BTSC OT Assistant Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

There are no sectional timers, so you can move freely through the paper. Scores are normalised across shifts, then multiplied by 0.75 for the merit list.

The syllabus is the two-year Diploma in Operation Theatre Assistant curriculum of the Department of Health, Medical Education and Indigenous Medicine, Government of Bihar (syllabus PDF, listed as O T Technician).

Each year also has a 100-mark practical and a 40-mark viva, which a written paper can't test.

• Anatomy and Physiology are separate papers, unlike the laboratory and radiography diplomas, so basic science is a bigger share.
• Microbiology is in the first year, and with it sterilisation, asepsis and infection control.
• General Nursing appears in no other paramedical diploma the Commission advertises.

The PDF's heading was copied from the laboratory technician file and still names that course. The subject tables are the operation theatre ones. The Commission names no books.

Open to citizens of India. Reservation is only for permanent residents of Bihar, judged on the permanent address in the form.

Qualification

• Intermediate or 10+2 with Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English; and
• an Operation Theatre Assistant diploma or a Bachelor of Operation Theatre Assistant Technology, from an institution recognised by the Union Government, the Government of Bihar or another state government, with the certificate in hand.

Age

Minimum 18, as on 1 August 2024, from the matriculation certificate only. You can claim one relaxation: ten years for disability, five for Bihar government servants with three years' continuous regular service, or the length of your prior contract service in the same post.

Reservation

Vertical categories: SC, ST, Extremely Backward Class, Backward Class, EWS and Women of Backward Classes. Across them, 35 per cent for women (subject to vacancies) and 2 per cent for grandchildren of freedom fighters holding a central pension, on a District Magistrate's certificate in the prescribed format. A letter calling you a freedom fighter's successor is not accepted. Transgender candidates get Backward Class benefits.

• BC and EBC need a non-creamy-layer certificate issued for Government of Bihar purposes; a caste certificate alone gives no reservation.
• For women, the caste or non-creamy-layer certificate must be in the father's name and address.
• An EWS certificate is valid for one year from issue.
• Your category can't be changed after registration, and a benefit not claimed in its column on the form is lost.
• A disability claim needs a medical board certificate in the prescribed format, and the Commission re-examines it with its own board.

No interview. The written test and contract service add up to one 100-mark merit list.

1. Computer based test, 100 questions in two hours.
2. Minimum qualifying marks by category (below). Fall short and you're out, whatever your experience.
3. Experience marks, added only if you qualify the written test.
4. Category-wise merit list on the combined 100 marks.
5. Document verification.

So an unreserved woman qualifies at 32 per cent where an unreserved man needs 40.

Experience marks

Five marks per year of contract service as an Operation Theatre Assistant, up to 25, in a Bihar state government hospital or institution, or a non-private hospital under the central government, a panchayati raj body or an urban local body. Part-years count as working days × 5 ÷ 365, up to the date of the advertisement.

The certificate must be signed by the district Civil Surgeon, or the Principal of a medical college, the Superintendent of a medical college and hospital, the Director of a super-speciality hospital, or the head of the institution, on the Appendix-1 format in the advertisement. Any other format earns neither marks nor age relaxation, and neither does a claim left out of the form.

Laboratory Technician and X-Ray Technician, advertised the same weeks, are at the same level. Allowances follow state rules and aren't in the advertisement.

Apply online only at btsc.bihar.gov.in. Pay online by debit card, credit card, internet banking or UPI; bank charges are extra.

If you pay the reduced SC, ST or disability fee and can't produce the certificate later, your candidature is cancelled. The advertisement suggests paying the general fee if you're unsure.

Have ready

• the original matriculation certificate, which also fixes your date of birth;
• the Intermediate or 10+2 marksheet with the original or provisional certificate;
• marksheets for every year of the OT Assistant diploma or degree, with the certificate;
• caste, non-creamy-layer or EWS certificate as applicable;
• the permanent residence certificate, without which no reservation is given;
• the Appendix-1 experience certificate, if you claim experience marks.

Every claim goes in its own column on the form; nothing is added later.

The posts are in hospitals and institutions of the Health Department, Government of Bihar, Patna.

The women's column is the 35 per cent horizontal share, between 32 and 36 per cent of each category here.

