MHT-CET Mathematics Guide
How MHT-CET Maths actually works
A 3,388-question analysis of every Mathematics shift from 2021 to 2026 — 68 papers in all. 50 questions, 90 minutes, and no negative marking, so the whole game is order and time rather than selection. We mapped the 22 chapter playbooks, the formulas, the year-on-year drift and the distractor traps.
- Past-year questions
- 3,388
- Shifts (2021–2026)
- 68
- Chapters
- 26
- Playbooks
- 22
- of the bank is HARD
- 34.8%
The paper you are actually sitting
MHT-CET Paper I is Mathematics on its own. Everything below is that paper — not the Physics and Chemistry paper, which is scored differently.
- Questions
- 50
- Marks
- 100
- Duration
- 90 min
- Per question
- 1.8 min
2 marks a question
Read this before anything else
MHT-CET Maths has NO negative marking
A wrong answer costs you nothing beyond the time you spent on it. That single fact inverts the advice most candidates carry in from other entrance exams: there is no attempt-versus-skip decision to make, because a blank and a wrong answer score exactly the same. Every one of the 50 questions gets an answer.
So the binding constraint is not accuracy, it is the clock. 90 minutes across 50 questions is 1.8 minutes per question — and 34.8% of this bank is HARD. The decision you actually make, question by question, is the ORDER you take them in and how long you let one run before you commit an answer and move.
The difficulty split behind that: 466 EASY (13.8%), 1,742 MODERATE (51.4%) and 1,180 HARD (34.8%) across the 3,388 questions. This is a dense paper and we would rather say so than sell you the subject.
Seven chapters are 55% of the paper
On recent shifts (2025–2026) the 7 cornerstone chapters run to 27.3 of the 50 questions — 55% of the paper. They are not the easy chapters; they are the ones you cannot afford to be slow in.
- Line and Plane4.69/paper · 35% HARD
- Vectors4.49/paper · 50% HARD
- Trigonometric Functions4.46/paper · 41% HARD
- Applications of Derivative3.23/paper · 20% HARD
- Differential Equations3.38/paper · 33% HARD
- Indefinite Integration3.51/paper · 48% HARD
- Differentiation3.59/paper · 47% HARD
Weightage here is the RECENT rate (2025–2026 shifts), not a lifetime average — the two disagree, and the 2025 syllabus shift, which 2026 kept, is why. See Trends.
How the 3,388 questions break down
All 26 chapters tested across the 68 shifts in the bank, sorted by questions per paper on recent shifts — not by lifetime count, because that is the number worth planning against. Two chapters carry a status: the 2025 syllabus shift moved them.
| Chapter | Q / paper | Questions | Share | % HARD | Focus subtopics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Line and Plane | 4.69 | 304 | 9.0% | 35% | Plane — Equation, Normal, and Construction (66 · 29% HARD), Distances in 3-D (52 · 40%), Intersection, Coplanarity, and Skew Lines (52 · 50%), Line — Equation, Direction Cosines, and Vector Form (50 · 18%), Angles — Line, Plane, and Direction Conditions (48 · 35%), Foot of Perpendicular, Image, and Projection (20 · 55%), Tetrahedron Geometry — Centroid, Volume, and Vertices (16 · 13%). The heaviest chapter on recent papers. The HARD is spread across seven subtopics rather than concentrated, so there is no cherry-pick here. |
| Vectors | 4.49 | 334 | 9.9% | 50% | Scalar Triple Product, Coplanarity, and Volume (100 · 63% HARD), Cross Product, Angle, and Area (83 · 64%), Dot Product, Angle, and Perpendicularity (76 · 28%), Vector Geometry — Section Formula, Triangle, and Parallelogram (32 · 50%), Linear Combinations, Collinearity, and Coplanarity (25 · 40%), Magnitude, Components, and Unit Vectors (18 · 17%). Largest chapter in the bank and the hardest cornerstone, but it DOES cherry-pick: Dot Product is 76 questions at 28% HARD. |
