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How Much CAT Score is Required for IIM - The question that every CAT aspirant encounters is ‘How much CAT score is required for IIM’. Every year over 2.5 lakh candidates appear for the CAT exam and have this question as IIMs are considered the most prestigious B schools in India. The CAT scores required are different for every IIM. The CAT score required for IIMs is released as a CAT cutoff by the individual IIM for shortlisting candidates for PI and WAT rounds.
Check Here- CAT Score required for IIM Ahmedabad
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The CAT score is the score that the candidate obtains after the CAT normalisation process is implemented. The CAT percentile indicates that a candidate's score is above the percentage of candidates who appeared for the CAT 2025. The sectional and the overall CAT scores for different CAT percentiles are mentioned in the table below.
CAT percentile | Score VARC | Score DILR | Score QA | CAT Total Marks |
99.5 | 42 | 30 | 30 | 86 |
99 | 36 | 25 | 25 | 74 |
95 | 30 | 20 | 22 | 52 |
90 | 24 | 14 | 13 | 42 |
80 | 20 | 11 | 9 | 35 |
70 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 30 |
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The CAT 2025 result date is expected to be out in the second/third week of December 2025. The CAT result 2025 will be available on the official website iimcat.ac.in. The result of CAT 2025 will be declared in a scorecard form.
Considering the trends from past years, the CAT scores required for IIMs are between 98-99.9 percentile. The expected IIM Cut off required for IIMs in 2025 is given below.
Name of IIM | Expected CAT Score (Percentile) 2025 |
99-100 | |
99-100 | |
99 | |
97+ | |
97+ | |
97-98 | |
95+ | |
95+ | |
95+ | |
94 | |
94 | |
94 | |
94 | |
92 | |
92 | |
92 | |
90 | |
95 | |
95 |
According to the CAT score required for IIM for the past years, IIM Ahmedabad has had the highest cutoff, while IIM Bodh Gaya has had the lowest. The past years' CAT scores required for IIMs are given in the table below.
Name of IIM | CAT scores 2024 (General) | CAT scores 2023 | CAT scores 2022 |
84.12 | 93.76 | 87.1 | |
--- | 91.97 | 86.18 | |
--- | --- | --- | |
90 | 92.48 | --- | |
90 | 92.92 | 90.72 | |
85 | 88.14 | 91.94 | |
--- | 88.37 | --- | |
99.69 | 94 | 90.16 | |
90 | 88.02 | 80.02 | |
95 | 94.01 | 92.13 | |
94 | --- | --- | |
94 | --- | 92 | |
82 | 82.03 | --- | |
--- | 95.85 | 92.03 | |
--- | --- | --- | |
--- | 98.45 | --- | |
80 | --- | 92 | |
97 | 96 | 95 | |
85 | 91.54 | 91.54 |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
70-80 percentile is considered a moderate score in CAT. Therefore, you must be assured that you are already above average.
There is no single minimum CAT score for all IIMs, as the cutoffs vary by institute, category and overall profile. Some of the top IIMs, such as Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta, often require a percentile of 98-99+, while new IIMs may accept scores in the 90-95 percentile range.
IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore are the toughest to get into as per the feedback of the previous CAT candidates. The CAT cutoff is the highest for these two IIMs. The overall selection metric is also the strictest for these two IIMs.
IIMs do consider the marks obtained by an applicant in their 12th standard. The weightage and the round for which they are considered would vary from one IIM to another. The weightage of the 12th marks varies anywhere from 5% to 15%.
IIM with lower CAT pass percentage are easy to get into. IIMs such as IIM Bodh Gaya, IIM Sirmaur, IIM Amritsar, IIM Shillong, and IIM Nagpur are much easier to get into if the CAT scores are low and the overall is not strong enough for top IIMs.
The minimum CAT percentile for IIM Ahmedabad is considered to be around 99. At 80% it will be hard to get into any of the IIMs. For 80% in CAT, candidates should look for colleges other than IIMs.
On Question asked by student community
Hey there,
For NIT Hamirpur MBA, the General-category CAT cutoff is not a fixed official percentile. NIT Hamirpur's 2026–27 admission process gives CAT a 10/10 weightage in the test component, followed by an interview; it accepts CAT, CMAT and MAT.
As a practical target, 80+ percentile is worth considering, while
If by B-category you mean management/private quota MBBS seats, the cutoff is very different from government-quota MBBS.
In Tamil Nadu, management-quota MBBS seats are available in self-financing/private medical colleges through the state counselling process. The closing rank varies significantly between colleges and counselling rounds. The 2025 counselling data shows that
Hello Student,
With a CAT 2025 percentile of 98.25, you have a good chance of receiving calls from several IIMs, particularly newer IIMs. However, IIM Ahmedabad , Bangalore , Calcutta , and Lucknow generally require higher percentiles for General-category candidates. Calls also depend on sectional percentiles, academics, work experience, and
Hello Aspirant,
Yes, you can access CAT preparation resources, including mock tests, practice questions, previous-year papers, and study material. Explore the CAT preparation resources and test series using the link below:
https://www.careers360.com/mba/download/ebooks-and-sample-papers?exam=45
Hope this Helps!
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