Checked 25 September 2026. From the AFCAT 02/2026 notification (read in full) and the 01/2026 and 01/2025 notifications. The 01/2027 notification had not been issued on 25 September 2026; check it when it appears.
AFCAT is the Indian Air Force's written test for officer entry into the Flying and Ground Duty branches, held twice a year. Its format has been stable for several cycles — but one thing that many preparation sites still describe has gone: the separate Engineering Knowledge Test (EKT) for technical branches does not appear in any of the last three notifications. This guide sets out the paper exactly as the AFCAT 02/2026 notification describes it.
AFCAT 02/2026 notification, paras 8.1.2–8.1.4.
The paper
| Item | AFCAT 02/2026 notification |
|---|---|
| Subjects | General Awareness, Verbal Ability in English, Numerical Ability, and Reasoning and Military Aptitude Test |
| Questions and marks | 100 questions, maximum 300 marks |
| Duration | 2 hours (1000–1200 hrs on 8 Aug 2026) |
| Marking | +3 for each correct answer, −1 for each incorrect answer, 0 for unattempted |
| Mode and language | Online, objective, English only |
| Standard | Numerical Ability at Matriculation level; other subjects at graduation level |
| Qualifying marks | IAF "has the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all the subjects" |
| Shifts | One shift in both 2026 cycles; marks are normalised whenever there is more than one |
The notification gives no official number of questions per subject; splits quoted on coaching sites are their own estimates.
Exam day, hour by hour
| Time (8 Aug 2026) | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0800 | Candidate reporting |
| 0800–0945 | Admit card, ID, biometric and photograph checks; seating |
| 0930 | Gate closes — no entry after pre-exam verification begins |
| 0945–1000 | Reading of instructions |
| 1000–1200 | AFCAT |
From para 8.1.1 of the 02/2026 notification. The gate closes half an hour before the paper starts, so arriving on time for the exam itself is too late. Bring the printed admit card, original Aadhaar, a second original photo ID, two photographs and a blue or black ballpoint.
The EKT is not part of current AFCAT
Where other pages get this wrong
There is no Engineering Knowledge Test in the current AFCAT.
Commonly published instead: "Technical branch candidates must also appear for the EKT — 50 questions, 150 marks, 45 minutes" and "80 marks in EKT required for AFCAT 1 2026".
The 01/2025, 01/2026 and 02/2026 notifications contain no EKT at all: the only exam listed is the 100-question AFCAT paper, for every branch including Aeronautical Engineer (Electronics) and (Mechanical). The portal's syllabus file is still named after the EKT but, updated in November 2025, covers only the AFCAT paper. Since 02/2026, the alternative route into the technical branch is a GATE Score Entry, not a second paper.
When the EKT was last held is not stated in the notifications we read. What matters for anyone preparing now is that no current notification includes it; if the 01/2027 notification brings it back, it will say so.
The syllabus, subject by subject
| Subject | Topics (02/2026 notification) |
|---|---|
| Verbal Ability in English | Comprehension, error detection, sentence completion / filling in the correct word, synonyms and antonyms, cloze test, idioms and phrases, analogy, sentence rearrangement, one-word substitution, transformation of sentences (complex to simple), homonyms |
| General Awareness | History, geography, sports, national and international organisations, art and culture, personalities, environment and ecology, Indian polity, economy, basic science, science and technology, current affairs (national and international), defence |
| Numerical Ability | Decimal fractions, time and work, average and percentage, profit and loss, ratio and proportion, simple and compound interest, time and distance and races (trains, boats and streams), area and perimeter, probability, number system and series, mixture and alligation, squares, cubes and roots, HCF and LCM, elementary mensuration, heights and distance, statistics (mean, median, mode), exponents and powers |
| Reasoning and Military Aptitude | Verbal and non-verbal reasoning |
Topic lists as printed in para 8.2.1 of the notification (lightly regrouped). Numerical Ability is set at Class 10 level, so the difficulty is speed and accuracy, not advanced mathematics.
AFCAT 02/2026 notification, para 8.1.4.
What +3 / −1 means for guessing
| You can rule out | Chance of a correct guess | Expected marks from guessing |
|---|---|---|
| None of the four options | 25% | 0.25 × 3 − 0.75 × 1 = 0 |
| One option | 33% | 0.33 × 3 − 0.67 × 1 ≈ +0.33 |
| Two options | 50% | 0.5 × 3 − 0.5 × 1 = +1 |
Illustrative arithmetic, assuming four options per question — the notification does not state the number of options, so check it on the model papers. A blind guess gains nothing on average; ruling out even one option makes an answer worth giving. That is the most useful single fact about AFCAT scoring.
AFCAT score calculator (+3 / −1)
Enter how many of the 100 questions you got right and wrong in a mock. Unattempted questions score zero.
Scoring from the AFCAT 02/2026 notification: 3 marks for a correct answer, minus 1 for a wrong one. IAF publishes no cut-off on a public page; treat reported past cut-offs only as a rough guide.
How each subject tends to be tested
| Subject | What it rewards (our reading) |
|---|---|
| Verbal Ability in English | Vocabulary breadth, grammar rules for error spotting, and quick reading of short passages |
| General Awareness | Broad static knowledge plus the last several months of national, international and defence news |
| Numerical Ability | Fast, accurate Class 10 arithmetic — percentages, ratios, speed-distance-time — with shortcuts |
| Reasoning and Military Aptitude | Pattern recognition in verbal and non-verbal puzzles, including spatial questions such as figure series and embedded figures |
Subjects from the notification; the second column is our summary of how the listed topics are commonly examined, not an official description.
Checking the answer key
After the exam, IAF opens an objection window in your login with the question paper, the answer key and your own responses — 9 to 11 August 2026 for the 02/2026 cycle, and 1 to 3 February 2026 for 01/2026 under that notification's corrigendum. It is the only chance to challenge a key before results, and a useful way to work out your own score with the calculator above.
Normalisation
When AFCAT runs in more than one shift, the notification applies a normalisation formula that scales each candidate's marks using the top 0.1% average and the mean and standard deviation of each shift, so that a harder shift does not penalise its candidates. Both 2026 cycles were held in a single shift on one day, so it did not apply; the 01/2025 cycle ran on 22 and 23 February 2025, with two shifts each day, so normalisation did apply there. Your raw score is what counts in a single-shift cycle.
Balance across the four subjects
Because the notification gives no section split and no official sectional cut-off in public, the safest assumption is that every subject matters and a very weak one can cost you. IAF does keep "the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all the subjects". In practice that means no subject can be abandoned: a strong Numerical Ability score will not rescue a paper in which English was skipped. Aim for steady accuracy across all four rather than a peak in one, and track your mock scores by subject, not just in total, so a weak subject shows up early enough to fix.
"Graduation level" for English, General Awareness and Reasoning means the questions assume a graduate's reading and general knowledge, not specialist study; "Matriculation level" for Numerical Ability means Class 10 arithmetic. Neither is advanced. The difficulty lies in doing 100 of them in two hours, with a mark lost for each careless error.
Practice material from the IAF
The AFCAT portal hosts an online practice test and model question papers. The model papers are older (2015) and some predate the current format, so use them for question style rather than for timing. For pacing, practise full 100-question papers in 120 minutes — 72 seconds a question. A useful habit is two passes: answer everything you are sure of first, then return to the questions where you can rule out an option, and leave true blind guesses blank.
Practise it, don't just read it
English and Numerical Ability reward daily practice more than reading. Start with the quizzes on synonyms and antonyms and on profit and loss.
The ProSyllabus AFCAT library has topic quizzes for Synonyms and Antonyms, Idioms and Phrases, Reading Comprehension, English, Numerical Ability, Number Series, Profit and Loss, Simple and Compound Interest, Time, Distance, Trains and Boats, General Awareness and Defence and Armed Forces. Each question comes with an explanation.
What is the AFCAT exam pattern?
100 objective questions for 300 marks in 2 hours, in English, covering General Awareness, Verbal Ability in English, Numerical Ability, and Reasoning and Military Aptitude. Each correct answer earns 3 marks and each wrong answer loses 1.
Is there negative marking in AFCAT?
Yes. One mark is deducted for every incorrect answer; unattempted questions score zero.
Is EKT still conducted in AFCAT?
Not in the current notifications. The 01/2025, 01/2026 and 02/2026 notifications list only the 100-question AFCAT paper, for all branches.
How many questions are there in each AFCAT section?
The notification does not give a section-wise split; only the four subjects and the 100-question total are official.
What is the AFCAT syllabus for Numerical Ability?
Class 10-level arithmetic: fractions, time and work, percentages, profit and loss, ratio, interest, time and distance, area, probability, number series, mixtures, roots, HCF and LCM, mensuration, heights and distance, statistics, and exponents.
Is the AFCAT syllabus the same for all branches?
Yes. The current notifications have one paper for every branch, Flying, Technical and Non-Technical alike; there is no separate technical paper.
Is AFCAT conducted in Hindi?
No. The 02/2026 notification states the online examination is in English only.
How long is the AFCAT exam?
Two hours, 1000 to 1200 in the 2026 cycles, with reporting from 0800 and the gate closing at 0930.
Should I guess in AFCAT?
Only if you can rule out at least one option. A blind guess between four options has an expected value of zero under +3/−1 marking; eliminating one option makes it positive.
Sources
- official — IAF — AFCAT 02/2026 notification
- official — IAF — AFCAT 01/2026 notification
- official — IAF — AFCAT 01/2025 notification (archived)
- official — AFCAT portal — scheme of syllabus (updated Nov 2025)
- official — AFCAT portal — model question papers
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
