Is there negative marking in MHT-CET? No. In the CET Cell's 2026 rules, a wrong answer costs you nothing. A Physics or Chemistry question is worth 1 mark, a Maths question is worth 2, and a blank earns zero, the same as a wrong answer.
That one rule changes how you should sit the paper. This article sets out the scheme as the CET Cell states it, then works through what it means for guessing, for where your marks come from, and for the percentile you get at the end.
The CET Cell had not published its 2027 documents on 17 October 2026. Everything here is from the MHT-CET 2026 syllabus and marking scheme and the MHT-CET 2026 Information Brochure. We will update this page if the 2027 documents change anything.
The short answer
- Negative marking: none. The brochure says it in five words: "There is no Negative Marking."
- Physics and Chemistry: 50 questions each, 1 mark each, 100 marks together.
- Maths: 50 questions, 2 marks each, 100 marks.
- Total: 150 questions, 200 marks, 180 minutes.
- What to do with it: answer every question. A blank can only score zero. A guess can score.
The scheme, as the CET Cell sets it
The brochure's instructions for the PCM group say each question has four options, only one of them correct. Physics and Chemistry carry 1 mark per question and Mathematics carries 2. You have 180 minutes for 150 questions, and there is no negative marking.
| Subject | Questions | Marks each | Marks in all | From Std XI | From Std XII |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physics | 50 | 1 | 50 | 10 | 40 |
| Chemistry | 50 | 1 | 50 | 10 | 40 |
| Mathematics | 50 | 2 | 100 | 10 | 40 |
| Total | 150 | 200 | 30 | 120 |
Physics and Chemistry are one paper of 100 marks, sat together in the first 90 minutes. Maths is the other paper of 100 marks, in the second 90 minutes. Our article on the 90 plus 90 minutes covers that clock.
Maths is half your marks, but not worth more per minute
Maths carries 100 of the 200 marks, the same as Physics and Chemistry put together. That is why people call Maths the deciding subject. It is half the paper.
Look at the time, though. Physics and Chemistry give you 100 questions in 90 minutes, which is 54 seconds a question. Maths gives you 50 questions in 90 minutes, which is 108 seconds a question. Either way, you get 54 seconds for each mark.
So a Maths question is worth more than a Chemistry question, but it also gets twice the time. Per minute of exam, the two halves are worth the same. The difference is in what can go wrong: one slip in a Maths question loses 2 marks, not 1.
What no negative marking means for guessing
Every question has four options and one right answer. If you know nothing at all and pick at random, you have a 1 in 4 chance. With no negative marking, that chance costs you nothing.
Here is what that is worth across ten questions you could not solve:
| How you guess | Chance each guess is right | Expected right out of 10 | Expected marks, 10 Physics or Chemistry questions | Expected marks, 10 Maths questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blind, all four options open | 1 in 4 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 5 |
| One option ruled out | 1 in 3 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 6.7 |
| Two options ruled out | 1 in 2 | 5 | 5 | 10 |
"Expected" is an average over many tries, not a promise for one paper. But the odds of doing badly are small. Ten blind guesses give you at least one right answer about 94 times in 100, and at least two right about 76 times in 100. Leaving the same ten blank gives you zero every time.
The table also shows why ruling out options matters more than guessing fast. Cut two wrong options and each guess becomes a coin toss. On ten Maths questions that is 10 expected marks, against 5 for a blind guess.
Never leave a blank: the last minutes rule
The first half closes by itself. The brochure says that after the first 90 minutes, the Physics and Chemistry responses are submitted automatically and Maths opens. Whatever you have marked by then is what counts. Whatever you have left blank is gone.
So build a habit, and practise it until it is automatic:
- Around the 85 minute mark, stop solving. Go back through the section and find every unanswered Physics and Chemistry question.
- Mark an answer for each one. If you can rule out an option in a few seconds, do. If not, pick one and move on.
- Do the same around the 175 minute mark for Maths, where each blank is worth 2 marks.
The exact minute is your choice. The point is to leave yourself enough time to reach every blank before the section shuts.
Guessing is a backup, not a plan
No negative marking does not make a careless answer harmless. If you rush a question you could have solved and get it wrong, you lose the mark you could have earned. The cost is hidden, but it is real.
Use the rule the right way round. Spend your time on questions you can solve. Guess only on what is left when time is running out, and on questions you cannot crack after a fair try.
How marks become a percentile
Your raw marks out of 200 are not the score used for admission. The brochure says the exam runs in multiple shifts, and percentile scores are worked out from candidates' raw marks. It also says, in plain terms, that a percentile is not the same as a percentage of marks.
Three more points from the 2026 brochure:
- If you sit both attempts, the best of your two total percentile scores counts for admission.
- The best is taken from the total percentile only, not subject by subject. You cannot combine your best Maths from one attempt with your best Physics from the other.
- The CET Cell publishes its normalization method as a separate document on its website.
So every extra raw mark helps, because the percentile is built from raw marks. That is one more reason never to leave a blank.
How this differs from JEE Main
JEE Main works the other way. NTA's 2026 bulletin gives 4 marks for a right answer and takes away 1 mark for a wrong one, both for multiple choice questions and for numerical answer questions. There, a blind guess is a gamble with a real downside. In MHT-CET it is not.
If you are preparing for both, you need two habits: answer everything in the CET, and answer only what you are fairly sure of in JEE Main. Our comparison of MHT-CET and JEE Main goes through the other differences.
Will 2027 keep this scheme?
We cannot say yet. The 2027 syllabus and brochure were not out on 17 October 2026. The no negative marking rule appears both in the 2026 syllabus document and in the 2026 brochure. If the 2027 documents change it, this page will say so. Our MHT-CET 2027 exam date page tracks what has been confirmed so far, and our MHT-CET PCM syllabus guide lists every chapter.
Where these facts come from
- CET Syllabus and its Marking Scheme, MHT-CET 2026, State CET Cell, Maharashtra, dated November 2025 (cetcell.mahacet.org): no negative marking, the question counts by standard, and the marks per question.
- MHT-CET 2026 Information Brochure, State CET Cell, section 7.1 (instructions for the PCM group: four options, one correct, 1 and 2 marks, 150 questions in 180 minutes, no negative marking), section 7.3 (the 90 minute halves and the automatic submission), section 8 (percentile is not percentage) and section 10 (multiple shifts, percentiles from raw marks, best of two total percentiles).
- JEE (Main) 2026 Information Bulletin, National Testing Agency, section 2.4: plus 4 for a right answer and minus 1 for a wrong one.
- Our arithmetic: the seconds per question and per mark are worked from the official counts. The guessing figures are standard probability for four option questions: the chance of at least one right out of ten blind guesses is 1 minus 0.75 to the power 10, about 0.94.
Practise answering every question
The habit of filling every blank before a section closes is easiest to build under a real clock. munotes publishes MHT-CET PCM mock tests scored the CET way: 1 mark for each Physics and Chemistry question, 2 for each Maths question, and nothing taken away for a wrong answer. Each mock has 150 original questions with a worked solution for every one, and a new mock is added every week.