GATE 2026 Marking Scheme: Check Negative Marking, Section-wise Marks

GATE 2026 Marking Scheme: Check Negative Marking, Section-wise Marks

K Guna SahitiUpdated on 09 Feb 2026, 02:02 PM IST

GATE 2026 Marking Scheme- IIT Guwahati has released the GATE marking scheme on the official website, gate2026.iitg.ac.in. The GATE 2026 marking scheme is available in the information brochure. Candidates should be aware of the GATE marking scheme 2026 to be able to calculate their marks. The GATE exam is of 100 marks irrespective of the type of paper. The marks assigned vary with the type of questions. They have negative marking as well. Candidates can use the GATE answer key 2026 to calculate probable scores. Using the GATE 2026 answer key, candidates can determine their performance in GATE 2026. The authority is conducting the GATE exam on February 7, 8, 14 and 15, 2026.

This Story also Contains

  1. GATE 2026 Marking Scheme
  2. GATE 2026 Marking Scheme- Paper Wise Distribution
  3. What is GATE Negative Marking Scheme?
GATE 2026 Marking Scheme: Check Negative Marking, Section-wise Marks
GATE 2026 Marking Scheme

GATE 2026 Marking Scheme

The marking scheme for GATE 2026 can be found below. It varies with the paper. The GATE exam is held for 30 papers with combination of optional papers and secondary paper. Overall, the exam is held for 100 marks. The final normalised score is out of 1000.

Marking Scheme of GATE 2026

ParticularsDetails

Total Number of Questions (In all papers)

65

Exam Sections

General Aptitude: 10 Questions

Subject Component: 55 Questions

Marks Carry

1 or 2

Type of Questions

MCQ: Multiple Select Questions

MSQ: Multiple Choice Questions

NAT: Numerical Answer Type

In test papers- XL, XH, AR, EY, CY, DA, GE, GG, PH, MA, PH, ST

  • 15 marks for GA

  • 85 marks for Subject Questions.

  • No mathematics questions.

In test papers- AE, BM, BT, NM, ME, TF, PE, AG, CE, CH, EC, EE, IN, CS, ES, IN, MT, PI, MN

  • 15 marks for GA

  • 85 marks for Subject Questions.

  • Including 13 marks for Engineering Mathematics.

XE is a common compulsory section

XE-A(Engineering mathematics) carry 15 marks

Negative Marking

  • 1 Mark MCQ:


    • 1 for correct attempt

    • -⅓ for wrong attempt.

  • 2 Mark MCQ


    • 2 for correct attempt

    • -⅔ for wrong attempt.

Also Read:

GATE 2026 Marking Scheme- Paper Wise Distribution

Below is the section-wise question distribution for all GATE 2026 papers. There will be a total of 30 papers.

GATE 2026 Marking Scheme

GATE Paper CodeGeneral Aptitude (GA)Subject QuestionsTotal Marks

AE, AG, BM, BT, CE, CH, CS, EC, EE, ES, IN, ME, MN, MT, NM, PE, PI, and TF


15

85

100

AR [Part A + Part B (B1: Architecture or B2: Planning)]

15

60 + 25

100

GE [Part A + Part B (Section I or Section II)

15

55 + 30

100

GG [Part A + Part B (Section 1: Geology or Section 2: Geophysics)]

15

25 + 60

100

XE (Section A + Any TWO Sections)

15

15 + (2 x 35)

100

XH (Section B1 + Any ONE Section)

15

25 + 60

100

XL (Section P + Any TWO Sections)

15

25 + (2 x 30)

100

CY, DA, EY, MA, PH

15

85

100

What is GATE Negative Marking Scheme?

As per the GATE 2026 exam pattern, the authority deducts some marks for each wrong answer. Meaning, depending on the type of question, some marks will be removed from the total in case the chosen answer is wrong. Check the following table to understand the GATE 2026 negative marking scheme.

GATE Negative Marking Scheme 2026

Type of QuestionGATE Negative Marking Scheme

One marker

-⅓ for wrong attempt.

Two marker

-⅔ for wrong attempt.

Unattempted questions

No negative marking

Partially answered questions

No marks assigned

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: What is the total marks of GATE 2026?
A:

A GATE 2026 paper is of 100 marks.

Q: Is there negative marking in GATE 2026?
A:

Yes, there is negative marking in GATE 2026.

Q: How to calculate scores in GATE 2026?
A:

Candidates need to check the GATE 2026 marking scheme to be able to calculate marks in the exam.

Q: What is the GATE marking scheme?
A:

GATE marking scheme mentions the marks assigned to each type of question. It also includes the GATE negative marking scheme.

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Questions related to GATE

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The cutoff marks for OBC category students are different for different paper codes. You can check the article on Gate cutoff for all the detailed information. Hope it helps.

IIT Guwahati has released GATE exam ME answer key in online mode. Here we have provided direct link to download IIT Guwahati Mechanical Engineering answer key.- Download Here

The official GATE 2026 Shift 2 (Feb 8) answer key was released by IIT Guwahati on February 22, 2026, on the GOAPS portal.

Check out the GATE 2026 February 8 Question Paper with Solutions .

Hi Uma,

You can download GATE 2026 February 8 question paper with solutions by clicking on the link below: