Exam Pattern
Territorial Army Exam Pattern
Territorial Army (TA Officer Entrance Examination)
There is no Mathematics section in the current cycle, which is the first thing to check against any older material you are working from. The official written exam is 100 questions in two hours: Reasoning 40, General Knowledge 30 and English 30, with a third of a mark deducted for a wrong answer. This practice covers Reasoning and English at the same 40:30 proportion, 21 questions in 25 minutes. General Knowledge is not built here because it turns on current affairs, so roughly a third of the official paper sits outside this practice.
Reasoning and English
Official 2026 pattern| Questions | 100 |
| Total marks | 100 |
| Duration | 120 minutes |
| Negative marking | 0.33 per wrong answer |
| Sections | Reasoning, General Knowledge, English |
| Test | Qs | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Reasoning | 40 | 40 |
| General Knowledge | 30 | 30 |
| English | 30 | 30 |
The official Territorial Army written exam has 100 questions for 100 marks in 2 hours, split as Reasoning (40 questions, 40 marks), General Knowledge (30 questions, 30 marks), and English (30 questions, 30 marks), with one-third (0.33) deducted per wrong answer. There is no Mathematics section in the current exam cycle. This mock covers Reasoning and English only, in the same 40:30 proportion: 21 questions (12 Reasoning, 9 English) in 25 minutes. General Knowledge is not covered, since it depends on current-affairs and general-knowledge facts that carry higher correctness risk for self-authored content.
Official source · checked 16 August 2026The Territorial Army Reasoning and English exam pattern is 100 questions carrying 100 marks, to be answered in 120 minutes. That works out to about 72 seconds per question on average, before any time spent reading instructions or revisiting marked answers. The 3 sections are Reasoning, General Knowledge and English. Reasoning carries the most, 40 marks of the 100 or about 40%, against 30 marks for English. All sections share one composite timer, so you are free to move between them and spend your time where it earns most.
Territorial Army Reasoning and English marking scheme
- Each correct answer is worth 1 mark.
- A wrong answer deducts 0.33 marks; an unattempted question scores zero.
- A guess therefore breaks even at 24.8% accuracy: above that it gains you marks on average, below it loses them. A blind guess between four options is right 25% of the time, which is already above that line, so an educated guess is worth making rather than leaving the question blank.
- Worked example: attempt 80 of the 100 questions and get 60 right and 20 wrong, and you score 53.4 out of 100.
Practising against the same clock is the point of a mock test: at 72 seconds a question, the difference between a good score and an average one is usually pacing rather than knowledge. Attempt a free Territorial Army mock test to see where your time actually goes.
Territorial Army exam pattern: frequently asked questions
Is there negative marking in Territorial Army?
Territorial Army deducts 0.33 marks for a wrong answer. An unattempted question always scores zero, so the choice is only ever between guessing and leaving it blank.
How many questions are there in Territorial Army?
Territorial Army has 100 questions. That leaves about 72 seconds per question in Territorial Army.
What are the total marks in Territorial Army?
Territorial Army is out of 100 marks, which works out at 1 mark a question.
How long is the Territorial Army exam?
Territorial Army runs for 120 minutes.
Does Territorial Army have a sectional time limit?
No. Territorial Army runs every section on one composite timer of 120 minutes, so you can move between sections freely and give the slower ones more of your time.