Trends
The 2025 paper is not the paper you are practising from
MHT-CET moved its syllabus for 2025 and the move is invisible unless you date your practice papers. One chapter left the paper entirely and another arrived. Everything below is measured across 45 shifts and 2228 questions from 2021 to 2025.
- years analysed
- 5
- shifts (papers)
- 45
- questions tagged
- 2228
- chapters tracked
- 27
Read this before you read a number on this page
MHT-CET is a multi-shift exam and the shift count per year is wildly uneven — 2021 = 1 shift, 2022 = 1 shift, 2023 = 17 shifts, 2024 = 12 shifts, 2025 = 14 shifts. A raw question count therefore means nothing across years: a chapter can carry more questions in a 17-shift year than in a 14-shift year while sitting at exactly the same weight per paper. Every comparable figure below is a questions-per-paper rate, and where only a raw count was verified we say so and print a dash rather than dividing one out.
The headline: one chapter left, one arrived
This is the whole reason to read this page. Prep off 2023-2024 papers alone and you spend revision time on a chapter that no longer appears, then walk into a chapter you have never seen.
1.00 q/paper across 2023-2024 (29 shifts), then 0.00 q/paper across all 14 papers of 2025. At 9% HARD over 32 lifetime questions it looks like the best deal on the paper, which is exactly what makes it expensive. Give it no revision time.
3 questions across the 31 shifts before 2025, then 16 in the 14 shifts of 2025. It is 42% HARD, so it is not a chapter you can pick up in the hall — drill it from 2025 papers specifically.
Verified chapter drift
The 4 chapters with a verified two-window story. There is no per-chapter-per-year matrix for this bank, so this list is deliberately short rather than padded out with plausible-looking cells — a number printed here reads as measured, and every one of these is. Each window names its own shift count, because that is what makes the two rates comparable.
Measures of Dispersion
Dropped off the paper- Earlier window — 2023-2024
- 1.00 q/paperquestions per paper
- over 29 papers
- Later window — 2025
- 0.00 q/paperquestions per paper
- 0 q over 14 papers
Lifetime: 32 questions · 9% HARD
Off the paper. One question every paper for two years, then nothing across all 14 shifts of 2025. At 9% HARD it is the most attractive-looking dead chapter in the bank.
Conic Sections
Entered the paper- Earlier window — before 2025
- —per-paper rate not stated
- 3 q over 31 papers
- Later window — 2025
- —per-paper rate not stated
- 16 q over 14 papers
Lifetime: 19 questions · 42% HARD
Onto the paper. Three questions in the first 31 shifts of the bank, then 16 in the 14 shifts of 2025. 42% HARD, so it is not a free chapter either.
Inverse Trigonometric Functions
Rising- Earlier window — lifetime (2021-2025)
- 1.66 q/paperquestions per paper
- over 45 papers
- Later window — recent (2024-2025)
- 2.04 q/paperquestions per paper
- over 26 papers
Lifetime: 73 questions · 37% HARD
Rising, and it is also the chapter this bank splits in two — a further 21 questions sit as a subtopic inside Trigonometry - II. See the callout below.
Trigonometry - I
Softening- Earlier window — lifetime (2021-2025)
- 2.20 q/paperquestions per paper
- over 45 papers
- Later window — recent (2024-2025)
- 1.85 q/paperquestions per paper
- over 26 papers
Lifetime: 99 questions · 37% HARD
Softening. Still a real chapter at 1.85 a paper, but the lifetime count of 99 makes it look like a bigger recent bet than it is.
Where a window shows a dash, only a raw count was verified for it and no rate is claimed. Note also that a lifetime window contains the recent window it is compared against, so those two rows understate the move — the direction is real, the size is a floor.
%HARD by year — and why two of these years are not data points
Read the papers column first. 2021 and 2022 are one paper each (50 questions and 48 questions). A single paper’s difficulty split is noise, and those two years must not be read as the start of a trend line. The only readable run is 2023 → 2024 → 2025.
| Year | Papers (shifts) | Questions | HARD count | % HARD | Reads as trend? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 | 50 | 10 | 20% | No — single paper |
| 2022 | 1 | 48 | 15 | 31% | No — single paper |
| 2023 | 17 | 840 | 339 | 40% | Yes |
| 2024 | 12 | 596 | 283 | 47% | Yes |
| 2025 | 14 | 694 | 209 | 30% | Yes |
The paper is not steadily hardening. Across the years with real shift counts it ran 2023 at 40%, then 2024 at 47%, then 2025 at 30% — it hardened into the middle of the run and then eased. That matters for planning: the hardest year is the wrong year to calibrate against on its own, because it over-prepares you for difficulty and under-prepares you for the current syllabus.
The 5 shifts worth acting on
Each of these changes what you should be drilling this week, not just what you should know about the paper.
- Measures of Dispersion is dead — 1.0 q/paper for two years, then zero across all 14 papers of 2025
This is the most expensive mistake available in MHT-CET Maths prep, because the chapter is designed to look like the best deal on the paper: 32 questions lifetime at only 9% HARD, and one turns up in every 2023 and 2024 paper you practise. It ran 1.0 question per paper across the 29 shifts of 2023-24. Then it scored ZERO across all 14 shifts of 2025. Nothing about the chapter tells you this — you can only see it by dating your practice papers. Give it no revision time.
- Conic Sections entered — 3 questions before 2025, 16 in 2025 alone
The other half of the same 2025 syllabus move. Conic Sections carried 3 questions across the first 31 shifts of the bank, which is why it does not ship as a playbook on lifetime weight. In the 14 shifts of 2025 it carried 16. A student prepping from 2023-24 papers has, in practical terms, never seen this chapter, and it is 42% HARD — this is not a chapter you can pick up in the hall. Drill it from 2025 papers specifically.
- The paper is not getting steadily harder — 40% HARD (2023), 47% (2024), 30% (2025)
Ignore 2021 and 2022 entirely: they are one paper each (50 and 48 questions), so their 20% and 31% are single-paper noise. Across the three years with real shift counts the paper hardened into 2024 and then eased in 2025. The planning consequence is that 2024 is the wrong year to calibrate against in either direction — it is the hardest year in the bank, so a student who only drills 2024 over-prepares for difficulty and under-prepares for the 2025 syllabus. Drill 2025 for scope and 2024 for depth.
- Inverse trigonometry is rising AND it is split across two chapters
As a chapter, Inverse Trigonometric Functions moved from 1.66 questions per paper across the lifetime window to 2.04 across the 26 shifts of 2024-2025 — and because the lifetime window contains the recent one, that understates the rise. The bigger issue is where the rest of it lives: a further 21 questions sit as a subtopic INSIDE Trigonometry - II, at 52% HARD against the chapter's own 37%. Drill the chapter alone and you miss the harder fifth of the topic.
- Trigonometry - I is softening — 2.20 q/paper lifetime, 1.85 on recent papers
A 99-question lifetime count makes this look like one of the biggest chapters in the bank, and on recent papers it is not — it has drifted from 2.20 questions per paper to 1.85. Still worth owning at 37% HARD, and its Trig Identities, Compound Angle, and Equations subtopic is the largest single subtopic anywhere in this bank at 77 questions. Just do not rank it above a cornerstone on the strength of the lifetime number.
Recommendation: drill 2025 for scope, the hardest year for depth
The newest papers carry the syllabus you will actually sit — Conic Sections in, Measures of Dispersion out — so they set your scope. The hardest year in the bank sets your depth. Do both, in that order, and remember there is no negative marking in this paper: every question is worth attempting, so the only thing these trends change is what you practise and in what order, never whether you answer.