CAT Eligibility Criteria 2026: Age Limit & Reservation Criteria for General, SC/ST/PwD

There are over 170 cities where CAT exam is held. These 170 cities are spread across India consist of metropolitan cities, capital cities, Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Candidate can select up to five cities for allotment of test centre. The process of test city selection is a part of CAT application process. In the CAT application form, there is a field in which candidates have to select the cities. They need to select the city of preference in order of 1 to 5. The examination authorities will try to allot the test centre in the city of first preference. Thus, candidates must fill all the five cities carefully. They must choose their home city of city of current residence as the first preference. The test city option can only be changed during the form correction window. After that, the request for change of the city will not be accepted by the exam authorities.

A good number of private MBA colleges accept CAT score of 70 percentile in CAT. We have listed some of the colleges in which admission is possible with 70 percentile. Amity University AIMS Institutes (AIMS), Bangalore Amrita School of Business - Bangalore Acharya Bangalore B-School Asian Business School (ABS), Noida Amrita School of Business, Kochi Bengal Institute of Business Studies (BIBS), Kolkata Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani Christ Institute of Management, Pune Doon Business School (DBS), Dehradun Eastern Institute For Integrated Learning In Management, Kolkata FOSTIIMA Business School, Delhi International Institute of Business Studies, Noida International School of Business and Media (ISB&M) Bangalore JK Lakshmipat University-Institute of Management, Jaipur National University (JNU), Jaipur JRE Group of Institutions (JRE), Greater Noida Lotus Business School, Pune Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar MATS University, Raipur IIKM Business School, Calicut IILM Institute for Higher Education, Delhi For full list, click here: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/colleges-accepting-cat-scores-range-70-to-80-percentile-blogId-11956.

The CAT cut offs for IIM Bangalore hovers between 97-100 percentile. The qualifying CAT cut off required for being eligible for IIM Bangalore's Written Ability test (What) and Personal Interview PI is 85 percentile for General category students, whereas for SC candidates, it is 70 percentile. For ST candidates, it is 65 percentile and for PwD candidates it is 60 percentile. Given below are the sectional and overall qualifying CAT cut offs for IIM Bangalore.

• General category: 80 VARC 75 DILR 75 Quantitative Aptitude 85 (Overall)
• NC-OBC category: 75 VARC 65 DILR 65 Quantitative Aptitude 75 (Overall)
• EWS category: 70 VARC 65 DILR 65 Quantitative Aptitude 75 (Overall)
• SC category: 65 VARC 60 DILR 60 Quantitative Aptitude 70 (Overall)
• ST category: 55 VARC 55 DILR 55 Quantitative Aptitude 65 (Overall)
• PwD category: 50 VARC 50 DILR 50 Quantitative Aptitude 60 (Overall)

CAT fee is non-refundable. Candidates must note that under no circumstances will the CAT fee be refunded to any candidate. The fee amount of INR 2600 (INR 1300 for Reserved category students) once paid cannot be claimed for refund.

 

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.

Experts recommend that aspirants must practice at least 40 CAT mock tests to score above 99 percentile well in the exam. Most of the CAT test takers take up to 50 mock tests of various types and difficulty level. CAT toppers in previous years have practiced even up to 80 mock tests during their preparation. However, candidates must decide the number of CAT mock tests depending on their control and confidence on topics as the exam day comes closer. Mock tests are the best way to judge your performance viz. The important topics of CAT. The more one practices CAT mock tests, the more accurate they get in solving questions from all subjects. It is very important to know which formula to apply to which type question to solve the problem accurately. Mock tests help candidates in this aspect which is why practicing mock tests is most important in CAT preparation.

Yes, you are eligible to appear for the exam provided your score in the first two years of the degree course is above 50% (or equivalent). In case you belong to SSC/ST/PwD categories, the minimum aggregate should be 45%. Candidates planning to pursue MBA must make sure that they score minimum of 50 per cent in aggregate in every year of their Bachelor's degree programme, so that overall average too is 50 per cent. Those, in the final year of graduation must take care that if they do not have a minimum of 50 per cent in first two years, they need to score much higher in the final year so that their overall score meets the minimum requirement. To have a better chance of being selected by the Iims, candidates must aim for high scores in graduation and not just 50 per cent as academic record is a significant contributor in shortlisting of candidates for admission.

