What is your paper
actually worth?
Negative marking is the rule candidates most often know about and least often do the arithmetic on. Enter what you got right and wrong, and see what the deduction costs you at the published rate.
40 multiple-choice questions, 100 marks, 50 minutes, split evenly between listening and reading.
- Questions
- 40
- Total marks
- 100
- Time
- 50 min
- Per wrong answer
- None
Listening and reading
40 questions × 2.5 marks · 40 unanswered
Your score
0/ 100
- Marks earned
- +0
- Lost to deductions
- 0
- Attempted
- 0 of 40
- Percentage
- 0%
Selection depends on the quota announced for your sitting, so there is no fixed pass mark to compare against.
Nothing you type here leaves your device — the whole calculation runs in the page, so it works offline and there is nothing to store. Rates are taken from published sources; always confirm against the notice for your own sitting.
What one wrong answer costs
The percentage is not the whole story. What matters is the deduction set against the mark you could have gained.
| Exam | Questions | Total marks | Per wrong answer | Pass mark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS-TOPIK paper | 40 | 100 | None | Rank-based |
| Nayab Subba — first paper | 50 | 100 | −20% · 0.4 marks | 45 |
| Section Officer — objective paper | 100 | 100 | −20% · 0.2 marks | 45 |
| Written (likhit) test | 25 | 100 | None | 60 |
| IOE entrance | 100 | 140 | −10% · 0.1–0.2 marks | Rank-based |
| MECEE-BL | 200 | 200 | −25% · 0.25 marks | Rank-based |
About negative marking
- How is negative marking calculated in Lok Sewa?
- A wrong answer deducts twenty per cent of the marks assigned to that question. On a two-mark Nayab Subba question that is 0.4; on a one-mark Section Officer question it is 0.2. Unanswered questions carry no deduction.
- Why does the calculator show no change when I guess on MECEE-BL?
- Because at that paper's rate a blind guess is worth exactly nothing either way. A wrong answer costs 0.25 against a gain of one, and with four options you are right one time in four — so the deduction and the gain cancel. Eliminate a single option and the same calculator starts showing a gain.
- How much does a wrong answer cost in the IOE entrance?
- Ten per cent of that question's marks: 0.1 on a one-mark question and 0.2 on a two-mark one. The paper has sixty of the first and forty of the second, for 140 marks in total.
- Should I guess when there is negative marking?
- Almost always. At the rates used by these papers, the expected value of a guess is positive as soon as you can eliminate one option, and at MECEE-BL's rate a blind guess is neutral rather than harmful. Leaving a blank is only correct when every option is equally meaningless to you.
- Are these rates official?
- They are taken from published sources and checked before publication, and each exam page carries the same numbers. Exam boards do change formats, so confirm against the notice for the sitting you are entering.
Knowing the cost is not the same as not paying it.
The way to stop losing marks to deductions is to practise with them applied. Every timed set on the platform uses the real rule for your paper.