Do not add every mark from an MTS practice paper and call it your merit score. The two sessions have different roles.
This guide uses the MTS/Havaldar 2025 notification, not an assumed 2026 pattern. Session-I has 40 questions for 120 marks; Session-II has 50 for 150. Each lasts 45 minutes ordinarily. Session-I has no negative marking; Session-II deducts one mark per wrong answer. Official 2025 notice, paragraph 14.5.
Why Session-I still matters
The notice requires Session-I qualification before Session-II is evaluated; Session-II drives the MTS merit calculation. Official selection rules, paragraph 18.
Build enough accuracy in numerical ability and reasoning to make the first session dependable. Treating it as unimportant because of its qualifying role is a poor plan. At the same time, spending every study hour on favourite arithmetic questions leaves the second session unattended.
A weekly practice record should show both session results separately. For Session-I, note unanswered questions and concepts you could not start. For Session-II, record correct, wrong and skipped answers. That gives you a usable diagnosis instead of one large total.
Work through a score example
Suppose you answer 42 Session-II questions: 35 correct and seven wrong. The raw score is 35 × 3 − 7 = 98. Now suppose another attempt has 38 correct and nine wrong: 38 × 3 − 9 = 105.
The second attempt is better in this example despite more errors, because the extra correct answers outweigh the penalty. That does not mean more attempts are always better. Calculate the result of your actual decisions and examine how reliably you answered uncertain questions.
These are illustrative raw scores. They do not establish a cutoff or reproduce SSC's normalisation.
Train the change between sessions
Simulate the sessions consecutively instead of taking a long refreshment break between them. During review, check whether concentration drops in the second half. If it does, a useful adjustment is improving your full-test routine rather than buying more question banks.
For General Awareness, keep short revision notes tied to the questions you miss. For English, record the exact grammar or vocabulary confusion and then practise fresh examples. Rereading a solution until it looks familiar is not the same as answering a new question correctly.
Choose mocks explicitly aligned with your recruitment cycle. When a new notification or corrigendum appears, compare its scheme before carrying this routine forward.
Candidates considering Havaldar should also read the PET/PST comparison with MTS. For a broader practice method, see how to use free mocks and the exam guides hub.
Source checked: 20 September 2026. Evidence cycle: MTS/Havaldar 2025. No 2026 schedule, result release date or minimum safe score is predicted.