Saumya
Saumya Jain
Assistant Manager- Content
Updated on Jan 6, 2022 20:27 IST

CAT 2021 topper, Chirag Gupta, shared his CAT success mantra of securing 100 percentile. Read the article below to know more.

Chirag Gupta, a BS-MS student of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, has secured 100 percentile in CAT 2021 in his first CAT attempt. He loves playing chess and likes watching anime shows and movies. He hails from the pink city of India, Jaipur. Chirag shared his CAT success journey with Shiksha. Read the article below to know more.

CAT 2021 score

Overall: 100 Percentile

Sectional:

VARC: 100 percentile

DILR: 99.99 percentile

Quant - 99.99 percentile

Q: Congratulations! Are you satisfied with your CAT result? How much score were you expecting?

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A: I'm very satisfied with my CAT result. Before CAT, I was expecting anything around 130-140 marks but after CAT I was expecting 160. 181 has been a very pleasant surprise for me.

Q: Was this your first CAT attempt?

Q:   How much percentile is a good score in CAT exam?
A:

The CAT (Common Admission Test) is a highly competitive entrance exam for admission to various management programs offered by top business schools in India. The percentile score in CAT exam is based on the relative performance of the test taker compared to all the other test takers.

The cutoff percentile for admission to top business schools varies from year to year and also depends on factors such as the number of candidates, difficulty level of the exam, and the number of available seats. In general, a percentile score of 90 or above is considered a good score and can help you secure admission to some of the top business schools in India. However, to increase your chances of admission to the top-tier business schools, a percentile score of 95 or above is preferred. For IIMs, one needs to definitely have CAT percentile in the range of 97 to 99+ percentile. 

Q:   How much percentile is a good score in the CAT exam?
A:
The Common Admission Test CAT is a national-level management entrance examination conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) for admission to various postgraduate management programs in India. The CAT score is measured in terms of percentile, which indicates the percentage of candidates who scored less than the candidate in the exam. Since CAT is a highly competitive exam, a good score percentile is dependent on various factors such as the number of candidates who appeared for the exam, the difficulty level of the exam, and the admission criteria of the participating institutes. However, in general, a percentile score of 90 or above is considered to be a good score in the CAT exam. With a percentile score of 90 or above, candidates can expect to receive calls for interviews from some of the top management institutes in the country. However, it's important to note that the admission process for management institutes is holistic and takes into account various factors such as academic performance, work experience, extracurricular activities, and the candidate's overall profile. Therefore, a good percentile score is just one of the many factors that are considered during the admission process.
Q:   How is the CAT score and percentile calculated?
A:
As there are many confusions in percentage and percentile. So, percentage is a ratio expressed as a fraction of 100. Whereas, percentile is dependent on the highest marks. It is a measured by using the statistics indicating the value below which a given percentage of observations of candidates fall. Talking about how the CAT exam percentile is calculated, so assuming that 2,00,000 people appeared for CAT exam in a particular year. The net score of everyone is calculated, and all test-takers are sorted in descending order as per their marks in CAT. Assuming your rank is 1500. So, in this case, your percentile score will be: Total No. of Candidates-your rank Therefore 200000-1500=198500 (198500/200000)x100 = 99.25 percentile. And if there are three decimals in the answer like 99.258, so it will be rounded to 99.3. So, like this, the percentile of CAT exam and similar exams are calculated.

A: Yes, this was my first cat attempt.

Q: When did you start preparing for the CAT exam? What was your overall prep strategy?

A: I started preparing in March 2021. I focused mainly on giving mock tests and analysing them. I used to work on my weaknesses by watching various CAT preparation YouTube videos on various topics.

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Q: Please share with us your section-wise strategy. 

A: For VARC, I read a lot in general. You can read anything you like. I read fiction mainly and even that helped me a lot.

For DILR, I focused on identifying certain types of sets and getting familiarised with them. I applied this strategy in the mock test and read every set in first five mins. I began the section by doing the easiest DI set/s, then attempted the easier sets of the LR section. It will ensure that you will always clear the sectional cutoffs.

For the Quant section, I focused on getting my basics right at the beginning of the preparations. I focused on doing only easy questions first, and later attempted the harder ones.

Q: Which books did you refer to for CAT preparation?

Q:   What is sectional cutoff in CAT exam?
A:

Sectional cut-off in the CAT exam refers to the section-wise percentiles required by the candidate to make it to the Personal Interview round of the IIMs or other top MBA colleges. The sectional cut-offs are lower than the overall cut-offs of any institute. To understand better, check the table below for sectional CAT cut-offs for IIM Ahmedabad:

Category

VARC percentile

DILR percentile

QA percentile

Overall percentile

General

70

70

70

80

NC-OBC-Transgender

65

65

65

75

SC

60

60

60

70

ST

50

50

50

60

PwD (General, NC-OBC-cum-transgender, SC)

60

60

60

70

PwD (ST)

50

50

50

60

For sectional cut-offs of all IIMs, check this article – IIM shortlist and selection criteria

