GATE 2026 Economics (XH-C1) Paper Analysis: Difficulty, Weightage & Cutoffs

Detailed Review of the Feb 7 Exam, Subject-wise Marks Distribution, and Expected IIT Admission Scores.

Updated: 4 months ago

Categories: GATE 2026, Paper Analysis, Economics.
Tags: GATE 2026 Economics, XH-C1 Analysis, GATE Economics Cutoff, Econometrics Weightage, IIT Economics Admissions, Humanities and Social Sciences GATE.
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GATE 2026 Economics (XH-C1) Detailed Analysis

Exam Date: Feb 7, 2026 | Session: Afternoon (2:30 PM - 5:30 PM)

Paper Difficulty & Student Feedback

The GATE 2026 XH-C1 paper was Moderate to Hard overall. General Aptitude was student-friendly, but the Economics (C1) section featured rigorous Econometrics problems and conceptually dense Game Theory MSQs. Reasoning and Comprehension (B1) remained balanced but required careful reading.

Aptitude: Easy to Moderate Reasoning (B1): Moderate Economics (C1): Moderate to Hard

Subject-Wise Marks Weightage

Subject Domain Key Topics Asked in 2026 Weightage
Microeconomics Nash Equilibrium, Consumer Behavior, Asymmetric Information. High
Macroeconomics Solow Growth Model, IS-LM Framework, Inflation-Unemployment. Moderate
Econometrics & Stats Hypothesis Testing, OLS, Multicollinearity, Probability. High
Math for Economics Optimization, Linear Algebra, Difference Equations. High
Indian Economy BOP, Infrastructure, Trade Policy, Sectoral Growth. Moderate

Expected Qualifying Cutoff 2026

Initial projections suggest the cutoff for XH-C1 will remain competitive, likely mirroring the 2025 trends due to the balanced nature of the paper.

Category 2026 (Expected) 2025 (Actual) 2024 (Actual)
General (GEN) 42.0 - 46.0 40.0 37.0
OBC-NCL / EWS 38.0 - 41.5 36.0 33.3
SC / ST / PwD 28.0 - 31.0 26.6 24.6

IIT Admission Targets

IIT Bombay / Kanpur

Marks: 65+ | Rank: Under 100

IIT Madras / Delhi

Marks: 58+ | Rank: Under 250

PSU Shortlisting

Marks: 75+ | Rank: Under 50

Official Result: Expected to be announced by IIT Guwahati on March 19, 2026.

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