CAT Cut Off 2024: Check expected and final Cut Offs for IIMs and Top MBA Colleges

CAT Cut Off 2024: CAT 2024 was successfully conducted on November 24, 2024. CAT 2024 analysis shows that the difficulty level of the exam paper was lesser than last year. While CAT scores will be officially released only in the last week of December or the first week of January, the answer keys will be released much earlier in December.

Based on the answer keys, you can accurately estimate your score and compare it with previous years' scores to get a fair idea of your percentile. And then, based on those percentiles, you can figure out which cutoff you will most likely be able to clear and which colleges you can expect a call from. Check out the (announced) qualifying cut off and (expected) final cut off for IIMs and top MBA colleges including FMS, SPJIMR, MDI and others for different percentile ranges.

Table of Content:

1. What is CAT Cut Offs?

2. CAT cutoff 2024

3. CAT Cut Off for IIMs Admission 2025 (Expected)

4. CAT Cut Off for Common Admission Process (CAP) 2025 Participating IIMs

5. Sectional CAT Cutoff for Top IIMs

6. CAT Cut Off 2024 Category Wise

7. CAT Cut off for Top IITs for MBA Admission

8. CAT Cut Off for Top MBA Colleges (Non-IIMs)

9. CAT Cutoff Score Vs Percentile

1. What is CAT Cut Offs?

The CAT Cut Off refers to the minimum CAT percentage necessary for securing admission into the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other prestigious MBA institutions. Typically, there are two categories of cutoffs that need to be monitored.

The first criterion is the minimum cutoff, applicable both overall and in each section, which must be met for consideration for admission. The second criterion is the final admission cutoff, indicating the actual scores of students who got a call. Typically, the minimum cutoffs are significantly lower than the final cutoffs. For example, IIM Ahmedabad sets a minimum qualifying CAT cutoff at 80%, whereas the final cutoffs for general candidates reached as high as 99%.

2. CAT cutoff 2024

The actual cutoffs won’t be revealed until after the score are declared officially in January 2024. However, a general understanding of the cutoff can be obtained by analysing the score trends of previous years. The cutoff for CAT 2023 will be determined by a combination of several factors.

+ The difficulty level of the question paper -A higher difficulty level will consequently lower the cutoff scores.

+ Total number of applicants – More than 3.3 lakh applications were a historic high for the CAT exam last year in 2023, resulting in higher cutoffs due to increased competition.

+ Total number of seats available- IIMs and other colleges often change the number of seats available to candidates. Changes or amendments in the reservation policy may affect the availability of seats for general candidates. A decrease in the number of seats will increase the cutoff score.

+ College rankings- Colleges that are considered better usually set higher cutoff scores.

+ Number of candidates that meeting the minimum qualifying cutoffs- Often, due to the varying levels of difficulty of the CAT exam, the number of candidates who go beyond the qualifying overall and sectional cutoffs also changes. This again may impact the final admission cutoff.

3. CAT Cut Off for IIMs Admission 2025 (Expected)

CAT cutoff 2024 is much higher than the minimum qualifying to actually stand a chance of getting a GDPI call from a top IIM. Also, it can vary a lot depending on how high the IIM is ranked and how many students fill their forms. For older IIMs, normal candidates will need more than 97% to get a call. For other IIMs, the percentage can range from 93% to 97%. A minimum of 92% is required for CAP calls, though some get calls even with scores as low as 89%-90%, depending on how many seats remain vacant in the initial rounds. Based on the previous year trends, the expected CAT 2024 cutoff for admission into IIMs is given below:

MBA Admission 2025 Alert:

4. CAT Cut Off for Common Admission Process (CAP) 2025 Participating IIMs:

There are 10 IIMs which have common CAT 2024 Exam Cutoff in shortlisting for Personal Interview (PI) round. Although the minimum CAT cut-off announced is at a lower percentile, the actual cut-off is considerably high. The expected CAT cut-off for these IIMs is expected to be as follows:

The two newly established Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), IIM Amritsar and IIM Visakhapatnam, will implement their own distinct cutoff criteria for shortlisting candidates.

5. Sectional CAT Cutoff for Top IIMs

In addition to the overall cutoff percentage for the CAT exam, the IIMs have announced sectional cutoffs. Candidates are required to meet these sectional cutoffs in order to be eligible for the shortlisting process.