Calculate Your UPSC Prelims Total Score after Negative Marking

The UPSC  IAS prelims exam is the first stage towards the dream of becoming an IAS officer. The key feature of the prelims exam is its objective nature and negative marking. The UPSC prelims exam consists of two papers. They are General Studies Paper I and II. There are 100 questions in General Studies Paper I and 80 in General studies Paper II. As they are objective in nature there will be four options for each question.

Check the UPSC Calendar 2023 at the linked article.

What makes cracking the UPSC exam even tougher, is the comprehensive IAS Syllabus that topics under each subject are included in it. Candidates must first familiarise themselves with the same and then move ahead with the preparation.

The time fixed is two hours for Paper I and II. Here we are giving the method to Calculate Your UPSC Prelims Total Score after Negative Marking. Follow and read further to understand what is negative marking in UPSC prelims and also how to calculate UPSC prelims score after the exam. All about UPSC negative marking.

Now the UPSC Prelims fever is over and most of the websites would have released unofficial Answer keys and many IAS aspirants who had appeared in the exam would have checked for the answer keys in order to check whether they would clear the prelims and move to the next stage of the exam or not. Hopefully, most of the aspirants would have checked the answer keys and would have calculated their approximate score.

For those who are still thinking about how to calculate the total score, here we provide some idea on how to calculate the total score after negative marking. Firstly, check for the answers with the answer keys.

Kickstart your UPSC 2023 preparation today!

Does UPSC have negative marking in the Prelims Exam?/Is there negative marking in UPSC prelims?

YES

How much negative marking in UPSC Prelims?

In the UPSC prelims papers, for every incorrect answer, you will be penalised 1/3^rd of the total marks allocated to that question.

How to calculate marks in UPSC prelims?

How to calculate negative marking in UPSC exam?

Let us consider the below example:

UPSC Prelims consist of two papers General Studies Paper-I and CSAT Paper-II. General Studies Paper-I has 100 questions for 200 marks (2 marks per question) and duration for two hours.

Suppose among 100 questions if you have answered 75 correct and 25 incorrect.

Calculation of marks for Paper I:

Correct answers 75 x 2 = 150 marks.

Each incorrect answer carries a negative marking of o.33%, which means for every wrong answer 0.66 marks will be deducted.

Therefore, in the above example if 25 questions were answered incorrectly then the negative marking for 25 incorrect answers would be 25 x 0.66 = 16.5.

As a result, 16.5 marks would be deducted from the correctly answered questions.

i.e., Final Score for Paper-I: 150 – 16.5 = 133.5

Now, let’s apply the same for paper II.  

Calculation of marks for Paper-II:

UPSC Prelims Paper II CSAT has 80 questions for 200 marks and each question carrying 2.5 marks.

Suppose among 80 questions if a candidate has answered 65 correct and 15 incorrect and thinking that the candidate has got 15 incorrect answers from Question numbers 1 to 73 and 5 incorrect answers from question number 74 to 80 (the decision making questions).

Then, the total score of the candidate in CSAT Paper II would be:

Correct answers 50 x 2.5 = 137.5 marks

Incorrect answers from Q: 1-73= 15 x 0.83 = 12.45

Total Score in UPSC Prelims Paper II would be: 137.5 – 12.45 = 125.05

Therefore, the total score that a candidate would have scored in the UPSC Prelims Exam would be: Total Score (Paper 1 + Paper 2): 133.5+ 125.05 = 258.55

Aspirants are also advised to check the UPSC Prelims Syllabus in detail way before starting off with the preparation, to get a better understanding of the exam pattern and to comprehend the standard of examination.

So, now you know how to calculate your total score in UPSC Prelims Exam and if you have the unofficial answer key as well in your hand, then go on and estimate your UPSC Prelims Score. Don’t lose heart if you feel you couldn’t make it as another brand new year is ahead and start preparing now to achieve your goal.  For candidates who think they will make it through Prelims this year, here are a few guidelines for UPSC Mains Exam Preparation.

 The prelims for 2023 is scheduled for 28th May 2023. Candidates must now focus on their upcoming prelims exam. To get details of the UPSC admit card for the different stages of the examination, aspirants can check out the linked article.