NEET Total Marks 2026: How to Calculate NEET Marks/ Score with Negative Marking
National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test 2026 ( NEET )
Counselling - 20 Dec '25 - 22 Dec '25
Marks obtained in an examination can change the fate of those who take it. This is why the total marks in NEET 2026 and the NEET marks distribution are such an important query amongst its test-takers.
Know NEET 2025 Marking SchemeNTA is expected to conduct the NEET exam for 2026 in the first week of May. The test is conducted in a paper-pen-based mode or offline mode in which over 20 lakh students appear every year. While preparing for the NEET 2026 exam, students must understand the NEET marking scheme. This article of Shiksha brings to you the detailed marking scheme of NEET 2026, which will provide clarity to the candidates on NEET marks distribution, total marks and how to calculate NEET marks with negative marking.
The answer to the question, What is the total marks of NEET 2026, is 720. Each question is of four marks. For each wrong answer, one mark is deducted.
The NEET marks calculator is another question posed by students, especially after attempting the previous years' NEET question paper or NEET mock test. This helps in calculating the estimated marks.
Total marks in NEET is a common query that is not affected by the pre or post-exam period. Both candidates preparing for the examination and those who have appeared for the examination have the same question: what is the total marks in NEET? Or what is the full marks for NEET?
The query may be similar, but the intent of asking the question is different in both these cases. While those preparing for NEET want to know the total weightage of the question paper, the ones who have written the exam often want to know how to calculate NEET marks obtained in the examination. In this article, we aim to address the query for both groups.
- NEET Total Marks 2026: After the Conduct of Exam
- How to Calculate Negative Marking in NEET?
- NEET Total Marks: For those preparing for the examination
NEET Total Marks 2026: After the Conduct of Exam
NEET takers will want to know how to calculate NEET marks with negative markings with the help of the NEET answer key. But to calculate the total marks in NEET 2026, one must first understand the marking scheme for the examination or the NEET marks calculator formula.
NEET 2026 Marking Scheme
The table below brings the marking scheme of NEET 2026 in terms of marks to be awarded and deducted for correct and incorrect questions. It is expected that the marking scheme will remain the same as last year.
| Type of Response |
Marks Awarded |
Marks Deducted |
|---|---|---|
| Correct response |
4 |
0 |
| Incorrect response |
0 |
1 |
| No response marked |
0 |
0 |
| Answer with more than one response marked |
0 |
1 |
Students can use the above marking system to calculate the number of correct and incorrect responses marked in the NEET question paper. Once they have the number of correct and incorrect responses, they can use the formula given below to calculate the marks obtained in NEET 2026.
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Total marks in NEET= (Number of correct responses) x4 - (Number of incorrect responses) x1
Using the how-to calculate NEET marks formula given above, candidates can calculate their marks in NEET 2026, which can be further used to estimate the rank.
How to Calculate Negative Marking in NEET?
The National Testing Agency (NTA), with the help of subject-wise experts, reconfirms whether or not all the questions in the examination are correct, through the provisional and final NEET answer keys. During this process, they may find one or more questions that may not have the correct response options or may not be factually correct. In such cases, NTA will release a notification stating the number of questions that were found to be incorrect. For such questions, all the candidates who have appeared for the examination, irrespective of whether or not they have attempted the said questions, will be awarded full marks, along with the NEET 2026 final answer key.
There will be NEET exam in 2026. The NEET UG exam is usually conducted on the first subday of May. It is likely that the NEET 2026 exam will be held on May 3. However, the NTA has not announced the dates and schedule as of now.
Candidates will have to follow the instructions given below, which have been communicated by NTA on the NEET admit card 2025.
1. The candidate must reach the Centre well in advance by 11:00 AM.
2. No candidate shall be permitted to enter the Centre after the Gate Closing- Time (01:30 PM).
3. No candidate shall be permitted to leave the Examination Room/Hall before the end of the examination
4. Candidates are advised to verify the location of the examination venue, at least a day in advance so that they do not face any problem on the day of examination.
