Competitive exams such as JEE Main and NEET award +4 for a correct answer and deduct 1 for a wrong one. Enter your correct and wrong answers and the exam's marking scheme to see your score, how many marks negative marking cost you, and your accuracy.
Enter your correct and wrong answers.
Set the marking scheme and total questions.
Read your score, marks lost and accuracy.
Score: Score = correct × (+marks) − wrong × (−marks)
Accuracy: Accuracy = correct ÷ attempted × 100
Most Indian competitive exams with multiple-choice questions use negative marking. JEE Main and NEET award 4 marks for a correct answer and deduct 1 for a wrong one, while many recruitment exams deduct a fraction such as a quarter or a third of a mark. This calculator computes your score from correct and wrong answers under any scheme, and shows marks lost, accuracy and unattempted questions.
Students use it after mock tests and after matching their responses with a provisional answer key, to see the score and understand what guessing cost them. It is also useful for planning: how many questions must I answer correctly, at a given accuracy, to reach a target score?
Enter the number correct, the number wrong, the marks per correct answer, the deduction per wrong answer and the total number of questions.
1. Count correct answers c and wrong answers w; unattempted questions score zero.
2. Note the marking scheme: +p for correct and −q for wrong.
3. Compute marks gained = c × p.
4. Compute marks lost = w × q.
5. Compute score = c × p − w × q.
6. Maximum possible = total questions × p.
7. Accuracy = c ÷ (c + w) × 100.
If a question has n options and you guess at random, the chance of being right is 1/n. The expected marks from a guess are p/n − q(n − 1)/n. For +4/−1 with four options this is 1 − 0.75 = +0.25, so a blind guess gains a quarter mark on average, but with high risk. For +3/−1 with four options it is exactly zero. If you can rule out one option, the chance rises to 1/3, and under +4/−1 the expected gain becomes 4/3 − 2/3 = +0.67.
Every attempted question adds p if correct and loses q if wrong. With accuracy a, the average gain per attempt is a × p − (1 − a) × q. For +4/−1 this is 5a − 1, which is positive whenever accuracy is above 20%. In practice, genuine guesses among close options can have lower accuracy than you think, and time spent on them could go to questions you can solve. That is why toppers aim for accuracy above 90% rather than attempting everything.
Not all questions in an exam use the same rule. Numerical-answer questions in some exams carry no negative marking, and some schemes give partial credit for multi-correct questions. Recruitment exams commonly deduct a fraction of the marks for a question, such as one-quarter or one-third. When sections use different schemes, apply the formula to each section separately and add. The calculator handles one scheme at a time, so run it once per section in such cases.
After matching her responses with the provisional answer key of a 180-question NEET mock test marked +4/−1, Lakshmi finds 142 correct and 31 wrong answers.
Marks for correct answers: 142 × 4 = 568
Negative marks: 31 × 1 = 31
Final score: 568 − 31 = 537 out of 720
Accuracy: 142 ÷ 173 × 100 = 82.08%
Answer: Final score 537 / 720; Marks lost to negative marking 31; Accuracy 82.08%
Treating unattempted questions as wrong and deducting marks for them.
Applying the same negative marking to sections where it does not apply, such as some numerical-answer questions.
Believing that a random guess under +4/−1 has no expected value; it is slightly positive, but risky.
Counting a question marked for review but not answered as attempted.
Forgetting that correct plus wrong cannot exceed the total number of questions.
Scoring mock tests and previous year papers.
Estimating your score from a provisional answer key.
Deciding a guessing strategy based on accuracy.
Coaching institutes analysing accuracy trends across test series.
What is the marking scheme for JEE Main and NEET?
Both use +4 for a correct answer and −1 for a wrong answer in multiple-choice questions. Always confirm in the current year's information bulletin.
Is it worth guessing?
With four options, +4 and −1, a blind guess gains 0.25 marks on average, so it is slightly favourable but risky. Eliminating even one wrong option raises the average gain to about 0.67 marks per guess.