| Trigonometric Functions | 4.46 | 312 | 9.2% | 41% | Trigonometric Equations and General Solutions (69 · 42% HARD), Sine, Cosine and Projection Rules (69 · 39%), Inverse Trigonometric Identities (51 · 65%), Inverse Trigonometric Functions — Principal Values and Evaluation (46 · 24%), Inverse Trigonometric Equations (39 · 31%), Half-Angle Formulas, Napier's Analogy and Area (38 · 42%). The Std XII trigonometry chapter and the second-largest in the bank. Solution of triangle is rising (1.26 to 1.85 a paper from 2023-24 to 2025-26); equations are falling (1.33 to 0.85). |
| Differentiation | 3.59 | 237 | 7.0% | 47% | Inverse Functions & Inverse Trigonometric Differentiation (59 · 53% HARD), Foundations, Chain Rule & Differentiability (45 · 31%), Implicit Differentiation & Special Forms (43 · 58%), Parametric, Higher-Order Derivatives & Relations (42 · 50%), Logarithmic Differentiation (32 · 34%), Derivative of One Function with Respect to Another (16 · 63%). Feeds Applications of Derivative directly: the two run to 6.8 questions per paper together. |
| Indefinite Integration | 3.51 | 249 | 7.3% | 48% | Integration by Substitution (83 · 51% HARD), Trigonometric Integrals - Rational and Substitution Forms (46 · 76%), Integration by Parts (44 · 48%), Rational Functions and Partial Fractions (37 · 43%), Foundations and Standard Formulae (20 · 5%), Trigonometric Integrals - Powers and Identities (19 · 26%). Half the chapter is HARD and the trigonometric-rational forms are the most expensive block on the paper at 76%. |
| Differential Equations | 3.38 | 216 | 6.4% | 33% | Order, Degree, Formation of ODE, and Verification of Solutions (58 · 21% HARD), Variable-Separable Equations (47 · 30%), Linear Differential Equations (Integrating Factor) (39 · 54%), Growth, Decay, and Continuous Models (38 · 26%), Homogeneous and Reducible Equations (25 · 44%), Newton's Law of Cooling (9 · 44%). The subtopics split by SOLUTION METHOD, which is exactly how the questions are set. |
| Applications of Derivative | 3.23 | 253 | 7.5% | 20% | Rate of Change and Related Rates (56 · 16% HARD), Maxima, Minima, and Optimisation (53 · 21%), Tangents, Normals, and the Slope of a Curve (52 · 17%), Increasing and Decreasing Functions (36 · 31%), Rolle's Theorem and Mean Value Theorem (32 · 28%), Approximations using Differentials (16 · 0%), Angle Between Curves and Orthogonality (8 · 13%). The cheapest cornerstone by some distance, with no subtopic above 31% HARD. Lighter than in 2023-24 (4.48 a paper), and still a cornerstone. |
| Mathematical Logic | 2.38 | 151 | 4.5% | 23% | Logical Equivalence and Algebra of Statements (34 · 26% HARD), Finding Truth Values of Component Statements (31 · 16%), Converse, Inverse, and Contrapositive (28 · 21%), Negation of Statements and Quantifiers (21 · 10%), Statements, Connectives and Truth Tables (20 · 20%), Switching Circuits (17 · 53%). Self-contained: it borrows nothing from the rest of the syllabus, which makes it the fastest chapter to bank from a cold start. Up from 2.00 a paper in 2023-24. |
| Definite Integration | 2.36 | 132 | 3.9% | 44% | Evaluation and Substitution (45 · 42% HARD), King's Property (28 · 50%), Modulus and Greatest-Integer (25 · 20%), Odd and Even Symmetry (18 · 50%), Trigonometric Integrals (16 · 69%). The fastest-growing chapter on the paper: 1.30 a paper in 2023-24, 2.36 in 2025-26. The symmetry properties are the time lever: they turn an expensive integral into a two-line answer. |
| Probability Distribution | 2.31 | 159 | 4.7% | 18% | Expectation, Variance and Standard Deviation (46 · 17% HARD), Discrete Random Variables, PMF and CDF (44 · 14%), Conditional Probability, Independence and Bayes' Theorem (37 · 27%), Classical Probability, Addition Theorem and Odds (32 · 13%). The cheapest large block on the paper: 2.31 questions a paper at only 18% HARD. |
| Limits | 1.97 | 137 | 4.0% | 56% | Continuity at a Point (34 · 68% HARD), Piecewise Continuity (24 · 50%), Exponential-Logarithmic (21 · 71%), Existence and Infinity (17 · 35%), Algebraic (16 · 44%), Trigonometric (15 · 67%), [x] and |x| Discontinuities (10 · 40%). The highest %HARD of any chapter in the bank, and the difficulty sits in every page, so it does not cherry-pick. |
