What Is Negative Marking?
Negative marking is a scoring scheme used in many competitive and standardized exams where wrong answers reduce your total score. Instead of simply counting correct answers, the exam deducts a fixed penalty for each incorrect response. This discourages random guessing and rewards genuine knowledge. This calculator turns your raw answer counts into a final scaled score so you can see exactly how guessing affects your result.
How to Use This Calculator
Enter the number of questions you answered correctly and incorrectly, then set the marks awarded per correct answer and the penalty deducted per wrong answer. Questions you leave unattempted are ignored, since most negative-marking schemes only penalize wrong answers, not blanks. Click calculate to see your final marks, the gross marks from correct answers, the total penalty, and your accuracy.
The Formula Explained
The score is computed as $$\text{Marks} = (\text{Correct} \times \text{PosMark}) - (\text{Wrong} \times \text{NegMark})$$ The first term is the reward for correct answers, and the second term is the penalty subtracted for mistakes. A common pattern is \(+1\) per correct and \(-0.25\) per wrong, meaning four wrong answers cancel out one correct answer.
Worked Example
Suppose you answered 40 questions correctly and 12 incorrectly, with \(+1\) mark per correct and \(-0.25\) per wrong. Gross marks $$= 40 \times 1 = 40$$ Penalty $$= 12 \times 0.25 = 3$$ Final score $$= 40 - 3 = 37 \text{ marks}$$ Your accuracy over attempted questions is \(40 \div 52 \approx 76.9\%\).
FAQ
Are unattempted questions penalized? Not in this calculator — only wrong answers reduce your score, which matches the most common exam rules.
Can the final score be negative? Yes. If your penalty exceeds your gross marks, the result can be negative, which is possible in heavily guessed sections.
Can I change the penalty ratio? Absolutely. Set any positive value for the negative mark per wrong answer to match your specific exam's rules (e.g. \(1/3 \approx 0.33\) or \(0.5\)).
