CAT 2022 Topper Interview: Mock Tests are game changers, says Dixit Gupta, 99.55%iler

Yes, IIM Bangalore is one of the toughest business schools to get admission to, and every year, even CAT 99+ percentilers miss out on a call from the institute. IIM Bangalore uses multiple parameters, namely academic performance as well as candidates' scores in CAT/GMAT to select candidates for the PGP programme. IIMB adopts a two-phase selection process and accordingly, these selection criteria are applied in two phases. The first phase of the process is applied to all eligible candidates who appear for CAT to determine candidates to be called for a personal interview (PI). Candidates selected for the PI process will be additionally required to take a Writing Ability Test (WAT).

No, one can't join IIM without CAT. Candidates seeking admission to the IIM Ahmedabad MBA course must appear for CAT and secure 90 percentile. The Institute considers Writing Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds for final admission to IIM Ahmedabad along with CAT results. Students must meet both, the overall CAT cutoff percentile and the sectional cutoffs.The Institute does not release CAT cutoffs in the public domain and are exclusively accessible only via account login to candidates who have appeared for the exam. 

The answer to this question of whether an average student can get into IIM can be both yes and no depending on the definition of an average student.

• Based on Academics (Class 10/ Class 12/ Graduation): While a student with average scores in Class 10, Class 12 and graduation with a good CAT score certainly has good chances of getting a call from IIM-A, chances are less for someone with an average CAT score.
• Based on student category (General or Reserved): While it is tough for a General category average student to grab a seat at IIM due to high score requirements, a reserved category student can get admission being at average scores as well.
• Based on past work experience, diversity and other factors: Gender and academic diversity is also a factor on which students are shortlisted at IIM. IIMs judge the past academic category based on the degree obtained by the students before MBA and then a weightage is allotted based on that. For Engineers, the percentage for scoring the highest marks is higher as compared with other streams
• Performance in selection rounds: Once you make it to the final selection rounds, i.e., AWT/PI process, it can be considered a fresh start. At this stage, students can forget their past average-ness but definitely require good grasp over the past subjects as academics-related questions are asked in the interview.

Based on the above factors, it can be considered that while getting into top Management institutes, such as IIM is extremely tough, the past performance, CAT performance, student category and a lot of factors can be the reasons for a student to receive that final call.

For candidates to get into top IIMs including IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta, one must have a high CAT score preferably equal to or more than 99.5 Percentile. Considered as the top B-School of India, the competition for top IIMs is very high whereas on the other hand the number of seats for the same are less. So in order to be at the best B-School one needs to score the best.

Every IIM is different in terms of eligibility criteria, for IIMs including Lucknow, Indore,  Kozhikode,  Shillong, candidates are expected to score around 98 Percentile and a decent score of 80 Per cent in the academics. For the remaining New IIMs, the CAT cutoff ranges between 96 and 97 Percentile, whereas for Baby IIMs the cutoff might vary between 93 and 92 Percentile

It is very important for candidates to score good CAT cutoff Percentile depending on the IIMs they are aiming for. 

No, IIM Bangalore or any other IIMs do not offer reservation of seats to the students. However, the qualifying criteria for General and reserved categories are comparatively different. Please find below the category-wise qualifying cutoff required by all candidates.

There is a good chance of receiving an interview call from IIM Ahmedabad, however, admission isn’t guaranteed even at 100 percentile. The overall criteria includes academic profile, that is your Class 12, Class 10 and graduation marks. The college also gives a score for work experience, hence, candidates must have 2-3 years of experience to get maximum points. Additional focus is also given to gender and academic diversity. Considering all these factors and candidates’ CAT score, IIM Ahmedabad prepares a composite score through which decides whether to finalise a student or not. IIM Ahmedabad or any other IIM, for that matter, doesn’t give direct admission only on the basis of CAT percentile, the first phase of admission process is giving the CAT exam. Students must clear the sectional and the minimum final cut-off to be eligible and considered for the call. After that, they must get shortlisted for the interviews and group discussion process. After all these rounds, a final list of shortlisted candidates is prepared.