CEED

The CEED 2026 exam will have two mandatory parts - Part A and Part B. Interestingly, Part B answer booklet will be evaluated only if the candidate qualifies Part A. If the candidate fails to qualify Part A or doesn't meet the qualifying cut-off, then his or her Part A answer booklet will not be evaluated. 

The scorecards of candidates who fails to meet Part A cut-off would only include Part A marks. Part B and Total marks, along with merit rank, will only be issued to those candidates who meet the cut-off.

The CEED 2026 exam has two parts - Part A and Part B. The Part B answer booklet will be evaluated only if the candidate qualifies Part A. The minimum marks needed to qualify Part A is the qualifying cut-off for CEED 2026 - Part A. The qualifying cut-off would be released sometime in February 2026. 

On the other hand, the admission cut-off would be released by the CEED 2026 participating institutes. It is the minimum score one needs to score for admission to the M.Des programmein their chosen category.

Note that candidates belonging to reserved categories will be considered for admission under both open and reserved category. So, if you are not included in the merit list for open category, you needn’t worry. You will be considered for admission under your reserved category. That being said the candidate needs to note that the seat alloted in the open category and reserved category may not match, just in case you meet cut-off for both categories.

In that case you need to decide which seat to accept and which seat to decline. 

It is a good idea for the candidate to have an idea about the cut-off marks for participating institutes. For one, this will help the candidate check the cut-off trends across the years. The candidate will also provide insights into details like which institute has the highest cut-off. By gaining insights into the cut-off, the candidate will be able to prepare for the CEED 2024 exam accordingly.

For instance, if the candidate is eying one of the top exams, the cut-off would be going to be high. So, the candidate must check the cut-off for their category and check out what rank range is a safe bet for admission.

IIT Bombay released the qualifying marks for CEED 2023 - Part A on February 9, 2023. The qualifying cut-off was released in the form of Standard and Mean Deviations.

Note that the cut-off marks for Part A are the minimum marks the candidate needs to secure in the paper to get shortlisted. Further, Part B answer booklets of only shortlisted candidates will be evaluated. To be included in the CEED 2024 merit list, the candidate also must qualify Part A.

The formula to determine CEED shortlisting criteria is as follows:  

µ + (σ 2) = δ, where µ and σ are the average marks and standard deviation of the distribution of marks obtained by all the candidates in Part-A of CEED. The µ and σ will be rounded off after the first decimal place. The candidates belonging to the reserved categories shall have to fulfill a relaxed cut-off mark, which will be:

0.9 for OBC-NCL

0.9 for EWS

0.5 for SC/ST

0.5 for PwD

Note that only such candidates who meet the qualifying cut-off would get shortlisted and their answer booklets will be evaluated.

The participating institute of CEED 2026 will consider the following points for determining the admission cut-off:

• The number of candidates appearing in CEED 2026

• The performance of candidates in the exam

• The merit ranks of applicants seeking admission to the college

• Total seat intake

• Category under which admission is sought

• Previous years' cutoff trends

Note that the above factors are variables; so, if any of these factors change, the cut-off would also change.