CAT Percentile Predictor 2025: Know How is CAT Percentile Calculated?

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Updated on Nov 30, 2025 09:24 IST

Shiksha's CAT Percentile Predictor is a near perfect tool to predict your CAT score percentile and MBA admission chances. The CAT percentile predictor & calculator is easy to use and free. Use it to shortlist MBA institutes for admission on the basis of your estimated CAT score and percentile.

Shiksha's CAT Percentile Predictor is a near perfect tool to predict your percentile and MBA admission chances. The CAT percentile predictor & calculator is easy to use and free. Try the Shiksha CAT percentile calculator to know which college you're likely to get for MBA.

CAT Percentile Calculator & Predictor- To be able to make the right decision about MBA college selection, you need to know the minimum CAT percentile needed for it. CAT percentile is the minimum score required for shortlisting of candidates for Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds of MBA colleges. That minimum score is called CAT cut off. This is the first hurdle to cross in the race for MBA.

The CAT cut off percentile for IIM admission is usually high (97-100 percentile). For other top MBA colleges, the CAT cut off is usually in the range of 91-98 percentile. However, many popular MBA colleges accept CAT score in lower range percentiles.

Once you've appeared for your CAT 2025 exam slot today, you will want to know your expected CAT score vs percentile. For that, using a CAT score calculator is best. You can use the CAT percentile predictor or the CAT score predictor basis your CAT mock tests score too, to understand your progress.

Latest - CAT 2025 answer key out @iimcat.ac.in - live updates

Table of contents

CAT Percentile Predictor & Calculator: Why Use It?
What is CAT Percentile Predictor 2025?
What is CAT Percentile?
How is CAT Percentile Calculated?
CAT Score vs Percentile Calculator
IIM Admission Criteria and Selection Process

CAT Percentile Predictor & Calculator: Why Use It?

A candidate cannot apply to every MBA college for admission. They need to know in which colleges their admission chances are high so that they can fill the forms accordingly. And for that, they need to know their expected CAT percentile. Shiksha CAT percentile predictor is helpful in shortlisting the B-schools that are within the reach of a candidate based on their CAT score.

To understand how is CAT percentile calculated, you can use, Shiksha’s CAT Percentile Predictor Tool. It will help you to predict your CAT 2025 percentile on the basis of which, you can check which IIM campus or top B-schools might call you for the personal interview round. And therefore, fill their application forms.

Commonly asked questions

Q: What is the CAT exam cutoff required to get admission to IIM Bangalore?

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)

Q: What is the difference between qualifying CAT cut off and final CAT cut off?

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.

Q: What is the CAT cut off for IIM Lucknow?

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.

What is CAT Percentile Predictor 2025?

CAT percentile predictor is an online tool by Shiksha which helps candidates in assessing their performance in the CAT exam and predict your sectional as well as overall scores. The CAT score calculator tool uses expected/estimated CAT score to predict the CAT percentile. This tool is free and can be used on any device - laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile phone. Aspirants can use this CAT percentile calculator tool and assess their admission chances basis their score.

Being the top MBA colleges in India, the IIMs have stringent admission process. Although, the basic IIM MBA eligibility criteria is minimum 50 per cent aggregate in any discipline at Graduation level, what makes the candidates sweat over it is the high CAT cut off percentile for selection to the Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) round.

Once the candidate has appeared for the exam it is prudent to calculate how much CAT score will convert into percentile. And whether they can expect interview calls from the IIMs. Use the Shiksha CAT percentile predictor using your estimated/expected score to find out your CAT percentile 2025.

Also Read: CAT 2025 answer key and response sheet

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What is CAT Percentile?

CAT percentile is a relative score which indicates your rank as opposed to the rest of the CAT test takers. In simple words, CAT percentile is a measure of categorising a candidate on the basis of other candidates scoring below him/her. For example, if a candidate has 99 percentile, it means that his/her performance was better than 99 per cent of the all the CAT test takers that year.

Commonly asked questions

Q: Will CAT cut offs rise for 2026 admission?

CAT cut offs do not flutuate much. For the past few years, the CAT exam cut offs for IIMs or other top colleges have not seen much change. If there is any change at all, it is in decimals. However, that decimal point too can make or mar admission chances. CAT cut offs for 2026 admission will largely remain the same as the CAT 2025 exam difficulty level was same as last year and number of takers dipped from last year.

