CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile for Top IIMs (IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode)
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To get into top IIMs, minimum requirement of CAT percentile is 97 to 99 percentile and above. Check here CAT Score & Percentile Required for Top IIMs - IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode.
CAT score required for IIM BLACK
CAT 2025 result is expected anytime soon and you will finally know if your hard work has paid off or not. For most of you, the efforts put in to CAT is to get a seat in the top IIMs. To ensure you get PI calls from the top 5 IIMs – BLACK, you must score above 95 percentile. CAT 2025 exam was conducted on November 30 in which 2.58 lakh candidates appeared. After the release of provisional CAT 2025 answer key, all test takers must have already evaluated their chance of getting a call from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow or IIM Kozhikode. All these top 5 IIMs shortlist candidates having CAT score above 97 percentile. Cut offs for Reserved category candidates can be lower. So, how much marks you need in CAT 2025 to get 99, 98 or 97 percentile.
Basis the estimation of CAT 2025 question paper difficulty level, about 105 marks out of 204 should get you 99+ percentile. For getting 98 percentile, you need to score 80-85 marks. If you score near about 70 to 71 percentile, you will get 97 percentile. Let’s take a look at sectional and overall CAT 2025 marks vs percentile between 97 to 99 percentile.
- CAT Score vs Percentile 2025
- CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile for Top IIMs
- CAT Score Required for 99 Percentile
- CAT Score Required for 98 Percentile
- CAT Score Required for 97 Percentile
- CAT Score Required for 95 Percentile
CAT Score vs Percentile 2025
CAT 2025 was conducted in three slots. To ensure fairness in evaluation of every candidate’s performance considering the variance in difficulty level of every slot, the CAT result 2025 will be prepared from scaled CAT score and not the raw score. Conversion of a certain CAT score into a certain percentile is based on difficulty level of the CAT 2025 question paper. If the difficulty level is high, lower score is needed for 99 percentile and vice versa.
Commonly asked questions
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 2025 Score vs Percentile for Top IIMs
CAT 2025 score vs percentile tabulated below is an estimation based on the difficulty level of the exam. IIM BLACK are the most prestigious B-schools of India, renowned even internationally. CAT percentile of 97, 98 or 99 and above can get you only through the first round of IIM admission, i.e. Personal Interview and Written Ability Test. Candidate’s overall profile matters a lot in the final selection.
| IIMs |
CAT score |
*CAT cut offs 2025 (percentile) |
|---|---|---|
| 105 |
99-100 |
|
| 105 |
99-100 |
|
| 85-89 |
99 |
|
| 71-80 |
97-98 |
|
| 71-80 |
97-98 |
Also Read:
CAT Score Required for 99 Percentile
Check the table below for sectional as well as overall CAT scores required to get 99 percentile and above. These figures are estimation and for reference only.
| CAT Percentile |
VARC score |
DILR score |
QA score |
Overall score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99.9 %ile |
48 |
36 |
40 |
105 |
| 99.5 %ile |
44 |
32 |
30 |
90 |
| 99 %ile |
40 |
28 |
27 |
85-89 |
Also Read:
Commonly asked questions
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.
On an average, about 10-15 CAT aspirants score 100 percentile. Given below is the data of CAT 100 percentilers of last 4 years:
Exam year | CAT 100 percentilers | State wise numbers |
|---|---|---|
CAT 2025 | 12 | 1- Uttar Pradesh 1- Karnataka 1- Maharashtra 3- Delhi 2- Haryana 2- Gujarat 1- Jharkhand 1- Odisha |
CAT 2024 | 14 | 1- Andhra Pradesh |
CAT 2023 | 14 | 1 – Andhra Pradesh |
CAT 2022 | 11 | 2 - Delhi 1 - Gujarat 1 - Haryana 1 - Kerala 1 - Madhya Pradesh 2 - Maharashtra 2 - Telangana 1 - Uttar Pradesh |
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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CAT Score Required for 98 Percentile
Check the table below for sectional as well as overall CAT scores required to get 98 percentile and above. 98 percentile can get you IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, SPJIMR, MDI Gurgaon, FMS Delhi and such top ranked B-Schools.
| CAT Percentile |
VARC score |
DILR score |
QA score |
Overall score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98 %ile |
36 |
25 |
23 |
80 |
CAT Score Required for 97 Percentile
Check the table below for sectional as well as overall CAT scores required to get 97 percentile and above. With 97 percentile and a good profile, aspirants can hope to get IIM Indore, IIM Mumbai, IIM Udaipur, IIM Trichy, IITs (DoMS) and many more Tier 1 colleges.
| CAT Percentile |
VARC score |
DILR score |
QA score |
Overall score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97%ile |
32 |
30 |
3 0 |
71 |
Also Read: MBA from IITs
Commonly asked questions
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.
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CAT Score Required for 95 Percentile
Check the table below for sectional as well as overall CAT scores required to get 95 percentile and above. With 9 5 percentile and a good profile, aspirants stand a chance to get selected at IIM Nagpur, IIM Jammu, IIM Bodhgaya, IIM Trichy, IIM Shillong, IIM Ranchi, IIM Udaipur and many more Tier 1 and Tier 2 colleges.
| CAT Percentile |
VARC score |
DILR score |
QA score |
Overall score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 95 %ile |
30 |
19 |
18 |
57 |
Read More:
- CAT normalization process 2025
- How CAT score will be calculated for three slots?
- MBA colleges accepting CAT score range of 50-60 percentile
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- MBA colleges accepting CAT score range above 85 percentile
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered Yesterday
SRM University Sonepat considers CAT scores for admission in MBA. Aspirants with MAT, XAT, NMAT or any other Management entrance exam score can also get admission. Candidates can also appear for SRMHCAT conducted by the university.
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Guide-Level 15
Answered Yesterday
CAT is one of the accepting exams for admission in PGDM at Badruka School of Management. However, it is not compulsory. Aspirants with a score in XAT, MAT or GMAT can also get admission provided they also meet the other criteria.
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Guide-Level 15
Answered 2 days ago
- Details filled should be correct and error free
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Contributor-Level 6
Answered 2 days ago
No, the Amrita MBA application form will be available online only. Students can apply at Amrita Vishwavidyapeetham website.
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Contributor-Level 6
Answered 2 days ago
Students must have at least 50 percentile in CAT for admission in PGDM programme of Valia School of Management. Aspirants must also pass graduation with at least 50% aggregate for admission.
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Guide-Level 15
Answered 2 days ago
To get into Anna University for the MBA/PGDM course, students would need to appear in the accepted exam, like CAT, MAT, and TANCET.
Students who appear in the CAT or MAT exam would need to attain a valid percentile, and only then are they eligible for the next round of admission, which involves GD,
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
No, you can not join Anna University without appearing for an entrance exam if you want admission to the MBA/PGDM course. Students can either take the CAT or MAT exam, attain a valid percentile and then proceed to the next round.
Or they can take the TANCET entrance examination, attain valid ranks an
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
Yes, students can get admission in ITM SLS Baroda University MBA without CAT. The university also considers CMAT scores to admit students for this programme. Students can check the official site to know more.
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 4 days ago
| Parameter | Your Score | Impact |
| CAT | 72.33%ile | Tier-2/3 Eligibility |
| NMAT | 187 | Target non-Mumbai NMIMS campuses |
| 10th/12th | 72.6% / 65.4% | Average; may limit "Old IIMs" even if scores were higher |
| BE | 77.6% | Strong Point helps in engineering-preferred pools |
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Contributor-Level 8
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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