| Determinants and Matrices | 1.77 | 102 | 3.0% | 35% | Inverse of a Matrix (44 · 25% HARD), Determinants and Adjoint Identities (27 · 56%), Cayley–Hamilton and Matrix Polynomials (17 · 35%), Linear Systems and Symmetric Matrices (14 · 29%). Ran 1.08 a paper in 2025 and 2.12 in 2026. The identities page carries the cost; the other three run 25-35% HARD. |
| Applications of Definite Integral | 1.21 | 78 | 2.3% | 24% | Area Between Two Curves (36 · 31% HARD), Area Under a Curve (29 · 10%), Circle, Ellipse and Hyperbola Regions (13 · 38%). Effectively one skill: 83% of the chapter is an area between a curve and an axis, a line or a second curve. |
| Straight Line | 1.13 | 75 | 2.2% | 15% | Forms, Intersections and Concurrency (30 · 13% HARD), Slope, Angle and Rotation (19 · 26%), Distance and the Foot of the Perpendicular (15 · 7%), Section Formula and Rectangles (11 · 9%). Cheap, and it underwrites Pair of Straight Lines and Circle: the return is larger than its own 1.13 per paper. |
| Pair of Straight Lines | 1.13 | 73 | 2.2% | 42% | Angle Between the Pair (21 · 48% HARD), General Second-Degree Equation (19 · 47%), Joint Equation (17 · 18%), Slopes of a Pair (16 · 56%). Its perpendicularity test reads a + b = 0 rather than the slope product used elsewhere: the same condition in a different dialect. |
| Binomial Distribution | 1.10 | 86 | 2.5% | 16% | Computing Binomial Probabilities (38 · 16% HARD), Parameter Estimation and the Probability Ratio (20 · 25%), Mean, Variance and Standard Deviation of a Binomial Variable (17 · 12%), The Binomial Setting and Probability Mass Function (11 · 9%). Four subtopics off one formula. |
| Conic SectionsNew for 2025 | 1.08 | 44 | 1.3% | 27% | Ellipse and Hyperbola (26 · 27% HARD), Parabola (18 · 28%). 42 of its 44 questions are from 2025 and 2026, so the lifetime count understates it badly; on recent papers it clears the playbook line. See the note. New for 2025: Entered with the 2025 syllabus and held in 2026: 2 questions in the 29 shifts before 2025, then 15 in 2025 and 27 in 2026. Anyone prepping from 2023-24 papers has never seen this chapter set. |
| Circle | 1.05 | 71 | 2.1% | 28% | Equation of a Circle (22 · 23% HARD), Tangents (21 · 38%), Concentric and Touching (10 · 30%), Distance to a Circle (9 · 0%), Two Circles (9 · 44%). Its extremum questions (greatest or least distance from a point to the circle) are answered by centre-distance plus or minus radius, with no calculus. |
| Linear Programming | 1.00 | 69 | 2.0% | 3% | Corner-Point Method — Maximum and Minimum of the Objective Function (28 · 0% HARD), Feasible Region — Half-Plane Tests, Bounded, Unbounded and Empty (16 · 0%), Formulation and Special Cases — Word Problems and Infinitely Many Optima (14 · 0%), Reading Constraints Off a Shaded Region (11 · 18%). The lowest %HARD in the bank at 3%, and all of it on the figure page. One free mark a paper if the method is drilled. |
| Permutations and Combinations | 0.97 | 65 | 1.9% | 34% | Counting Numbers and Geometric Figures (19 · 26% HARD), Arrangements with Constraints (16 · 38%), Fundamental Principle and Identities (12 · 8%), Selections with Conditions (9 · 56%), Circular Arrangements (9 · 56%). One question a paper at 34% HARD, and the constraint questions do not reduce to a formula: cost this chapter honestly before investing in it. |
| Complex Numbers | 0.95 | 67 | 2.0% | 24% | Algebra of Complex Numbers (30 · 30% HARD), Modulus and Argument (26 · 19%), Locus in the Argand Plane (11 · 18%). The algebra page is the expensive one; secure modulus, argument and locus first. Greatest and least modulus on a disc is the same geometric move as the Circle chapter's extremum question. |
| Trigonometry - II | 0.92 | 61 | 1.8% | 48% | Compound Angles and Conditional Identities (27 · 26% HARD), Multiple and Sub-multiple Angles (20 · 65%), Sum-to-Product and Product Formulas (14 · 64%). The Std XI identity chapter. Holds at 0.92 a paper, just above the 0.9 line, and ships a long-tail playbook; 11 of its 29 HARD questions ask for a value at fixed angles, and the equations and inverse-trig pages of Trigonometric Functions lean on these identities. |