Qualifying CAT cut off percentiles of an IIM is the minimum percentile (sectional as well as overall) required by candidates to be eligible for the Written Ability Test (What) and Personal Interview PI round. These are only eligibility score and not the score for selection. The final CAT cut off percentiles are the scores on the basis of which a candidate is actually selected for the What-PI round. The qualifying CAT cut offs are released publically before the CAT exam and result as a part of selection criteria for the MBA/PGP batch of that year. The qualifying cut offs for CAT are release category wise - General, NC/OBC. General-EWS, SC/ST, PwD. The qualifying cut offs percentiles of General category candidate is higher than then rest. The final CAT cut offs are not released publically. The cut offs are estimate on the basis of candidate's selection for What-PI. The final CAT cut offs for General category candidate is also higher than then rest.

CAT cutoffs are usually not announced with the CAT result. The CAT cutoffs are also not released to the public.

They are published after a few days of the result announcement when the IIMs and other colleges start their shortlisting process. The IIMs opens their shortlisting 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.

There are quite a few MBA colleges who accept CAT score of 80 percentile and above for admission. The admission process for these colleges include group discussion and Personal Interview . Fore School of Management Goa Institute of Management International Management Institute, Delhi Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal Indian Institute of Management, Visakhapatnam Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli Praxis Business School, Kolkata Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management development & Research, Bangalore Shiva Institute of Management Studies, Ghaziabad Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research TA Pai Management Institute Trinity College for Management and Technology, Ghaziabad Click on this link for more: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/colleges-accepting-cat-scores-range-80-to-90-percentile-blogId-11981.

There are a number of private MBA colleges that accept CAT score of 60+ percentile for admission. We have listed some of the colleges below: AIMS Institutes (AIMS), Bangalore Amrita School of Business - Bangalore Acharya Bangalore B-School Asian Business School (ABS), Noida Amrita School of Business, Kochi Bengal Institute of Business Studies (BIBS), Kolkata Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani Christ Institute of Management, Pune Doon Business School (DBS), Dehradun Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, Kolkata FOSTIIMA Business School, Delhi International Institute of Business Studies, Noida International School of Business and Media (ISB&M) Bangalore International School of Business & Media, Kolkata IIKM Business School, Calicut IILM Institute for Higher Education, Delhi For full list, click here: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/colleges-accepting-cat-scores-range-60-to-70-percentile-blogId-11984.

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: 95 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.

The general category CAT percentile cutoff at IIM Raipur normally lies between 92 and 95%, though it could differ somewhat depending on the category (OBC, SC, ST) and applicant pool. At somewhat lower percentiles, candidates with a solid academic background and pertinent professional experience may be given consideration. A comprehensive review that takes into account the candidate's performance on the Written Ability Test (WAT), academic background, and personal interview (PI) is required for the ultimate selection. The likelihood of being shortlisted for the following round of the selection process increases with higher scores.

There is no age limit to appear for CAT. The CAT exam is open for fresh graduates as well as working professionals. Since CAT is accepted by over 1300 B-schools across India for their full-time as well as executive MBA or online professional courses, a lot of working professionals appear for the CAT to pursue such courses. CAT score is accepted by Iims for full time MBA, executive MBA and FPM programmes.

Other top MBA colleges in India also shortlist candidates for executive MBA or part-time MBA on the basis of CAT score. The minimum age limit for has to be 20 years as the minimum qualification for CAT exam graduation. Any candidate who has completed Graduation with 50 per cent aggregate (45 per cent for SC/ST candidates).

Any candidate in final year of Bachelor's degree course can appear in CAT exam. Any candidate having a professional degree like CA/CS/ICWAI with a minimum of 50 per cent in aggregate.

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

There are a very few IIMs which have CAT cutoff of 85 percentile. These are IIM Nagpur, IIM Amritsar and IIM Bodh Gaya. Since these IIMs have been launched in the last decade, the cut offs are low for admission to MBA/PGP courses. Reserved category students can apply with 85 percentile in most of the IIMs as the cut off for them is much lower in comparison to General category candidates.