Q: What is the minimum CAT cut off for IIM ABC?

Minimum qualifying cut off for IIM Ahmedabad is 95 percentile whereas for IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta, it is 85. However final cut offs for these three top IIMs are between 99 to 100 percentile.

Q: Is it possible to score 99.99 percentile in CAT in first attempt?

Yes, it is possible to score 99.99 percentile in CAT in first attempt. Many toppers of previous years' are such candidates. One must study in a focussed manner and do a lot of mock test practice. Exam day strategy is also crucial for better performance.

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How is CAT Percentile Calculated?

The formula to calculate sectional as well as the overall CAT percentile of each candidate is mentioned below. For percentile calculation, the raw CAT scores of every candidate across the exam sessions are scaled to be marked on the same scale. This is done to mitigate any advantage or disadvantage to the student due to difference in difficulty levels of the exam slots. The CAT percentile of every candidate irrespective of their category or exam slot is then calculated on the basis of the following formula:

P = (R/N) × 100

where,

P= Percentile score

R= Rank of the candidate assigned on the basis of scaled CAT score or total number of candidates who rank below you.

N= Number of candidates who appeared in CAT exam (all three sessions)

Suppose, 1,000 people take CAT and you bag the top rank, which means 999 candidates scored less than you. Then your percentile will be 999/1000*100= 99.9.

Also Read: CAT score vs CAT percentile 2025

Candidates must know that all percentile scores are rounded off up to two decimal points to allot ranks. For example, percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.995 are rounded off to 100, all percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.985 but strictly less than 99.995 are rounded off to 99.99 and so on. And, in the case of two or more candidates obtaining identical scaled scores in a section, identical ranks are assigned to all of them.

Also Read: How CAT percentile is calculated?

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CAT Score vs Percentile Calculator

This table will help you understand how much CAT score converts into how much CAT percentile, as the latter is taken into consideration by the IIMs at the time of screening of the candidates for WAT-GD/PI. Here are the estimated CAT scores versus CAT percentiles.

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC	CAT DILR	CAT QA	Overall Score
99.5 %ile	44	35	40	101
99 %ile	41	30	37	91
98 %ile	35	27	32	80
95%ile	29	22	25	66
90%ile	24	18	19	53
85%ile	20	15	16	45

*The above figures are estimation, not actual representation

CAT Percentile predictor prepared by Shiksha.com helps students to get their predicted CAT percentile on the basis of their expected exam score. So, predict your CAT 2025 score by clicking the link below:

CAT Percentile Predictor

IIM Admission Criteria and Selection Process

Screening of candidates on the basis of CAT score: The minimum CAT cut off percentile is fixed by every IIM individually. Minimum qualifying CAT cut-offs of IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow and IIM Kozhikode are generally 85 percentile, which means, those who have scored above 85 percentile in CAT are eligible to apply for the WAT-GD/PI round. Among the top five, only IIM Ahmedabad's qualifying cut off is 80 percentile. The qualifying CAT cut-offs of newer IIMs range between 70-90 percentile. Candidates must note that the final cut offs are much higher between 95-100 percentile.
Written Ability Test/Group Discussion and Personal Interview: In this round of IIM admission, candidates are judged on personal traits such as personality, subject/field knowledge, intelligence, problem solving skills, leadership qualities and communication skills.
Final selection of candidates for admission: The final selection is based on a composite score calculated for each candidate on the basis of their performance in CAT exam, WAT/GD and PI, Academic Record, Work Experience and Diversity. Here's a break up of parameters on which candidates are selected at the final stage of IIM admission:

IIM Selection Parameters	Weight
CAT score	40
Class 10 score	20
Class 12 score	10
Graduation score	20
Gender diversity	2
Work experience	8
Total	100

*The above table contains parameters and weight of IIM Bangalore for CAT 2024. Weights of each parameter vary for each IIM year on year.

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Vipra Shrivastava is MA in English Literature from Delhi University with extensive experience in content writing of over 14 years. She has been handling content for Management, Accounting and Commerce streams for 8

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