Negative Marking in Competitive Exams – The Scariest Thing Ever

We see negative marking in competitive exams as the scariest thing and we can’t run from it and thus have to face it in a manner that changes the way aspirants take it. People who take up Bank coaching always ask questions, “How to minimize negative marking in Bank exam?"

Negative marking is when an aspirant while appearing for his competitive exam marks the wrong answer for a question, there is a fixed score (which is 0.25 for every wrong answer) that is deducted from the candidate’s total score. For example- if a candidate answers 4 wrong questions, he will lose 1 mark. Hence, accuracy is important and candidates must learn to improve the same if they want to excel in their banking or any other competitive exam.

So, to help our students and many other aspirants, we are here to discuss a few tips on how you can minimize your negative marks in competitive exams-

1)    Do not attempt questions which a candidate is not sure of – It is important that candidates start with questions which they are confident of and then move ahead with doubtful questions. Not attempting unsure questions is a good way of reducing the chances of negative marking. You can always have the option to review the unsure questions and this will make sure that the candidate does not skip too many questions, as leaving too many questions will reduce the overall score of the candidate.

2)    Avoid blind guesses – It is important to have little fear of negative marking, as this will help students in blindly guessing the answers to unsure questions.

3)    Read questions carefully and if possible multiple times – Don’t be in a hurry in answering questions. At times, candidates find a particular topic and questions easy and they mark them without reading them carefully, which again means that they may have attempted them wrong and hence negative marking. Even though a particular question or topic is easy, you should never answer them in a hurry, devote the required time and then answer for a confident positive score. It is a good idea to attempt easy questions first.

4)    Be habitual of solving mock papers and other test series – If you have enrolled for an SBI coaching, then you don’t have to worry about this, as the reputed institutes make sure that their students become habitual of solving mock papers and previous year’s papers. This helps the candidates in understanding the exam pattern.

5)    Take calculated risks – In competitive exams, it is not important to answer all the questions, important is to answer them accurately. At times, candidate’s answer is not in the options provided and he may take a risk of answering the option which is close to his answer, this is called a calculated risk.

6)    Never answer questions at the eleventh hour – Last few minutes are for revision, never devote these few precious minutes to answering unanswered questions.

Just pay attention to these details and obviously to your preparation, and you don’t have to worry about the negative marking.

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