CAT Score vs Percentile 2026, 2025, 2024: Overall & Section wise Detailed Analysis
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What is the difference between CAT score and Percentile? How much CAT score will fetch you 99 percentile? Why do B-Schools consider CAT percentile for candidate shortlisting? Those planning to appear for CAT 2026 exam must know these answers to prepare for the exam in a focussed manner.Read below all about CAT Score vs Percentile.
CAT score vs percentile 2026: How to calculate?
CAT score vs percentile calculation is key to understanding how candidates' performances are evaluate. CAT result is prepared on the basis of candidates’ relative performances so one needs to be ahead of peers. Only studying hard will not help in this regard. You will need to have a strategic plan as well as the skill to execute it. CAT 2026 preparation strategy should be based on three things – your target college, its admission cut off and your ability to score that much.
It is not about getting a particular score, it is about whether that score will put you in the desired percentile bracket or not. With only 2 months left for CAT 2026 exam (November 29), this is the time to speed up preparation and change the strategy into a more percentile focussed plan. Thus, you must understand the CAT score vs percentile formula now.
So, what is CAT percentile? and what is the difference between CAT score and CAT percentile?
The answer: CAT score is the total marks obtained by a candidate in the exam and CAT percentile is a relative score/rank.
Both CAT score and CAT percentile are equally important as higher the score, higher the percentile. CAT percentile plays a very important role in IIM admission. Read this blog to understand the difference between CAT score and CAT percentile.
Also Read: CAT Admit Card 2026
- CAT Score vs Percentile Calculation 2026
- What is CAT Percentile?
- What is CAT Scaled Score?
- CAT Score vs Percentile 2026 (Expected)
- What is Normalisation of CAT score?
- How is Overall CAT Percentile Calculated?
- CAT Score vs Percentile 2026: CAT Composite Score Calculation
- CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile
- CAT Score vs Percentile 2024
CAT Score vs Percentile Calculation 2026
As mentioned earlier, CAT percentile is the relative score of a candidate on the basis of their performance compared to other candidates. This relative score is arrived at by evaluating marks scored by them in the CAT exam against a few parameters. So, how to calculate the CAT score and CAT percentile? In order to clear the CAT marks vs percentile 2026 confusion, let’s understand it in detail with an example:
- The CAT question paper has 68 questions from Quantitative Ability (22), Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (24) and Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (22).
- The total marks of CAT exam is 204. Every question carries 3 marks for correct attempt and every MCQ carried -1 mark for incorrect attempt.
- There is no negative marking for unanswered questions and non-MCQs.
- The sectional scores are summed up and sorted to arrive at the total CAT score.
What is CAT Percentile?
CAT percentile is referred to as the 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.
Let's understand CAT percentile calculation with an example: 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.
An important point to note is that, CAT percentile does not refer to the actual performance in the CAT exam. It refers to a particular candidate’s relatie performance in comparison to all the test takers.
Practice Shiksha CAT Mock Tests for 99+ Percentile
Practice Shiksha CAT mock tests to analyse your preparation level and progress needed in the next two months. You can evaluate your strengths and weakness so that you can work on them in a more focussed manner.
| CAT Mock Test by Shiksha | Direct Link for CAT Mock Test |
|---|---|
| Mock Test 1 | Practice CAT Mock Test |
| Mock Test 2 | Practice CAT Mock Test |
| Mock Test 3 | Practice CAT Mock Test |
What is CAT Scaled Score?
CAT exam is held in three sessions. The question papers of all CAT sessions are slightly different from each other and to ensure fairness and equity in comparison of performances, a scaled score is calculated through normalization process. A formula is applied for CAT score normalization. This scaled CAT score might be more or less than the raw score. CAT 2026 will also follow the same pattern of the three slots with different test forms.
