The CAT cutoff depends on various factors like difficulty of exam level, no of students participating,and other things. Experts after a discussion and weighing upon various factors decide the cutoff. The CAT 2019 cutoff means a minimum percentile. A candidate must get to qualify for the selection process to proceed for further admission process. All the 20 IIMs will release their respective 20 cut-offs after the exams. Candidates appearing for CAT 2019 must qualify for overall as well as a sectional cutoff to get shortlisted for the next selection round.
CAT Cutoff Determining Factors
There are a lot of factors taken into account for cut-offs for the CAT exam. The determining factors are:-
- The difficulty level of the exam – If the exam standard is too high then the cut off is lowered
- The total number of candidates – Too many candidates,lead to a higher cut-off.
- Number of candidates qualifying in the next round – A low number of candidate’s means lowering of cut-offs.
- A number of seats – a Higher number of seats lead to the lowering of cut-offs.
- Institution ranking – Higher the institute’s ranking higher the cut-offs. Like the cut off for IIMs,which are older and top B-schools like FMS, MDI, goes over 99 percentile. Newer IIMs and other top B-schools have lower cut off,which is around 90 percentile. While B-schools from two to four-tier have 80 to 50 percentile.
Cutoffs for CAT in the recent years
CAT 2019 cutoff will be released after CAT 2019. But the trend from the last few years is expected to follow. IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta,and IIM Lucknow released their category wise cutoff.
Let’s check at the category wise cut off of some top institutions:-
IIM Ahmedabad
The percentile cut off along with category is given below:-
- At IIM Ahmedabad, the cut off from 2015 to 2016 has remained the same. It was 90 for general, for NC-OBC 85,andfor SC, ST and PwD is 60.
- From the year 2017 onwards, the cut off was reduced to 80 for general, NC-OBC was 75, for SC 70,andforST &PWD,it’s
IIM Bangalore
- For IIM Bangalore, the cut off has been 90 for general, 80 for NC-OBC, SC & ST was 70,andPwD was 60 since 2015.
- But from the last year it was relaxed to 85 for general, 75 for NC OBC, SC remained the same, for ST 65 & for the PwD percentile is 60.
These institutes changed the cut-off,but for other IIMs, CAT cut off remained the same for years.
IIM Kolkata
- For IIM Kolkata, the cutoff percentile is 90 for general, 85 for NC-OBC, 70 for SC, ST and PwD since 2014.
IIM Nagpur
- For IIM Nagpur, the cut off is 90 for general, 81 for NC-OBC, 65 for SC, 40 for ST,and 55 for PwD since 2015.
IIM Kozhikode
- For IIM Kozhikode, they will be conducting CAT 2019; the cut off remained 90 general, 80 for NC-OBC, 65 for SC & ST, 55 for PwD.
IIM Rohtak
- For IIM Rohtak, for several years, cut off has been 95, 78, 60,and 40 for general, NC-OBC, PwD, SC & ST,respectively.
For institutes, other than the IIMs, the cut-offshave remained the same every year. There is only a point percentile difference. Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Department of Management Studies (DMS), IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay all have a 99+ percentile. Other institutes like Depart of Management Studies (MDI) Gurugram, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB) follow 95-90 percentile range.
For some colleges, the percentile remains the same; forothers, it changes depending on the management of the particular university.