CAT Score Vs Percentile 2024

CAT Score Vs Percentile: Check the Conversion Process, Cut offs for IIMs & Other Top Colleges

CAT 2024 exam date is November 24, 2024. This year IIM Calcutta will conduct the CAT exam in three slots of 2 hours duration each. The maximum score for all the three sections in CAT 2024 exam is 198. Going by the past trends, those who obtain a defined range of CAT score between 100 to 110 could get 99-100 percentile. For your benefit, MBAUniverse.com brings to you the likely range of required CAT cut off percentile in IIMs and other top MBA colleges accepting CAT and the corresponding score required to get the said percentile as per the CAT Marks Vs Percentile conversion process.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2024, conducted by IIMs, is the largest and mandatory entrance exam for MBA/PGP admission 2025 in 21 IIMs, FMS Delhi, IIFT, SPJIMR Mumbai, MDI Gurugram, IITs. All these MBA colleges consider only CAT percentile in their admission process. Read all about the CAT Registration dates and process, how to apply, how to prepare for CAT 2024  Read Table of Contents below to know all about the CAT Score Vs Percentile, its calculation process, top MBA colleges with required CAT Score Vs Percentile

Table of Contents

1. CAT Score Vs Percentile Calculation: Overview of Exam & Scoring Pattern    
2. CAT Score Vs Percentile 2024: Step by Step Conversion Process
3. CAT Score Vs Percentile: Likely Score Required for CAT 99%, 95%, 90%
4. CAT Score vs Percentile 2024 at a Glance: Top B-Schools 
5. CAT Score Vs Percentile Difference: Key Components
6. CAT Score or Percentile-Which is More Important?

1. CAT Score Vs Percentile Calculation: Overview of Exam & Scoring Pattern   
CAT percentile is calculated by converting the raw CAT score to scaled score and then to percentile score after normalization of score based on slot wise exam difficulty level. Following CAT Score Calculation process is applied to first arrive at the raw CAT score followed by CAT scaled score

• There are expected 66 total questions in CAT 2024
• +3 Marks for each correct answer and -1 Mark for each wrong answer for MCQs
• +3 Marks for each correct answer and Zero negative marks for wrong answer for Non MCQs
• Accordingly, total maximum raw score in CAT 2024 question paper is as under:

Source: CAT Question Paper & Scoring Pattern

Based on the detailed analysis of previous CAT scoring vs percentile pattern as below, it will be clear to you how to calculate the CAT score and CAT percentile, how to calculate CAT score, what is Scaled Score in CAT, what are the CAT score range required for different percentile range – all this is well explained with key components applied in the process, for your understanding.

2. CAT Score Vs Percentile 2024: Step by Step Conversion Process

• Step 1: CAT Raw Score: CAT 2024 Raw score is the first thing to calculate as per the CAT Exam Marking scheme (+3 Marks for each correct answer and -1 mark for each wrong answer for MCQs; No negative marking for non MCQs). Read more about this process below.
• Step-2: Normalization of Scores: CAT 2024 will be conducted in 3 sessions with 3 different question papers. In order to ensure fairness and equity in comparison of performances of candidates across different test sessions, the scores of all candidates are subjected to a process of ‘Normalisation’. CAT Score Normalisation process adjusts for location, difficulty level and differences of score distributions across the three different question papers. This gives fair chance to all test takers. Read more about this process below.
• Step-3: Calculation of Scaled Score: After CAT score Normalisation process, the scores are further normalised for all the 3 sections to obtain Scaled Score. Read more about this process below.
• Step-4: Calculation of CAT percentile: Percentile in CAT exam is calculated by taking into account the total number of candidates who appeared for CAT in all the 3 slots. Each candidate is assigned a rank based on scaled score and if more than one candidate obtains same scaled scores, same percentile is assigned to them. Read more about this process below.

Let’s try to understand above processes by using an example. The steps described below are followed to calculate the CAT 2024 scores and percentile obtained by a candidate. While illustrating the percentile score calculation process, DILR section is chosen as an example. Similar process is followed for the overall percentile score calculation and for the other two sections - namely, VARC and Quant in CAT 2024. Check in detail below the IIMs’ process of CAT score to percentile score calculation  

2.1 CAT Score Vs Percentile: Example of DILR Section Used
The steps described below are followed to calculate the CAT 2024 scores and percentile obtained by a candidate. While illustrating the percentile score calculation process, DILR section is chosen as an example. Similar process is followed for the overall percentile score calculation and for the other two sections - namely, VARC and Quant in CAT 2024. Check in detail below the IIMs’ process of CAT score to percentile score calculation  

2.2 How to Calculate CAT Raw Score?
You can calculate CAT raw score as per the marking scheme in CAT 2024 and the accuracy level with which you attempt the questions. You can also check it with answer keys as made available by IIMs after the CAT exam.  

Raw Score Calculation in CAT Exam

• +3 Marks for each right answer
• -1 Mark for each wrong answer (only for MCQs)
• No Negative Marking for Non MCQ type questions
• Maximum marks in CAT 2024: 198

For example, if you attempt 10 questions in DILR section and 8 are correct. Out of the 2 wrong answers, if one is for MCQ and other is for Non-MCQ, your Raw CAT score can be calculated as:

1. 10x3: 30 (Recheck)
2. -1x4 (Deduct 3 marks for wrong answer for MCQ and -1 for negative marking)
3. Deduct 3 marks for Non MCQ (No negative marking for wrong answer)
4. Total raw score that you obtain is: 30-4-3=23 marks

Same process of calculation of Raw score across 3 sections and overall applies for CAT 2024 exam.