Also Read:
- CAT 2026 DILR Strategy to Score 26+ Marks & Get 95+ Percentile
- CAT 2026 Quant Strategy to Score 25 + Marks and Get 95 + Percentile
CAT Score vs Percentile 2026 (Expected)
CAT 2026 will be conducted by IIM Indore so candidates can expect a moderate paper. This may afftect changes in CAT score vs percentile calculation in comparison to last year. Shared below is an estimation of CAT marks vs percentile 2026.
| Percentile |
VARC Score |
DILR Score |
QA Score |
Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99.9 |
51 |
46 |
48 |
122 |
| 99.5 |
44 |
39 |
40 |
103 |
| 99 |
40 |
34 |
33 |
90 |
| 98 |
34 |
31 |
30 |
81 |
| 95 |
30 |
26 |
25 |
70 |
| 90 |
23 |
19 |
18 |
53 |
| 85 |
19 |
15 |
16 |
45 |
| 80 |
17 |
13 |
14 |
40 |
| 75 |
15 |
11 |
12 |
34 |
CAT score vs percentile 2026: VARC
Check the table below for an estimation of how much CAT VARC score will convert into VARC percentile.
| VARC score |
CAT Percentile (estimated) |
|---|---|
| 59.00 |
100.00 |
| 41.00 |
99.00 |
| 36.00 |
98.00 |
| 30.00 |
95.00 |
| 24.00 |
90.00 |
| 20.00 |
85.00 |
| 18.00 |
80.00 |
CAT score vs percentile 2026: DILR
Check the table below for an estimation of how much CAT DILR score will convert into DILR percentile.
| DILR score |
CAT Percentile (estimated) |
|---|---|
| 63.00 |
100.00 |
| 38.00 |
99.00 |
| 34.00 |
98.00 |
| 27.00 |
95.00 |
| 22.00 |
90.00 |
| 19.00 |
85.00 |
| 18.00 |
80.00 |
Also Read:
CAT score vs percentile 2026: Quantitative Aptitude
Check the table below for an estimation of how much CAT Quant score will convert into Quant percentile.
| QA score |
CAT Percentile (estimated) |
|---|---|
| 57.00 |
100.00 |
| 33.00 |
99.00 |
| 29.00 |
98.00 |
| 22.00 |
95.00 |
| 17.00 |
90.00 |
| 14.00 |
85.00 |
| 11.00 |
80.00 |
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:
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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.
CAT Score vs Percentile 2026: 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 2026 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.
Composite score calculation formula
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Commonly asked questions
CAT cut off is prepared by all accepting colleges individually. There is no one authorized body to do so. Even the IIMs determine their admission cut offs separately.
CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile
Check the below table for CAT percentile and score calculation of CAT 2025 exam. The exam was conducted by IIM Kozhikode and the difficulty level of the test was on the tougher side. CAT 2025 score vs percentile calculation.
| CAT Percentile |
CAT Score |
|---|---|
| 99.99 |
132 |
| 99.95 |
110 |
| 99.9 |
112 |
| 99.5 |
93.5 |
| 99 |
84.6 |
| 98 |
75 |
| 97 |
71 |
| 95 |
62.7 |
| 90.00% |
51.5 |
| 85 |
44.28 |
| 80 |
37-38 |
| 75 |
33-34 |
| 70 |
30-31 |
| 65 |
26 |
| 60 |
23 |
| 55 |
20 |
CAT Score vs Percentile 2024
Given below is the table indicating the CAT score vs percentile calculation of 2024 exam. The number of test takers was highest in CAT 2024, at 2.93 lakh.
| CAT Percentile |
CAT Score |
|---|---|
| 99.9 |
127 |
| 99.5 |
103 |
| 99 |
95 |
| 97 |
78.9 |
| 95 |
70 |
| 90 |
58 |
| 85 |
50 |
| 80 |
44 |
| 75 |
40 |
Commonly asked questions
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:
- IIM Ahmedabad: 95 percentile
- IIM Bangalore: 85 percentile
- IIM Calcutta: 85 percentile
- IIM Lucknow: 90 percentile
- IIM Kozhikode: 85 percentile
- IIM Indore: 90 percentile
- IIM Udaipur: 93 percentile
- IIM Shillong: 75 percentile
- IIM Trichy: 93 percentile
- IIM Visakhapatnam: 80 percentile
- IIM Rohtak: 95 percentile
- 1IIM Nagpur: 85 percentile
- IIM Jammu: 93 percentile
- IIM Ranchi: 90 percentile
- IIM Sirmaur: 92 percentile
- IIM Bodhgaya: 93 percentile
- IIM Sambalpur: 93 percentile
- IIM Kashipur: 94 percentile
- IIM Raipur: 93 percentile
- 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.
