How Negative Marking Works (and Doesn't) Across These Exams

One of the most common questions parents ask is whether wrong answers cost marks — and the honest answer is: it depends on the exam and the year, so it's worth understanding the general logic rather than memorizing a number that might be outdated.

Why this varies so much

Negative marking policies are set by the exam authority and can differ between exams (JNVST, AISSEE, RMS) and even change from one year's notification to the next. Some entrance exams for this age group apply no negative marking at all, while others deduct a fraction of a mark for incorrect answers. Because of this, any specific ratio quoted online may simply be out of date — the only reliable source is the current year's official exam notification.

The strategic principle that doesn't change

Regardless of the exact policy in force, the underlying strategy a child should learn is the same:

When there's no negative marking, attempting every question — including educated guesses — is almost always worthwhile, since there's nothing to lose
When there is negative marking, blind guessing on questions where all options seem equally plausible can quietly erode a good score, while confident elimination-based guessing (ruling out two of four options, say) usually still makes sense
Either way, spending too long on one difficult question at the expense of several easier ones later in the section is rarely a good trade

Teaching this without over-complicating it

Rather than having a child do mental arithmetic about expected value mid-exam, it helps to build a simple habit during practice:

Mark questions as "sure," "partially sure" (can eliminate at least one wrong option), or "no idea" while practicing
Discuss afterward which category tends to help the score and which tends to hurt it, once the actual policy for the target exam is known
Revisit this conversation each year, since a policy that applied to an older sibling's exam may not apply this year

The takeaway

Negative marking is a detail worth confirming precisely, but not one worth building an entire strategy around in the abstract. What matters more is that a child has practiced enough, under timed conditions, to know their own honest confidence level on a question — that self-awareness is what actually improves the guessing decision, whatever the rules turn out to be.