5. Candidates are advised to bring the updated copy of their Aadhaar Card to the centre.
6. Candidates will be permitted to carry only the following items with them into the examination venue:
a) A personal transparent water bottle.
b) Additional photograph same as uploaded on Application Form, to be pasted on Attendance Sheet.
c) Admit Card (to be issued separately) along with Self Declaration (Undertaking) with Postcard size photograph affixed on the designated space downloaded from the NTA website (a clear printout on A4 size paper) duly filled in
d) PwD Certificate and Scribe-related documents, if applicable.
7. Candidates are NOT allowed to carry any personal belongings including electronic devices, mobile phones, and other banned/ prohibited items listed in the Information Bulletin to the Examination Centre. Examination Officials will not be responsible for the safe keep of personal belongings and there will be no facility at the centre to keep the belongings.
8. All candidates shall be under CCTV surveillance during the examination.
9. Candidates have to bring updated Aadhaar Card to the centre
10. Test-takers have to paste postcard-size and passport-size photograph and left-hand thumb impression to the designated spaces provided on the NEET 2025 admit card
11. No bio-breaks will be allowed within first one hour after the beginning of the test and in the last half an hour. Frisking and biometric checking may be conducted again after returning from bio-breaks.
12. Test-takers will not be allowed to leave the exam centre before the stipulated time period.
This may change the marks that were calculated using the formula given above. However, the total marks in NEET 2026, for evaluation purposes, will remain 720. While analysing the NEET answer key objections, in case there are two correct answers, or the question is incorrect, the NEET marking scheme would be as follows:
- If more than one option is found to be correct then Four marks (+4) will be awarded to only those who have marked any of the correct options.
- If all options are found to be correct then Four marks (+4) will be awarded to all those who have attempted the question.
- If none of the options is found correct or a Question is found to be wrong or a Question is dropped, then all candidates who have appeared will be given four marks (+4) irrespective of the fact whether the question has been attempted or not attempted by the candidate.
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NEET Total Marks: For those preparing for the examination
Candidates who are in the NEET preparation phase must know a few important things about the paper pattern. According to the NEET exam pattern and structure, the question paper will comprise 180 questions, which are compulsory to attempt. The exam will have three subjects, namely, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Each question carries four marks, therefore, the total number of questions multiplied by 4, gives us 720. The total marks in NEET is 720. The section-wise distribution of marks is given in the table below.
NEET will be conducted in 13 languages. Till 2020, NEET was held in 11 languages. NTA increased the number of languages or medium to 13 from 2021 onwards. Malayalam and Punjabi are the latest additions. The list of languages are as follows:
- English
- Hindi
- Bengali
- Urdu
- Assamese
- Gujarati
- Marathi
- Odia
- Kannada
- Tamil
- Malayalam
- Punjabi
- Telugu.
The NTA has not announced the NEET 2026 dates as of now. It is likely that the NTA NEET UG exam will be held as per the previous years' trends. The exam might be held on May 3, 2025, that is, the first sunday of the month. The NEET 2025 session exam was held on May 4, in a similar trend to the last couple of years.
The NTA is likely to release the NEET UG 2026 notification in February 2026. The notification will be released with the information bulletin containing the exam dates and details. Students need to go through the notification before filling out the NEET UG form 2026.
NEET Marks Distribution - Section-wise
The below table brings the exam structure of the exam along with NEET marks distribution.
| Subject |
Number of Questions |
Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Physics |
45 |
180 |
| Chemistry |
45 |
180 |
| Botany |
45 |
180 |
| Zoology |
45 |
180 |
| Total |
180 |
720 |
The NEET exam pattern changed last year. Instead of 120, there are a total of 180 compulsory questions (45 questions each in Physics and Chemistry and 90 in Biology). Total duration is 180 minutes. It is expected that the pattern will be the same as last year, including the total marks in NEET. The Ministry of Education is also assessing the possibility of conducting the exam in computer-based or CBT mode.
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The responses marked on the OMR Sheet of NEET are scanned and uploaded on the official website of NTA. The responses marked are read and captured by the machines, which can sometimes lead to smudging of the responses. Therefore, there can be errors in the scanned copy of NEET OMR sheet. If a student finds any such error in their OMR sheet, they have the provision to challenge them. Candidates have to pay a processing fee of INR 200 per response challenged. The steps for challenging the OMR sheet of NEET are given below: