Is there negative marking in the dMAT exam? Should I guess if I don't know an answer?
No credible source confirms any negative marking on the dMAT. The official instruction for every subtest is explicit: guess if you do not know the answer, since a blank response earns nothing while a narrowed-down guess has a real chance of scoring. Unanswered questions count the same as wrong ones.
No, no credible source confirms any negative marking on the dMAT. The official instruction for every subtest is explicit: you should guess if you do not know the answer.
Why Guessing Always Wins
A blank response earns nothing, while even a narrowed-down guess has a real chance of scoring. Unanswered questions count the same as wrong ones, so leaving an item blank is always the worse choice compared to an educated guess.
Build the Habit in Practice
Because the maths of it never changes, there is no situation where a blank beats a guess. Treat every item as worth an attempt, even a rushed one in the final seconds of a subtest.
My Advice
Make a hard rule for yourself during mocks and on test day: never leave an item blank, no matter how unsure you are. Building this habit during practice means you will not hesitate and lose time deliberating on test day itself.
More expert answers
This is a straightforward but important fact for your exam-day strategy: one of our students who sat the dMAT confirms there is no negative marking anywhere on the test.
What This Means for Your Strategy
| Rule | What It Means |
|---|---|
| No negative marking | Wrong answers cost nothing, so never leave a question blank |
| Blind guessing has limits | Rarely pays off on Mathematical Equations or Figure Sequences specifically |
| No live score feedback | The interface shows no results or scoring during the test |
My Advice
Pick one letter of the day ahead of time for any true blind guesses, so you are not wasting seconds deciding in the moment when you are genuinely stuck. Save that blind-guess approach for questions you cannot make any progress on, and put your actual time into narrowing patterns on Mathematical Equations and Figure Sequences, where guessing blind is the least likely to pay off.
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