Within the total, 66 posts are for persons with disabilities: 17 for blindness and low vision, 16 for deafness and hard of hearing, 16 for locomotor disability (including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy), and 17 for autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness or multiple disability. Another 33 are for grandchildren of freedom fighters. The count may change if the department revises its requisition.

The CBT runs in more than one shift. Centres and shifts are given with the admit card on btsc.bihar.gov.in; the advertisement fixes no centres and promises nothing about your home district. Your posting is decided by the Health Department, not by where you sat the test.

BTSC has no annual calendar; it advertises when a department sends a requisition. Advertisement No. 03/2025:

The sibling advertisements opened the same day: No. 02/2025 Laboratory Technician, No. 04/2025 ECG Technician and No. 05/2025 X-Ray Technician. Dresser and Pharmacist followed in March, Staff Nurse in April and Tutor (Nursing) in July. Watch the Recruitments page for the next round.

Download the admit card from the Admit Card / Call Letter page. No date is fixed in advance. It also tells you your shift.

After the exam, scores appear under Score Card, and objections to the answer key or result go through the Objection Portal within the announced window. Pick the right advertisement number there.

Results go up under Result on the Commission's site, advertisement by advertisement.

Your score is normalised across shifts and then multiplied by 0.75, and experience adds up to 25 on top, so two people with the same paper can finish far apart. Qualified candidates go into a category-wise merit list and are called for document verification, where the Appendix-1 certificate is checked.

For No. 03/2025 the result notice (Notice No. 2112) came on 20 July 2026, sixteen months after the advertisement. It gives vacancies, selections and cut-offs by category. On equal marks, the older candidate ranks higher.

The qualifying minimums are under Selection Process. The closing marks from the result notice of 20 July 2026, out of the combined 100:

In five of the seven categories everyone who qualified was selected and posts were still left empty. Unfilled EWS seats went to unreserved candidates on merit. A general candidate at exactly 40 per cent carries 30 marks into the list, so the last unreserved selection was under three marks above the bare minimum.

• All 66 disability posts (17, 16, 16 and 17 by type) went unfilled and were carried forward.
• All 33 freedom-fighter posts went unfilled.
• 475 of the 559 women's posts were carried forward: 146 of the unreserved 230, and every reserved one (58 EWS, 92 SC, 6 ST, 104 EBC, 69 BC). All 84 women selected were unreserved.

The sibling X-Ray Technician result (No. 05/2025) looks the same: 648 selected against 1,240, an unreserved cut-off of 41.6250, none against 48 disability posts, and 272 of 406 women's posts carried forward.

• Put your time into the second year: General Nursing, Medicine, Surgery and Anaesthetic. That is what sets this paper apart from the lab and X-ray ones.
• Treat microbiology as core. Sterilisation, asepsis and infection control are the theatre's daily work.
• Revise Anatomy and Physiology as two full subjects, 100 marks each in the diploma.
• Sort out experience marks before applying. Get the Appendix-1 certificate signed and enter the claim in its column. Five marks a year, up to 25.
• Answer every question. With four options and a quarter-mark penalty, a blind guess still gains a quarter mark on average, and there are no sectional timers. Remember 60 per cent in the paper is 45 in the merit list.

No previous year papers or model papers are available for this post. BTSC doesn't publish them on btsc.bihar.gov.in, so anything sold as a "BTSC OT Assistant previous year paper" is unofficial.

The official material is the syllabus PDF and Advertisement No. 03/2025, both free on the Commission's site.

• Bihar Technical Service Commission
• Recruitments, with every advertisement and its dates
• Advertisement No. 03/2025 (PDF, Hindi)
• Syllabus for each post
• Admit card and call letter
• Score card
• Result
• Objection portal

Is OT Assistant the same as OT Technician?

Yes, here. The advertisement says Operation Theatre Assistant, and the Commission files the same syllabus under O T Technician.

Is there an interview?

No. A 75-mark written test, up to 25 marks for experience, then document verification.

Why is my merit score lower than my test percentage?

It is multiplied by 0.75. Fifty per cent becomes 37.5 marks.

What was the actual cut-off?

For No. 03/2025: 32.8125 out of 100 for unreserved, and 30.9375 for unreserved candidates moved into EWS seats. In five other categories everyone eligible was selected.

What happens if two candidates score the same?

The older one ranks higher.

I live outside Bihar. Can I apply?

Yes, but as unreserved, paying ₹600 whatever your category or sex.