How to manage Negative Marking in State Judiciary Exams 2025?

Overview: Negative marking is something that most judiciary aspirants take unnecessary pressure of. However, you can easily tackle negative markings in the judicial services exams. Here is how you can deal with negative marking in judiciary exams.

In this article, we will see:

• Strategy to handle negative marking in Judiciary Exams
• How do you attempt the questions with negative markings?
• What is guesswork, and should we guess the answers?
• Everything about negative marking and states with negative marking.

Best Strategies to Deal with Negative Marking in Judiciary Exams

When Preparing for the Judiciary Exam, you should keep in mind that avoiding answering questions you are unsure about is more important than trying questions you are unsure about. 

Here are a few tips that can help you score better when negative markings are in Judiciary Exams. 

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How do I attempt the questions with negative markings?

Stay Mentally Prepared

• Negative marking can always affect your exam performance if you have not dealt with it strategically.
• While appearing for exams, it should be kept in mind that you must go through the paper in its entirety, decide which questions are related to the topics you are thoroughly familiar with, and try to attempt them firsthand.
• It has a positive psychological impact on you as it slowly and steadily helps you build up confidence during the examination. It also helps you build up the courage to attempt the Questions Asked in the Judiciary Exam.
• This exam-attempting technique is called brain warming. It means warming up your brain in a positive manner by finding topic-related questions with which you are familiar.
• This is because, initially, the brain is quite active and fresh, which helps you answer questions with certainty.
• Now, the question is how it is to be done. Firstly, while looking at the question, try to analyse whether you know the concept/answer.
• If it is something you are well-versed with, then attempt it, and if you are not sure of it, you should surely abstain from trying such questions as this is not the time to check your capability.

Get details: Study plan for Judiciary Preparation 2025

Read the Question Twice

• Before attempting the paper, read the question carefully and then decide whether you are sure about the answer before marking it. If you know nothing about the answer, refrain from taking a chance by guessing the answer.
• Therefore, it is always recommended to read the question TWICE to grasp its objective. This is part of the analysing process of the question mentioned above.
• Reading the question twice helps you get an idea of the topic the question may be related to and subsequently process your thinking in that direction.

Read More: Frequently Asked Questions in the Judiciary Exam.

Take Three Rounds

• Dividing the paper into three sections is one of the best methods for scoring good marks in the Upcoming Judiciary Exams.
• You have to divide the question paper into three rounds: easy questions, time-taking questions, and difficult questions.
• Firstly, you try to attempt the questions you are very confident about and then move on to the long questions, which are a little tricky and time-consuming.

Read more: How to Start Your Judiciary Exam Preparation at the Beginner Level.

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Don't Panic when you are unable to answer a few questions with surety

• Many of you end up attempting more questions than you know in the hope of getting the answers right by deducing the answers. However, this trick usually does not work if you know nothing about the answer.
• Do not stick to one question. We have seen how students start questioning their ability during the exam if they cannot answer a few questions and stick to that particular question.
• But you have to understand that it is not about proving to anyone if you remember a specific topic or not at the time of examination.
• Instead, it is all about saving yourself from negative marks and increasing your score because, in the end, nobody is going to ask about the number of attempts; instead, they will focus on the marks.
• Try to save your energy to channel it in a much more productive manner.

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What is guesswork, and should we guess the answers?

Avoid Guess Work

• It has been observed that most of you tend to panic when you cannot attempt many questions.
• The ‘solution’ you bring to this ‘first-world problem’ is that you start resorting to guesswork to try your luck and attempt questions that can prove to be “lethal” because if those guesses go wrong, the scores will certainly be pulled down to a great extent.
• One crucial aspect to consider is how you read the question. This is of utmost importance for anyone appearing for any exam who must read the question correctly.

Read About: Preparation for Judiciary Exams with College

The Art of Deducing

You can get your answers right only when you learn the skill of selecting the questions, and you can take the chance to answer by smartly guessing the answer using the art of deducing.

Note the below-mentioned pointers while deducing the answers:

• Never Attempt Questions: When you know nothing about the answer and are confused with all the options or three options out of 4. DO NOT take chances with these questions.
• Intelligent Guess Questions: You can make intelligent guesses for questions in which you are confused with two options. Make sure you trust your instincts. Often, the first option you have chosen is the right answer.

Also Read: Judiciary Interview Preparation Strategies & Tricks

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Read the Options Carefully

• Another important aspect of sitting for an exam is reading the options carefully. While attempting a question, you may mark an option in excitement by reading a question.
• This overwhelming feeling of knowing the answer sometimes backfires, and you may mark the wrong choice. This results in falling prey to negative markings!
• You must ‘read all options carefully’ as other options may be more accurately related to the topic of the question. Moreover, there are some questions where the last option is “All of the Above”, which means all the previous three options can be the answer.
• Still, if you haven’t reached there and marked only one, the negative marking will come into play, ruining the score.
• Take a note of "not", "neither", "nor" and similar words in all the answer for negative marking in Judiciary exams.
• So, you must have a calm and controlled mind as the brain, due to the pressure of the exam, is hyperactive, so you may end up making mistakes that aren’t called for.

Read more: Simple tricks to enhance your English preparation for Judiciary Exams.

Opt for 50-50 technique.

• You can adopt one more technique to be more precise while marking answers: "KBC 50-50”.
• This means you must try eliminating vague options about the question's concept. Although this technique will not give you the answer, it would certainly help narrow down the possibilities.
• This proves to be a great aid when attempting any question. If you are unsure, it can be considered later in the second round. If you know the direction in which you have to direct your thinking, it will be helpful.

Also Read: How do I read the newspaper for the Judiciary Exam?

Strategy for dealing with Negative marking in Judiciary Exams

• Everyone has a different strategy for their exam, where you plan out things such as the number of attempts you have to get done and the target of how many you would be skipping to ensure a good score.
• It is essential to have a strategy that helps you manage your time during the examination.
• It helps ensure that you don’t waste your time on unnecessary questions and resort to only the ones they can answer.
• Here, we have formulated a plan that combines three rounds that will benefit you in effectively and efficiently delivering your performance.

Read more: Short Tricks to write answers in Judiciary Mains Exam

The first round is for ‘Easy Questions”

• As mentioned above, these are the questions you will be well-versed with.
• Attempting these questions while the brain is fresh and hyperactive adds to one’s advantage of building a solid foundation for the rest of the exam that you will be sitting for. 
• You need to find and mark those in the first go, which you are confident of.

Read about: How to make a career in Judiciary

The second round is for “Hard Questions.”

As the name suggests, this round will require you to go through those questions you would have skipped in the first round.

Now, you may start recalling the concepts to which these hard questions are related.

Know More: Why solving previous year's question papers is important

The third round is Revision

It is the most important thing to do at the end of the exam. In the future, keep at least 5-10 minutes to go through all the questions marked up to now so that one can spot if any wrong answer is not marked.

Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that rather than keeping a count of the number of questions attempted and skipped, you must ensure that the ones marked are correct. Those questions will save you from negative marking.

States with Negative Marking in their Judiciary Exams:

• Delhi Judiciary
• Uttar Pradesh Judiciary
• Haryana Judiciary
• Uttarakhand Judiciary

Conclusion:

Negative Marking in any exam can obviously affect your performance but your effective preparation and how you deal with the questions you do not know answers to can make a lot of difference. Follow the tips in this article to ensure that negative marks do not affect your performance and marks much in your exams. For a detailed approach, you can always reach out to your mentors for negative marks in the judicial exams.

ALL THE BEST!