Yes, the CAT accepting MBA colleges conduct either GD/PI or WAT/PI. Since MBA is a professional course about business and team management, personality assessment round is essential to ensure that the aspirant has the flair for management which can be polished during the programme. Communication skills, problem solving ability, management and leadership are essential qualities for MBA thus, every B-School conducts GD/PI or WAT/PI.
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.
In CAT 2025, the number of 100 percentilers was 12. Check state wise data:
Overall Percentile | Total | Gender and Discipline | State wise distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
100 | 12 | Female - 2 Male - 10 Engineering - 3 Non-Engineering - 9 | Uttar Pradesh 1 Karnataka 1 Maharashtra 1 Delhi 3 Haryana 2 Gujarat 2 Jharkhand 1 Odisha 1 |
The MBA institute with an 85 percentile CAT cutoff that has the lowest fee is Delhi School of Economics. The fee is INR 30,000 for two years. The course fee is low in this institute because it is a government aided institution. DSE is a highly reputed for Economics and MBA programmes and provides excellent placement opportunities to its students.
Some of the top CAT 85 percentile colleges are mentioned below:
· IIM Amritsar
· IIM Bodh Gaya
· IIM Nagpur
· VGSoM IIT Kharagpur
· Department of Management Studies – IIT Madras
· Department of Management Studies-IIT Roorkee,
· Department of Management Studies-Delhi Technological University
· TAPMI Manipal
· IMT Nagpur
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)
To get 99 percentile and above, candidates must attempt 40-45 out of 68 questions in CAT, with maximum accuracy.
No, securing a high CAT percentile is not enough for admission. One has to clear the selection process round too, like WAT and PI.
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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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered Yesterday
For CAT Data Interpretation preparation, candidates can refer to Arun Sharma's books for CAT DILR. His books cover this topic comprehensively.
A
Contributor-Level 7
Answered Yesterday
Yes, Data Interpretation is important for CAT as it makes up for 50 percent of the DILR sections, which carries a weightage of 66 marks.
E
Contributor-Level 7
Answered Yesterday
There are usually 8-10 questions on Data Interpretation in CAT. The questions are in sets of 4 or 5.
A
Contributor-Level 7
Answered Yesterday
Practise previous-year CAT questions, mock tests, and vocabulary books such as Word Power Made Easy. Reading editorials and quality articles can also help.
P
Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
Yes. It improves grammar, vocabulary, context-based understanding, and sentence interpretation, which are useful for VARC preparation.
P
Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
CAT does not have a fixed number of Sentence Completion questions. Direct questions on this topic are uncommon.
P
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
Aspirants should attempt CAT DILR practise questions as timed mock exercises without checking the answers, and solutions. Candidates must go through answers and solutions after completing each set.
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
No. These are original practice questions curated from past-paper reasoning structures, not guaranteed exam questions.
V
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 2 days ago
Yes, ISBR Business School give scholarship based on the CAT score. Below given is the scholarship criteria and percentage of tuition fee waiver given by the ISBR Business School based on the CAT score.
| Examination | Scholarship Criteria | Category | Quantum of Scholarship | Nos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAT | 90 percentile or above | Merit / Industry Sponsored | 100% Full Ride | 5 Nos. |
| 85 percentile or above | 50% Waiver in Tuition Fee | 20 Nos. | ||
| 80 percentile or above | 25% | 25 Nos. |
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
To prepare for CAT Arithmetic section, refer to Class 9 and 10 NCERT Math books. These books will help you recap fundamental concepts and formulae. For advance level questions, refer Arum Sharma and Nishit Sinha books recommended for CAT quantitative aptitude preparation.
A
Contributor-Level 7
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