| Sets, Relations and Functions | 0.87 | 66 | 1.9% | 12% | Domain and Range (23 · 22% HARD), Composite Functions (21 · 10%), Sets and Types of Functions (13 · 0%), Inverse Functions (9 · 11%). 12% HARD, the third-cheapest chapter in the bank after Linear Programming and the dropped Measures of Dispersion. Just below the 0.9 q/paper line (0.87), so it ships no playbook, but its four notes pages are live and it is worth a short drill rather than a skip. |
| Sequences and Series | 0.18 | 11 | 0.3% | 36% | 11 questions in 68 shifts at 36% HARD. Below the playbook line; revise it, do not drill it. |
| Quadratic Equations | 0.10 | 6 | 0.2% | 33% | 6 questions in 68 shifts, the thinnest chapter in the bank. Assumed knowledge from earlier chapters rather than a topic the paper sets in its own right. |
| Measures of DispersionDropped for 2025 | 0.00 | 30 | 0.9% | 10% | 30 questions lifetime at 10% HARD, the second-lowest %HARD in the bank, and irrelevant, because the chapter is no longer set. Its three notes pages are a formula rehearsal for Probability Distribution. See the note. Dropped for 2025: DROPPED from 2025. Ran 1.0 question per paper across the 27 shifts of 2023-24, then ZERO across all 39 papers of 2025 and 2026. Its 10% HARD makes it look like a cheap chapter in a lifetime table, which is exactly the trap: do not spend time here. |
“Q / paper” is the rate on recent shifts (2025–2026); “Questions” and “Share” are lifetime figures across all 68 shifts. Where the two disagree, the rate is the one to plan on. 22 of these 26 chapters ship a full playbook; the rest are covered in the tail block on Strategy.
What’s inside
5 sections, each answering a different question a candidate walks in with. Read top-to-bottom or jump to what you need.
Strategy
Cornerstone, Quick-Win, Long Tail: 7 chapters carry over 27 of the 50 questions. With no negative marking the decision is order and time, never whether to attempt.
Playbooks
22 playbooks, one per chapter above 0.9 questions per paper. The subtopic split, where the HARD sits, and whether the chapter cherry-picks.
Formulas
Single-page index of the formulas MHT-CET Maths actually tests, with the chapters that touch each. At 1.8 minutes a question, recall has to be instant.
Trends
The 2025 syllabus shift, confirmed by 2026: Measures of Dispersion is zero across all 39 papers of 2025-2026, Conic Sections went from 2 questions to 42. Prep from 2023-24 alone and you drill a dead chapter.
Traps
The same idea in four chapter dialects: perpendicularity is named in 147 questions across 8 chapters, and 84% of the trigonometry sits in the chapter whose name students do not recognise.
The formula compendium indexes 93 formulas across 17 chapters.
Want the teaching, not just the strategy?
This guide tells you what the exam asks and in what order to take it. The notes teach the chapter: foundations, worked examples, self-checks, drills and a per-subtopic mastery checkpoint. 22 of the 22 playbook chapters have full notes shipped — Line and Plane, Vectors, Trigonometric Functions, Applications of Derivative, Differential Equations, Indefinite Integration, Differentiation, Linear Programming, Probability Distribution, Mathematical Logic, Binomial Distribution, Straight Line, Limits, Definite Integration, Determinants and Matrices, Circle, Conic Sections, Complex Numbers, Applications of Definite Integral, Pair of Straight Lines, Permutations and Combinations and Trigonometry - II.
All MHT-CET Maths notesWhy we built this
Most MHT-CET Maths prep splits two ways: a coaching-class lecture sequence that doesn’t match the chapter weights, or a chapter-list grind with no sense of what the paper actually rewards. We’ve done the third thing — pulled every question, tagged every subtopic, and looked at the patterns.
Every claim on this page is verifiable. Click any “Drill these N questions →” link and you’ll see the exact set we’re talking about.
Data snapshot: 13 October 2026. Numbers refresh as new papers land.