CAT Score Vs Percentile: Check Formula, Calculator & Difference

What is the difference between CAT score and Percentile? How much CAT score will fetch you 99 percentile? Read below all about CAT Score vs Percentile. 

CAT Score vs Percentile: The most common questions that CAT aspirants ask are, "what is the difference between CAT score and CAT percentile?" and "which of the two is more important?"

The answer: CAT score and CAT percentile are two different scores and both are equally important as they both directly influence the chances of admission into IIMs and other top B-schools. CAT score is the total marks obtained by a candidate in the exam and CAT percentile is a relative score viz, the total number of candidates who qualify the exam.

CAT percentile matters a lot in the screening of candidates for the first round of IIM admission, i.e. Written Ability Test and Personal Interview (WAT-PI). In simple words, CAT percentile is a measure of obtaining relative score by categorising a candidate on the basis of their performance compared to other candidates. This relative score is arrived at by analysing marks scored in the CAT exam along with a few other parameters. CAT result is announced in the form of score as well as percentile and most of the B-schools considered the overall percentile for MBA admissions. So, how to calculate the CAT score and CAT percentile? In order to clear the CAT score vs percentile confusion, let’s understand it in detail.

To understand CAT score, let’s understand the CAT marking scheme, first.

• The CAT question paper carries 66 questions from Quantitative Ability (24), Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (22) and Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (20)
• The total marks of CAT exam is 198. For each correct answer, three marks are allotted and for each wrong question, one mark is deducted
• There is no negative marking for unanswered questions and non-MCQs
• The CAT score of any candidate is the total score they obtain in the paper
• The sectional scores are summed up and sorted to arrive at the total CAT score

CAT Score Vs Percentile: What is CAT Percentile?

The CAT percentile is referred to as the total percentage of candidates who scored less than or equal to a particular candidate in the exam. For example, if a candidate’s CAT percentile is 99, it means his/her performance was better than 99 per cent of the total CAT test takers that year. Or one can say, candidates scoring above 90 percentile would be the top 10 per cent of the students that year.  

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

Thus, CAT percentile does not refer to the actual performance in the CAT exam, but refers to a particular candidate’s performance in comparison to all the test takers.

CAT 2023 percentile calculation will be based on the same formula.

CAT Score Vs Percentile: What is CAT Scalled Score/Marks?

CAT exam is held in multiple sessions (two or three). The question papers of all the sessions are slightly different from each other and to ensure fairness and equity in comparison of performances, a scaled score is calculated through normalisation process. This scaled score might be more or less than the raw score.

Also Read: CAT - How Scaled CAT Score will be Calculated for Three Slots?

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023 Estimation

Take a look at the *table below to understand how much CAT score will fetch how much CAT percentile as estimated by IMS India experts. These are estimated CAT 2023 scores versus percentiles of all three slots basis the number of questions.

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 and not actual representation.

Also Read:

• CAT cut offs 2023: Expected and previous years
• CAT 2022 analysis: Slot 1, 2 and 3
• IIM shortlist and selection criteria

CAT Score Vs Percentile: What is Normalisation of CAT score?

CAT normalisation process is based on GATE scoring, where the normalisation is based on the assumption that distribution of abilities of candidates is the same across all the sessions. The calculations are based on statistic equations.

GATE normalisation takes into account all the variations in the difficulty levels of the question papers across different session.

Also Read: Understanding CAT normalisation process

CAT Score Vs Percentile: How is Overall CAT Percentile Calculated?

The CAT percentile is mapped against scaled score of each of the three sections and overall scaled score. All these six measurements are taken into account for reporting purpose, i.e. each candidate’s CAT result-cum-scorecard will contain section wise and overall scaled scores and percentiles.

It must be noted that even though CAT percentile is a popular terms and indicates the candidate’s performance compared to the rest, it is the CAT score (scaled) which is used for the calculation of composite score for shortlisting candidates for WAT-PI round of IIMs.

Also Read:

• Colleges accepting CAT scores range 60-70 percentile 
• Colleges accepting CAT scores range 70-80 percentile
• Colleges accepting CAT scores above 85 percentile
• Colleges accepting CAT scores range 80-90 percentile
• Colleges accepting CAT scores range 50-60 percentile

CAT Score Vs Percentile: CAT Composite Score Calculation

The composite score of each candidate is arrived at by calculating their score on the basis of some parameters. The parameters for CAT score and percentile calculation will include:

• CAT score (scaled)
• Class 12 marks
• Class 10 marks
• Graduation score
• Work Experience
• Diversity (Gender)
• Diversity (Academic)

Given below is the formula of calculating CAT Composite Score used by the IIMs.