Announced by the state government, not yet ordered by BPSC |
| BPSC corrigendum confirming the final examination pattern | Not published as of 22 September 2026 | Awaited |
| Online application window as first announced | 1 to 30 September 2026, fee by 29 September | Closed |
| Reported restart of applications | 21 September 2026, did not open | Closed |
| Revised application window | Not announced | Tentative |
| Secondary written examination | Not announced; a 22 to 27 September 2026 window circulated and has lapsed | Tentative |
| Result and district allocation | Not announced | Tentative |
This calendar is common to every subject and every level of TRE 4.0, from class 1-5 to class 11-12; there is no separate Mathematics schedule. Nothing beyond the advertisement date is currently confirmed, and dates reported by coaching portals for the application restart have already failed twice.
What this means for your preparation
The commonest mistake among Mathematics candidates is treating the 570 posts as roomy. Mathematics has historically produced the highest secondary cut-off in the family, reported at 102 out of 150 in TRE 3.0 against 73 for Science, so the subject is scored harder, not easier, than its vacancy count suggests. The second mistake is assuming a mathematics degree covers the paper; only 80 of the 150 questions are mathematics at all.
Where the 150 marks actually sit
Part III gives 80 questions on Mathematics, Part II gives 40 on general studies and Part I gives 30 on language that do not enter the merit list. A candidate who scores 70 of 80 in mathematics but 15 of 40 in general studies finishes at 85, below the 102 reported as the unreserved TRE 3.0 cut-off. The general studies section is described as elementary mathematics, reasoning, general awareness, general science, social studies, geography, environmental studies and the Indian national movement. The elementary mathematics and reasoning portion is free marks for this subject; the history, geography and polity portion is not, and it is where mathematics graduates routinely lose the ten to fifteen marks that decide selection.
A cut-off set by the subject, not the vacancies
Career Power reports the TRE 3.0 class 9-10 Mathematics cut-off at 102 for unreserved, 101 for EWS and 92 for unreserved women, against 87 for Hindi, 83 for Social Science, 80 for Urdu and 73 for Science. Mathematics sits roughly thirty marks above Science on the same paper structure, which reflects an objective mathematics paper where a prepared candidate can be close to full marks in Part III while a Science candidate faces broader recall. The practical reading is that near-perfect accuracy in Part III is the entry ticket and the margin is made in Part II. BPSC has not published TRE 4.0 qualifying figures; the category minima reported for this cycle are 40 per cent general, 36.5 per cent BC, 34 per cent EBC and 32 per cent for SC, ST, women and persons with disabilities, which are floors rather than cut-offs.
Five options and one-third negative change the arithmetic
The notification text shows five lettered options per question, A to E, where earlier TRE papers used four, and a wrong answer costs one-third of a mark. Blind guessing on five options has an expected value of minus about 0.07 marks per question, so it loses money; eliminating two options and then guessing turns positive. For a Mathematics candidate this matters mostly in Part II, where partial knowledge is common, rather than Part III, where an answer is either derived or not. The sensible discipline is to compute Part III answers rather than back-solve from options where the fifth option may be none of these, and to leave general studies questions blank unless at least two options can be ruled out.
The degree you hold has to match the subject clause
The general secondary requirement reported across summaries is graduation or post-graduation in the concerned subject with at least 50 per cent marks, plus B.Ed from an NCTE-recognised institution and a pass in STET Paper-I. For Mathematics one portal reports an additional combination clause, that the degree must carry mathematics alongside physics, electronics, computer science, chemistry or statistics. This is a coaching-site reading of the notification and has not been confirmed against a BPSC clarification, but it is the clause most likely to cause a rejection at document verification for candidates with a mathematics-with-economics or mathematics-with-commerce degree. Check the subject annexure of Advertisement 14/2026 against your own marksheet before paying the fee rather than after.
What to do while the calendar is frozen
Two announced application dates have lapsed and no examination date exists, so the useful work is the part that does not depend on the schedule. Assemble the documents that stop applications at verification: the graduation marksheet showing the mathematics combination and the 50 per cent aggregate, the B.Ed certificate, and the STET Paper-I result. On preparation, the reported shift to a preliminary plus main structure, if it holds, adds a screening paper before the 150-mark main test, which rewards speed over depth. Nothing about that is confirmed by BPSC, so prepare for the 150-mark scheme that is documented and treat a prelim as a possible extra filter rather than a different syllabus.
Common questions
How many BPSC TRE 4.0 Mathematics vacancies are there for class 9-10?
Reports of the subject-wise table in Advertisement No. 14/2026 put Mathematics at 570 posts within the 3,877 secondary vacancies. The other secondary subjects listed are Social Science 756, English 696, Urdu 660, Science 463, Hindi 361, Sanskrit 322, Physical Education 47 and Music 2, which add to exactly 3,877. These figures come from coaching portals reproducing the notification rather than from a BPSC press release, so confirm against the vacancy annexure of the advertisement before relying on them.
What is the exam pattern for BPSC TRE Secondary Mathematics?
One objective paper of 150 questions in 2 hours 30 minutes. Part I is 30 language questions in English plus Hindi, Urdu or Bangla and is qualifying only, with a reported 30 per cent minimum. Part II is 40 general studies questions. Part III is 80 questions on Mathematics. Each question carries one mark, there are five options from A to E, and one-third of a mark is deducted for a wrong answer. The schedule and scheme are common to every subject in the recruitment.
What was the BPSC TRE Mathematics cut-off for class 9-10 last time?
For TRE 3.0 the class 9-10 Mathematics cut-off is reported as 102 marks for unreserved candidates, 101 for EWS and 92 for unreserved women. On the same paper Science was reported at 73, Urdu at 80, Social Science at 83 and Hindi at 87, so Mathematics was the hardest-scoring secondary subject of those published. No TRE 4.0 cut-off exists yet. The minimum qualifying percentages reported for this cycle are 40 per cent for general candidates and 32 per cent for SC, ST, women and persons with disabilities.
Do I need STET for the BPSC TRE Secondary Mathematics post?
Yes. Summaries of Advertisement 14/2026 state that class 9-10 posts require a pass in STET Paper-I, alongside graduation or post-graduation in the concerned subject with at least 50 per cent marks and a B.Ed from an NCTE-recognised institution. Age is reckoned as on 1 August 2026, with a minimum of 21 years and upper limits reported at 37 years for unreserved men, 40 for unreserved women and BC or EBC candidates, and 42 for SC and ST candidates.
When will the BPSC TRE 4.0 application form open?
It is not open as of 22 September 2026. The advertisement set 1 to 30 September 2026 for applications with fee payment by 29 September, that window was postponed before it opened, and a widely reported 21 September restart also did not happen. The stated reason is that changes were needed in the recruitment process and the online application system. No revised date has been announced. Applications, when they open, are filed at the BPSC online portal, and the fee is reported as 750 rupees for general candidates and 200 rupees for SC, ST, women of Bihar and persons with disabilities.
Is the TRE 4.0 Mathematics syllabus graduate level or class 9-10 level?
Summaries of the notification describe the Part III content for secondary posts as the concerned subject at graduation level, with the teaching content anchored to the SCERT and NCERT curriculum for classes 9 and 10. In practice that means questions pitched above the school syllabus a successful candidate will go on to teach: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, arithmetic and statistics handled at degree standard. BPSC has not published a separate topic-by-topic Mathematics syllabus outside the notification, so the subject annexure of Advertisement 14/2026 is the only authoritative list.
