Some Tips to Prevent Negative Marking in Entrance Exams

All the entrance exams and competitive exams nowadays follow the pattern of multiple choice questions, with the condition of negative marks and this is where every student falls flat. No trick of luck-testing or guessing works in such situations. So what can be done to avoid these negative marks? see article : negative marking – Good or bad ?

What is the motive behind negative marks?

Let’s try to understand the motive of the examiner first. Be it JEE, NEET, GATE or CAT, AFCAT the examiner always wants to filter out the candidates who do not have the required knowledge and lack confidence. The questions are set accordingly which can easily test the understanding of the candidates. Before appearing a certain exam, the candidate should know about it properly.

See AFCAT Exam Pattern, GPAT Exam Format, CBEE Exam Pattern, NEET Exam Pattern

Practice is the Key

Endurance doesn’t pay every time, one needs to be smart enough to know how to deal with certain questions. Only practice is the key to being quick-witted in nailing Exams. There’s no trick that can substitute the art of practice. It also eliminates the chances of making silly mistakes while doing rough works.

Presence of Mind, Not Careless Guessing  

So, how can one guess MCQs correctly? Most of the times, due to stress or overconfidence, one is very likely to answer the easy questions wrong. It is very important to focus on the questions and manage time. While hurrying, the candidates might mark the wrong answer which results in negative marking. Not only the questions, even the options should be read thoroughly before choosing a response. On receiving the question paper, the clever-approach is to go through all the questions and find those which are easy. After answering these easy questions, move on to the ones which take time to solve. Spend necessary time in solving them and leave the questions on which one is confused for the end. Guessing answers never helps. In the end, one loses a lot of marks because of negative marks.

Thorough Knowledge Gives Confidence

One should always aim for answering questions confidently rather than scoring high. This helps in reducing the risk of wrong answers to a large extent. Never be lured to solve all the questions if you are not 100% sure, there are very few people who are successful in getting a full score. Even if one is only 80% sure of the answer to be the correct one, it’s better to leave it answered. Because it’s a great deal to lose even one mark in competitive exams where ranks play a huge role. Remember that there will be lakhs of aspirants who will rely on luck while answering but the clever ones will depend on their knowledge.

Time Management Eases Anxiety

Out of fear of scoring less, a lot of candidates try attempting questions at last minute of the examination. This anxiety can never help in reaching the correct answer. On the other hand, it will lessen the score achieved through answering correctly. The last minute should always be utilized for revision. And by revision, it is meant that one should check if he has skipped any easy question by mistake and should try solving them. Time management plays a very important role in exams like CAT, GMAT and JEE. So starting with the section one is very good at, reduces the risk of silly mistakes. Also See article : Tips to manage your Time

Mock Test Practice

Thus, the best way to deal with negative marking questions is to practice a lot of mock papers. Take proper notes of formulae and tricks that one encounters while solving practice papers. The strategies that are discussed by teachers should always be kept in mind as they have the experience about it. Also, while exercising, one should always solve a question until he reaches the answer rather than skipping it thinking it to be an easy one. At times, even though one knows the technique but isn’t able to reach the answer in examination. see Article: Mock Test can boost your exam preparation

There are other few things like doing rough work neatly which save a lot of time and help in achieving accuracy during examinations. If these tips are exercised every time from Mock tests to the real exam it becomes a habit and increases precision to a huge extent. If candidates have prepared well for the examination, there is nothing that they need to worry about. They should just concentrate on their goal and remember the above tips to succeed.

Author: Simli Chatterjee

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