About the Negative Marking Score Calculator
This negative marking calculator works out your exam score when wrong answers cost marks. Enter how many questions you got right and wrong, choose a preset or set your own marks per correct answer and penalty per wrong answer, and it returns your net score, the marks you lost to negative marking, your accuracy and your percentage of the maximum.
Presets cover the most common Indian entrance and recruitment exams: NEET UG (+4 / −1, 180 questions), JEE Main paper 1 (+4 / −1, 75 questions), CAT (+3 / −1, 68 questions, with no penalty on type-in-the-answer questions) and UPSC Civil Services Prelims GS Paper I (+2 / −⅓ of the question’s marks, 100 questions). Choose Custom for school tests, olympiads, bank and SSC exams or any other marking scheme.
Use it after an answer key is released to check your likely score, or before the exam to decide whether guessing pays. The calculator also shows the expected value of a blind guess for your scheme, so you can see when eliminating even one option makes guessing worthwhile. Patterns change from year to year, so confirm the scheme in your official information bulletin.
With the default inputs, the net score is 535. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the negative marking score calculator
- 1Pick your exam preset, or choose Custom and enter the total questions and marking scheme.
- 2Enter how many answers you got right and how many you got wrong.
- 3If some wrong answers carry no penalty (e.g. CAT TITA), enter that count too.
- 4Read your net score, percentage and marks lost to negative marking.
- 5Check the guessing note to decide whether attempting uncertain questions is worth it.
Formula and method
Each correct answer earns the positive mark and each penalised wrong answer subtracts the negative mark; unattempted questions score zero. Wrong answers that carry no penalty (such as CAT type-in-the-answer questions, or questions the examiner drops) are entered separately and subtracted from the penalised count.
The guessing analysis assumes a blind guess among k equally likely options. With +4 / −1 and four options, a guess is worth 4 × ¼ − 1 × ¾ = +0.25 marks on average. The break-even probability is m₋ ÷ (m₊ + m₋): you need at least that chance of being right for an answer to add marks on average. UPSC deducts one-third of the question’s marks, so the penalty is 2 ÷ 3 ≈ 0.667.
- C
- Correct answers
- W
- Wrong answers
- F
- Wrong answers with no penalty
- m₊ / m₋
- Marks per correct answer / deduction per wrong answer
- k
- Answer options per question
Worked examples
NEET UG: 140 right, 25 wrong
140 × 4 = 560 marks, minus 25 × 1 for wrong answers, gives 535 out of 720 (74.3%). 15 of the 180 questions were left blank, and accuracy is 140 ÷ 165 = 84.8%.
UPSC Prelims: 60 right, 25 wrong
60 × 2 = 120 marks. Each wrong answer costs one-third of 2 marks, so 25 wrong answers lose 16.67 marks, leaving 103.33 out of 200.
CAT with 3 unpenalised TITA errors
40 × 3 = 120 marks. Of the 15 wrong answers, 3 were TITA questions with no negative marking, so only 12 marks are deducted — a net 108 out of 204.
Custom quarter-mark penalty test
70 correct answers earn 70 marks and 20 wrong answers lose 20 × 0.25 = 5, for 65 out of 100. With four options a blind guess is worth 0.25 − 0.1875 = +0.0625 marks on average.
Frequently asked questions
How is negative marking calculated?+
Multiply your correct answers by the marks per question, multiply your wrong answers by the penalty, and subtract. For NEET (+4 / −1), 150 correct and 20 wrong gives 600 − 20 = 580 marks. Unattempted questions score zero.
Should I guess when there is negative marking?+
With +4 / −1 and four options, a blind guess is worth +0.25 marks on average, so it pays slightly but is risky. With a one-third penalty and four options it is worth exactly zero. Eliminating even one option makes guessing clearly positive in both schemes.
Does CAT have negative marking for TITA questions?+
No. In CAT, multiple-choice questions carry +3 for a correct answer and −1 for a wrong one, while type-in-the-answer (TITA) questions have no negative marking. Enter wrong TITA answers in the no-penalty box.
How much negative marking is there in UPSC Prelims?+
UPSC deducts one-third of the marks assigned to a question for each wrong answer. In General Studies Paper I each question is worth 2 marks, so a wrong answer costs about 0.67 marks.
Do unattempted questions lose marks?+
Not in NEET, JEE Main, CAT or UPSC Prelims — a blank answer simply earns zero. A few exams do penalise unattempted questions; use the custom scheme and count them as wrong if yours does.