CAT Eligibility Criteria; Qualification, Age Limit and Reservation Criteria for General, SC/ST/PWD Categories

The Common Admission Test 2025 (CAT 2025) is expected to be held on November 30, 2025. Candidates willing to take CAT exam should know the CAT exam eligibility criteria beforehand.CAT eligibility criteria are set by the IIMs in line with the AICTE guidelines for postgraduate (PG) education. The Common Admission Test or CAT is conducted for admission to MBA/PGDM programmes offered by IIMs and over 1,200 other B-schools in India.

Since MBA is a post-graduation programme, the basic CAT exam eligibility criteria are a graduation or equivalent degree, i.e. every CAT candidate must have completed graduation or be in the final year of a degree course. The minimum marks criteria apply to both reserved and unreserved category students. Candidates can read further to know about CAT exam eligibility criteria in detail. Candidates can read this article to know complete about CAT exam eligibility criteria in detail.

CAT Exam Eligibility Criteria 2025: Highlights

Particulars	Details
Academic Qualification	Bachelors Degree in any Stream
Pass Percentage Required	50% for General/EWS/OBC categories students and 45% for SC/ST/PwD Candidates
Age Limit criteria	No Age Limit
Work Experience	Work experience is not required for CAT exam, but some B-schools ask for work experience at the time of admission or give preference to the candidate.
Final Year Student or Result waiting	Students can apply for CAT Exam

CAT Eligibility Criteria 2025:

The formal announcement regarding the eligibility for the CAT exam is expected to be released in July by the exam conducted body. It is necessary to meet the eligibility requirements for CAT 2025 to register for the exam. If a candidate belongs from General category or NC-OBC category candidates must have a bachelor's degree in any stream with a minimum of 50% marks in graduation or equivalent. The graduation or equivalent degree in any stream must be obtained from a recognized university. For candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disabilities (PwD) categories, the minimum eligibility percentage for the CAT exam has been fixed at 45%.

CAT Exam Eligibility Criteria – Percentage of Reservation Criteria

Category	Percentage of Reservation
NC OBC	27%
SC	15%
ST	7.5%
PwD	5%

Moreover, as per the eligibility criteria for CAT, candidates who are in the final year of graduation and awaiting their results are also considered eligible. Additionally, the CAT eligibility requirements specify that candidates have a professional degree (such as CA, CS, ICWA (CMA), or Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of India (FIAI)) with a minimum of 50% marks are also considered eligible.

Age Criteria for CAT Exam 2025

Candidates should know that there is no age limit for the CAT exam. So, graduates of any age are eligible to take the Common Admission Test 2025. Since there is no age limit for the CAT exam, it attracts candidates from different age groups. So irrespective of the age if a candidate fulfils the educational criteria then he/she can apply for CAT 2025. So, according to the age eligibility criteria for the CAT exam, there are no upper or lower age limits. One just needs to complete graduation in ant stream.

CAT Eligibility Criteria 2025 – Work Experience

As per the eligibility for CAT exam, work experience is not mandatory. However, candidates with work experience are given weightage during the selection process of some of the top B-schools and management colleges.