CAT Score vs Percentile 2025: Overall & Section-wise Analysis

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? As you prepare for MBA admission through CAT 2025 exam, read below all about CAT Score vs Percentile.

Check Detailed score vs percentile analysis for CAT exam

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 - CAT result 2025 will be released in percentile and selection for admission will also be based on the same. Thus, it is very natural to ask "what is CAT percentile?", "what is the difference between CAT score and CAT percentile?" and "which of the two is more important? "The answer: CAT score is the total marks obtained by a candidate in the exam and CAT percentile is a relative score/rank.

CAT score and CAT percentile are equally important as they both are directly responsible for a candidate's selection for MBA admission. CAT exam 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). And the basis of CAT percentile calculation is the CAT score. Candidates can calculate their score with the help of CAT 2025 answer key. Once the CAT 2025 result will be declared they will finally know the actual score. Read this blog to understand what is the difference between CAT score and CAT percentile. 

Latest: CAT 2025 result date and final answer key soon- live updates

CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile Calculation

As mentioned earlier, CAT percentile is a measure of obtaining relative score by categorizing a candidate on the basis of their performance compared to other candidates. This relative score is arrived at by analyzing marks scored by them in the CAT exam along with a few other parameters. CAT result cum scorecard contains candidate's score as well as percentile.

So, how to calculate the CAT score and CAT percentile? In order to clear the CAT marks vs percentile 2025 confusion, let’s understand it in detail with the example of CAT 2025:

• The CAT 2025 question paper had 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 was 204. Every question carried 3 marks for correct attempt and every MCQ carried -1 mark for incorrect attempt.
• There was no negative marking for unanswered questions and non-MCQs.
• The sectional scores are summed up and sorted to arrive at the total CAT score.

Watch video to understand CAT Marks 2025 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.  

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.

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

Check and calculate CAT marks vs percentile 2025 by formula shared in this article below.

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 2025 will also follow the same pattern of the three slots with different test forms. 

Also Read:

• How Scaled CAT Score will be Calculated for Three Slots?
• 100 percentile in CAT? What does it mean
• CAT 2025 exam analysis and expected score

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 (Expected)

CAT 2025 was conducted by IIM Kozhikode and the paper was easier than last year. Shared below is an estimation of CAT marks vs percentile 2025.  

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

100 percentile in CAT: Know what it means

How CAT scaled score will be calculated for three slots

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.

CAT result cum scorecard

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 50-60 percentile
• 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

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025: 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 2025 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

CAT 2024 Score Vs Percentile (Overall)

Take a look at the table below to understand how much CAT score will fetch how much CAT percentile as estimated by IMS experts. These are slot wise CAT 2024 marks vs percentile for various ranges, basis the number of questions.

*The above figures are estimation and not actual representation.

Also Read:

• CAT cut offs 2025 (expected)
• IIM shortlist and selection criteria 2026

CAT score vs percentile 2024: VARC

Check the table below for an estimation of how much CAT VARC score will convert into VARC percentile.

CAT score vs percentile 2024: DILR

Check the table below for an estimation of how much CAT DILR score will convert into DILR percentile.

CAT score vs percentile 2024: Quantitative Aptitude

Check the table below for an estimation of how much CAT Quant score will convert into Quant percentile.

Also read:

CAT score vs percentile 2023 (Overall)

Check the table below for CAT marks vs percentile comparison for 2023.

CAT marks vs percentile 2023: VARC

Check the table below for CAT marks vs percentile 2023 comparison for VARC.

CAT marks vs percentile 2023: DILR

Check the table below for CAT marks vs percentile 2023 comparison for DILR.

 CAT marks vs percentile 2023: Quantitative Aptitude

Check the table below for CAT marks vs percentile 2023 comparison for Quantitative Aptitude.