All competitive exams including the SSC exams and the bank exams have negative marking. This means that, if you give a wrong answer to a question, your marks will be deducted. For bank exams, this negative marking is 0.25 marks for one wrong answer, so if you give four wrong answers, one mark will be deducted from your overall score.

This may cost you a lot of marks if you are not careful and it may have a negative effect on your final score. So, all the candidates appearing for these exams must try to avoid getting negative marks as much as possible. This may seem tricky but it can be done by using some tips and tricks which we will discuss further in this article.

Tips to avoid negative marks in competitive exams

Negative marking may affect the final score of the candidates and most candidates end up losing a lot of marks because of the negative marking process. Hence, it becomes necessary for the candidates to avoid marking the wrong answers to save themselves from the negative marking.

Here, we will discuss some tips and tricks which might help you to avoid the negative marking and protect yourself from losing marks in the competitive exams.

1. Don’t attempt the questions you are not sure about

While attempting the competitive exams, there might be some questions which you are not a hundred percent sure about. In such cases, you should try to avoid answering those questions by mere guess work because if your guess goes wrong, you will get negative marks for that answer, which is not a risk worth taking. But while doing so, you must also take care not to leave too many questions unattempted. The best trick for this situation is to take calculated risks and try attempting the questions which you are at least 80%-90% sure about.

2. Make sure to read the questions carefully

Many times while attempting such exams, candidates tend to get overwhelmed with the time pressure and make silly mistakes because of not taking enough time to understand the questions. While it is necessary to solve the exam in time, you should also keep in mind to read the questions carefully before answering to avoid marking the wrong answer which will cost you marks.

3. Concentrate on the easier questions first

While attempting the exam, make sure to go through the questions once and solve the ones which you find easier first. This will give you some confidence going ahead in the exam and you would be at least sure of securing those marks. Afterwards you can try and attempt the hard questions which might take up more of your time.

4. Do not make random guesses

If you have no idea about a certain question, then the better option would be to just leave the question unattempted rather than answering wrong. Taking calculated risks is advised but do not make any random guesses about the questions which you are completely unaware of.

5. Practice more

While you are preparing for the bank exams, make sure to practice solving mock papers and papers of previous similar examinations. This would give you an idea about the exam’s pattern and would also help you to recognise the areas where you are making the most mistakes so that you can work on them.

6. Avoid last minute answering

When you attempt a question in the last few minutes of the exam, you don’t give yourself much time to check if your answer is right and you also don’t get much time to analyse the question. This leaves you with the maximum risk of making a mistake and hence you should avoid answering any question in the last few minutes.

Above are the few tips which would help you to avoid negative marking in your competitive exams. If you follow these tips along with proper preparation, your chances of succeeding will definitely increase.