CAT

Scoring a very high percentile above 98 or 99 is considered the basic requirement to get shortlisted by IIMs. In the race we forget that the primary requirement to qualify for getting shortlisted by the IIMs is scoring high and balanced sectional percentile in CAT and not the over-all percentile. IIMs after applying their equated normalization system would prefer a candidate with fairly high balanced percentile of 90+ and 94+ in each section with overall percentile of 95-97 to a candidate with overall high percentile of 98-99 having greater deviation in sectional percentile. If you have a good academic record with 90 percent marks in class X, XII and graduation, you stand better chances of getting shortlisted even if you have scored less in CAT. On the academic diversity front, Iims will prefer candidates with background from Humanities, Arts, Commerce etc. Accordingly higher weightage for the candidates coming from non-engineering back ground will be awarded to the students of Arts, Commerce, Economics and other non technical courses.