GATE EE 2027 Exam Pattern and Marking Scheme

GATE EE 2027 is a three-hour computer-based test of 65 questions worth 100 marks. Fifteen marks are General Aptitude and 85 are Electrical Engineering. Questions carry one or two marks and come in three types, MCQ, MSQ and NAT, and only MCQs carry negative marking. This guide explains the structure piece by piece, then shows how a real scorecard adds up.

Key takeaways

• The paper has 65 questions, 100 marks and 3 hours; 30 questions carry one mark and 35 carry two.
• General Aptitude was 10 questions and exactly 15 marks in all five counted EE papers, all of them MCQs.
• Negative marking applies to MCQs only: one-third of a mark on 1-mark questions, two-thirds on 2-mark questions.
• MSQ has no partial credit and no penalty; NAT has no options and no penalty.
• The question-type mix has varied: NAT ran from 13 to 28 questions a paper between 2022 and 2026.
• Anything that can change between years should be checked in the current notification.

The parts of the paper

Three terms carry the whole pattern, so fix them first.

• An MCQ (multiple-choice question) has four options and exactly one correct answer.
• An MSQ (multiple-select question) has four options and one or more correct answers.
• A NAT (numerical answer type) question has no options; you type a number with the on-screen keypad.

Every question is worth either one mark or two. The official GATE 2027 marking scheme is common to every paper. The general GATE 2027 exam pattern and marking scheme guide, which applies to every paper, explains it in more detail.

How the 100 marks are built

The five counted EE papers from 2022 to 2026 all used the same frame, under five different organising institutes.

The arithmetic checks itself. General Aptitude gives $5 \times 1 + 5 \times 2 = 15$ marks. The technical block gives $25 \times 1 + 30 \times 2 = 85$ marks. Together that is 100.

In all five papers, Q1 to Q5 and Q11 to Q35 carried one mark, and Q6 to Q10 and Q36 to Q65 carried two. That layout held every year, but it is a pattern of past papers, not a rule printed for 2027.

Remember: Two-mark questions are 70 of the 100 marks. A slow start on the 1-mark block is fine; running out of time on the 2-mark block is not.

How each question type is marked

The penalty on an MCQ is one-third of its own marks. That is why a 2-mark MCQ costs two-thirds of a mark when wrong.

A NAT answer is judged against a range set in the official key. In the 2026 EE key, for example, one NAT accepted any value from 47.5 to 48.0. Round sensibly and keep enough decimal places.

Trap: An MSQ can have just one correct option. Five of the 22 counted EE MSQs had exactly one correct option in the official key, so never assume you must tick at least two.

How the type mix has moved

The frame held still; the type mix did not. Here are the counted totals over all 65 questions in each paper.

Every MSQ and every NAT in those papers sat in a technical section. Across the five papers, 105 of the 275 technical questions were NAT and 22 were MSQ. So close to two technical questions in five had no options at all.

Five papers set by five institutes cannot show which way the mix will move in 2027. Expect all three types, a handful of MSQs and a solid block of NATs.

A worked scorecard

Suppose a candidate's paper ends like this. These figures are made up for practice.

• 1-mark MCQs: 14 correct, 4 wrong
• 2-mark MCQs: 12 correct, 3 wrong
• 1-mark MSQs: 2 correct, 1 wrong
• 2-mark NATs: 8 correct, 2 wrong
• Everything else left blank

Add the positive marks first, then subtract the MCQ penalties only:

The wrong MSQ and the two wrong NATs cost nothing. Seven wrong MCQs cost a little over three marks.

In one line: Only wrong MCQs subtract; wrong MSQs and NATs simply score zero.

What this means on the day

Never leave a NAT blank

A NAT has no penalty, so a reasoned estimate costs nothing. If you have worked even part of the way, enter your best number.

Guess an MCQ only after eliminating

A blind guess among four options has an expected value of zero. Once you can rule out at least one option with confidence, a guess has positive expected value.

Treat each MSQ option as its own true-or-false question

Prove each option or find a counterexample. Tick only what you can defend, and accept that one tick may be the right answer.

Use the on-screen calculator well

You cannot carry your own calculator. Practise with the GATE virtual calculator guide so that NAT arithmetic does not slow you down. Your raw marks are then converted to a GATE score, as explained in the score and normalisation guide.

What to confirm in the current notification

The frame above is drawn from five counted papers and from the official GATE 2027 information. Some details can still be adjusted by the organisers before February 2027, so check the current notification on gate2027.iitm.ac.in for three things.

1. The total of 65 questions and 100 marks, and the three-hour duration.
2. The marking rules for MCQ, MSQ and NAT, including the MCQ penalties.
3. The date and session of the EE paper, which falls inside the 6 to 21 February 2027 window.

None of these is expected to surprise you, but a pattern you have confirmed is one less thing to wonder about in the exam hall. The GATE EE 2027 book plans its ten mock tests on exactly this frame, so practice under it carries straight into the real paper.

Quick revision

1. 65 questions, 100 marks, 3 hours; 30 one-mark and 35 two-mark questions.
2. General Aptitude has been 10 questions and 15 marks in every counted EE paper.
3. The technical block is 55 questions and 85 marks.
4. Wrong MCQ: minus one-third on 1-mark, minus two-thirds on 2-mark.
5. MSQ: all correct options and no wrong one, or nothing; no penalty.
6. NAT: no options, no penalty, answer within the key's range.
7. NAT counts ran from 13 to 28 a paper; expect a substantial numerical block.