2.3 How the CAT Raw scores are Normalized? Check the Process
There are 3 slots for CAT 2024 exam and three different question papers are used in three slots. In order to ensure fairness and equity in comparison of performances of candidates across different test sessions, the scores of candidates go through the process of ‘Normalisation’. The Normalisation process adjusts for location, difficulty level, differences in obtaining score in different question papers. After the first normalisation across overall, the scores are further normalised across different sections to arrive at Scaled score. 

The process of Normalisation as followed by IIMs, is an established practice for comparing candidate scores across multiple Test Forms and is similar to those being adopted in other large educational selection tests conducted in India, such as the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). For normalisation across sections, IIMs will use the percentile equivalence.

2.4 How to Calculate CAT Scaled Score after Normalization Process?
CAT scaled score of a candidate is calculated after Normalisation process across different sections VARC, DILR and QA in CAT 2024. The overall scaled score is obtained by adding scaled scores of these three sections. While illustrating the scaling process, DILR section is chosen as an example. Following steps are followed to calculate the scaled score of a candidate

2.5 How to Calculate CAT Percentile Score?
Next, the CAT Scaled Scores obtained by the above process shall be converted into CAT Percentiles. The steps described below are followed to calculate the CAT 2023 overall and sectional percentile scores obtained by a candidate.

Step 1: Calculate the total number of candidates (N) who appeared for CAT (i.e. including morning, afternoon and evening sessions).

Step 2: Assign a rank (r), based on the scaled scores obtained in the QA section, to all candidates who appeared for CAT. In the case of two or more candidates obtaining identical scaled scores in the QA section, assign identical ranks to all those candidates.

As an illustration suppose exactly two candidates obtain the highest scaled score in the QA section, then both of those candidates are assigned a rank of 1. Moreover, the candidate(s) obtaining the second highest scaled score in the QA section are assigned a rank of 3 and so on.

Step 3: Calculate the percentile score (P) of a candidate with rank (r) in the QA section as:  P = [(N – r )/n] x 100   

Step 4: Round off the calculated percentile score (P) of a candidate up to two decimal points.

For example, all percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.995 are rounded off to 100, all percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.985 but strictly less than 99.995 are rounded off to 99.99 and so on.

A methodology similar to the one described above is used for the computation of the overall CAT percentile scores and for the percentile scores of other sections.

Remember that CAT Score Card contains only your Scaled Score and Percentile Score for each of the three sections, and Total Score.

3. CAT Score Vs Percentile: Likely Score Required for CAT 99%, 95%, 90%
Now that you understand how CAT Scores and CAT Percentile are calculated, let’s talk about the most important thing. What Score is required for CAT 99%, 95%, 90%?

3.1 CAT 2024 Score Vs Percentile: Score required for 99 Percentile
The table below displays the likely CAT score needed for 99 percentile range:

3.2 CAT 2024 Score Vs Percentile: Score Required for 95 Percentile

3.3 CAT Score Vs Percentile 2024: Score Required for 90 Percentile
The table below displays the required CAT score for 90 percentile range:

3.4 CAT Score Vs Percentile 2024: Score required for 85 Percentile
The table below displays the required CAT score needed for 85 percentile range:

3.5 CAT Score Vs Percentile 2024: Score required for 80 Percentile?
The table below displays the likely required CAT score for 80 percentile range:

4. CAT Score vs Percentile 2024 at a Glance: Top B-Schools 
Let us know at a glance what CAT score is expected to get 99, 95, 90, 85,80,70 percentile and the top B-schools available at the said percentile range. It may be noted that top IIMs and other B-schools like SPJIMR announce only minimum CAT cut off percentile required by them for shortlisting, but the actual percentile cut off goes much higher

 Check Top MBA Colleges Accepting CAT Percentile 99, 90, 85, 80 and below

With the CAT registration number going up substantially at 3.30 lakh candidates, CAT 2024 may again have higher competition and it is possible that higher CAT score would be required to get high percentile.  

5. CAT Score Vs Percentile Difference: Key Components
IIMs need to equate and normalize the CAT scores across all the exam sessions before arriving at accurate percentile. If there are more CAT exam slots, IIMs have to normalize CAT score for all the sessions according to the difficulty level of each session. Since CAT 2024 will be conducted in three slots, the conversion of raw CAT score to percentile will be arrived at after normalizing the scores of all three slots as per their difficulty level.  Another key point to convert CAT score to percentile depends upon the number of candidates who have appeared in all the sessions of CAT. The percentile will fluctuate according to the number test takers and slot wise difficulty level of the exam.   

5.1 CAT Score and Percentile: 3 Key Components
After getting a picture of CAT 2024 question paper and marking scheme, you should know what are the key components at each stage of CAT score to percentile conversion process. The important components are shared below

CAT Marking Scheme Vs Percentile Score

6. CAT Score or Percentile-Which is More Important?
IIM do not use CAT raw score and use only the CAT percentile in shortlisting process. As such the CAT percentile is more important than the CAT raw score. CAT score conversion formula is based on difficulty level across three sections. It can give you higher percentile for a lower score, or lower percentile for a higher score as it is based on various components and parameters used in CAT score to CAT percentile conversion process.

Please note that it is not only the overall CAT score and percentile, but also the CAT section wise score and required minimum percentile which is also very important to clear the sectional cut offs in IIMs. Not only the IIMs but also other top B-schools like FMS Delhi, SPJIMR, MDI, IITs, accept CAT percentile score in shortlisting and also award weightage to CAT score in final selection process. It may be noted that CAT score card does not display your CAT score Vs percentile and only the scaled CAT score Vs percentile is mentioned in CAT Score Card. Read More

CAT 2024 result will be released in December 2024 last week or January 2025 first week. You can download it, verify your credentials and check your score as well as percentile. 

Read More: CAT 2024 - Anser Key, Score Card, Colleges