Q:   How many questions should I solve to score 99 percentile in CAT exam?
A:
It is tough to give an accurate number as an answer to this questions are the number of questions have been changing in CAT in the last three years. Moreover, percentile also depends on the difficulty level of the exams and the number of test takers in a particular year. However, one can say that it is safe to solve at least 2/3rd of the total questions in each section of the CAT. So, if CAT Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section has 24 questions, candidate must attempt 16-18 questions correctly. If the CAT Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning has 20 questions, the candidate must solve about 12-14 questions correctly. If the CAT Quantitative Aptitude section has 22 questions then candidates must solve about 14-15 questions correctly. For further understanding you can check detailed analysis here: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/how-many-questions-to-attempt-in-cat-to-score-99-percentile-blogId-19639.
Q:   What is the CAT cut off for IIM Lucknow?
A:
The CAT cut offs for IIM Lucknow is usually around 97-99 percentile. The two courses - PGP Agri-Business Management (ABM) and PGP Sustainable Management (some) are extremely popular among MBA aspirants who wish to make a career in these areas. The institute also offers PGP programme. The qualifying CAT cut off for IIM Lucknow's Written Ability test (What) and Personal Interview PI is 90 percentile for General category students, whereas for SC candidates, it is 70 percentile. For ST and PwD candidates, it is 60 percentile. Given below are the sectional and overall qualifying CAT cut offs for IIM Lucknow PGP course. General category: 85 VARC 85 DILR 85 Quantitative Aptitude 90 (Overall) NC-OBC category: 77 VARC 77 DILR 77 Quantitative Aptitude 82 (Overall) EWS category: 77 VARC 77 DILR 77 Quantitative Aptitude 82 (Overall) SC category: 55 VARC 55 DILR 55 Quantitative Aptitude 70 (Overall) ST category: 50 VARC 50 DILR 50 Quantitative Aptitude 60 (Overall) PwD category: 50 VARC 50 DILR 50 Quantitative Aptitude 60 (Overall) Click here for detailed IIM Lucknow admission and selection criteria: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/iim-lucknow-shortlist-admission-criteria-blogId-18509.
Q:   What are the qualifying CAT cutoffs for all the IIMs?
A:

Qualifying CAT cut off percentiles of Iims for Written Ability Test (What) and Personal Interview PI are listed below. Candidates who MET the qualifying CAT cut off, were eligible for What-PI round. These qualifying CAT cut offs are for General Category. The cut offs for Reserved category students are lower:

  1. IIM Ahmedabad: 85 percentile
  2. IIM Bangalore: 85 percentile 
  3. IIM Calcutta: 85 percentile
  4. IIM Lucknow: 90 percentile
  5. IIM Kozhikode: 85 percentile
  6. IIM Indore: 90 percentile
  7. IIM Udaipur: 93 percentile
  8. IIM Shillong: 75 percentile
  9. IIM Trichy: 93 percentile
  10. IIM Visakhapatnam: 80 percentile
  11. IIM Rohtak: 95 percentile
  12. 1IIM Nagpur: 85 percentile
  13. IIM Jammu: 93 percentile 
  14. IIM Ranchi: 90 percentile
  15. IIM Sirmaur: 92 percentile
  16. IIM Bodhgaya: 93 percentile
  17. IIM Sambalpur: 93 percentile
  18. IIM Kashipur: 94 percentile 
  19. IIM Raipur: 93 percentile
  20. IIM Amritsar: 90 percentile

For complete details of IIM selection and admission process read this article: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/iim-shortlist-selection-admission-criteria-blogId-18787.

Q:   Are CAT cut offs announced along with the CAT result?
A:

CAT cut-offs are not announced along with the CAT result. The cut-offs are also not released publicly. They are known after a few days of the result announcement when the IIMs and other colleges start their shortlisting process. The IIMs will open the shortlist window based on the CAT cut-offs two to three days after the result announcement. The CAT percentile of candidates shortlisted for the Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD), and Personal Interview (PI) can be considered the cut-off for that IIM. For example, if a candidate with a CAT percentile of 99 belonging to the General category is selected for the WAT/GD-PI of IIM Calcutta, then the CAT cut-off for IIM Calcutta is 99 percentile. Only those candidates who make it to the WAT/GD-PI round of IIMs will get to know the cut-offs.

A: I didn't study from any books for CAT. I attempted various mock test series during my preparation.

Also Read:

Q: Did you join any coaching institute? How does the coaching institute help in CAT preparation?

A: No, I did not join any coaching institute. I just took mock test series from IMS and TIME. I'm not too sure about how coaching helps in CAT preparation, but attempting a good number of mock tests definitely helps in the CAT preparations.

Q: How many mock tests did you attempt and how important is a mock test series?

A: I took about 50-60 CAT mock tests, as I think that it is probably the most important aspect of CAT preparation.

Q: What was your exam day strategy?

A: My exam day strategy was just to stay calm and not think too much about the results.

Q: Any tips for future CAT aspirants?

A: Be honest with yourselves during the preparation. It is important for you to not overestimate as well as underestimate your understanding of the concepts.

Check CAT cut offs and predict calls from IIMs and Non-IIMs accepting CAT score for admission. Check Fees, Placement Reviews, Admission, Shortlist Criteria and Eligibility of all CAT participating colleges by clicking the link below:

Predict CAT Admission Calls

Check Cut offs of top MBA entrance exams and predict calls from IIMs and other Top MBA Colleges. Check Fees, Placement Reviews, Admission, Shortlist Criteria and eligibility of all MBA Colleges by clicking the link below:

Predict IIM & Non IIM Calls

Q: Which IIMs /Institutes are you targeting?

A: I am targeting IIM AhmedabadIIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta.

Read More:

About the Author
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Saumya Jain
Assistant Manager- Content

Saumya brings over seven years of editorial experience, with more than five years of wielding pen (and keyboard) at Shiksha. A graduate in English Literature from Delhi University, she is a storyteller at heart. A t... Read Full Bio

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