Why this article exists
The marking rule is the single fact that most changes how a candidate should attempt a paper, and it is the fact this subject gets most consistently wrong.
VSVSV is a private learning platform. It is not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by the Ministry of Defence, the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force, or any recruiting body. We do not conduct, influence, or take part in recruitment or selection. This article is study material. It is not a recruitment notification. It confers no entitlement of any kind.
It is worth understanding why it gets it wrong, because the reason is not what most people assume. The widely repeated figures are not invented. They are correctly quoted from a real official document that has since been replaced, and that is a much harder error to spot.
The three rules, as the current notifications state them
The Indian Army
Under the ARO rally notifications for the 2027 intake, the marking rule is a three-item list.
- Full marks for every correct answer.
- Nil marks for an unattempted question.
- All questions, if attempted, are considered for evaluation, even if marked for review.
No deduction appears in that list — we report it as the notifications state no deduction, rather than as there is no negative marking, and the distinction is deliberate. An absence of a clause is not the same as a clause of absence.
The Indian Navy
Under the advertisements for the 01/2027 and 02/2027 batches, one fourth of the marks for a question is deducted for a wrong answer in the Stage I paper. This applies across the SSR, MR and Medical Assistant entries.
The Navy sits a second written exam at Stage II, and its specification states no deduction — we report that as the notification stating none — not as a fact that none exists, which is the same discipline we apply to the Army. So a candidate should read the marking clause of the specific paper they are sitting, rather than carrying Stage I's clause into Stage II.
The Indian Air Force
Under the Agniveervayu advertisement for the 01/2027 cycle: one mark for a correct answer, nil for an unattempted question, and zero point two five deducted for a wrong answer.
So two of the three services currently state a deduction, the Army does not say that it does, and for the Navy the clause belongs to the first of its two written papers.
The Army's deduction was real, and it was withdrawn
This is the part worth reading slowly, because it is the clearest example in this whole subject of how a fact goes stale without anybody noticing.
An Army recruiting notification of February 2024 carried a four-item marking clause, and the fourth item read: twenty-five per cent of the marks shall be deducted for every attempted wrong answer.
A notification of March 2025 — for recruiting year 2025-26 — carries a three-item clause. The deduction item is gone.
The notifications for the current cycle carry the same three-item clause.
So the clause was removed between February 2024 and March 2025.
Where the widely quoted figures come from
You will see, almost everywhere, that the Army deducts half a mark for General Duty and one mark for Technical and Clerk. Those figures belong to recruiting year 2024-25 and earlier, and they were withdrawn for 2025-26.
Work out where those come from. Twenty-five per cent of two marks is half a mark. Twenty-five per cent of four marks is one mark. The arithmetic is right and the source was real. It is simply two recruiting years out of date.
That is a different kind of error from invention, and it needs a different defence. A rule that says "cite a primary source" would not have caught it, because the 2024 notification is a primary source and it does say twenty-five per cent. What was needed was not a source but a date.
The rule this leaves you with
Ask when, not only whether.
- A figure with no notification year attached to it is not usable, however authoritative the source looks.
- A figure that disagrees with a current notification is most likely a figure that used to be true, rather than one somebody made up.
- The marking clause specifically is worth re-reading every cycle, because it has already moved once and there is no announcement when it does.
Every figure on this site carries the cycle it was read from, for exactly this reason.
What the marking rule should change in your preparation
We are not going to hand you a guessing rule, because the right one depends on how reliably you can eliminate options, and that is personal. What we will do is set out the arithmetic so you can work out your own.
- Where nothing is deducted, an unanswered question and a wrong one are worth the same. There is then no arithmetic reason to leave a question blank.
- Where a quarter mark is deducted and there are four options with one correct, a genuinely blind guess breaks even over a long run. It is the ability to eliminate even one option that shifts the balance.
- Where you can eliminate two of four, the arithmetic moves further in favour of answering.
Do this calculation for yourself, from the marking clause of the notification you are actually sitting under, before the day rather than during it.
What we will not tell you
We will not tell you what score clears. The Army normalises marks across sittings and sets its merit against the vacancies available; the Navy sets its own pass marks per section and in aggregate; the Air Force normalises too. None of those is a fixed threshold, none is published in advance, and a number offered for it would be a guess presented as a measurement.
What to do
- Open the notification you are sitting under and find the marking clause — read the clause itself, not a summary of it.
- Check the date on that notification — A clause without a recruiting year or batch attached is a clause of unknown vintage.
- Do the guessing arithmetic for yourself, and settle your approach before the exam rather than in it.
- Re-check next cycle — A fact verified for one cycle is a fact about that cycle.
Related reading
- How to Read a Recruitment Notification Properly — the Six Clauses That Decide Everything
- How the Army Agniveer CEE Actually Runs — Length, Sections, Languages and Normalisation
- Eight Preparation Mistakes That Cost Agniveer Candidates Marks They Had Already Earned
This article is general guidance written from publicly available recruitment notifications and scheme documents issued by the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force and the Ministry of Defence. Eligibility, exam patterns, physical standards, pay and scheme terms are revised with each recruitment cycle, and every figure stated here is pinned to the cycle it was read from. Always confirm current specifics against the live notification on the official portal of the service you are applying to. VSVSV is a private learning platform. It is not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by the Ministry of Defence, the Indian Armed Forces, or any recruiting body. It takes no part in recruitment or selection.