CAT 2025: Exam Date, IIM Percentile Cutoffs & Marks Guide

The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2025 exam is scheduled for November 30 . Admit cards will be issued on November 12 . Top Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) maintain high percentile thresholds for first-stage candidate shortlisting.

CAT percentile scores are used to select candidates for further IIM admission stages. These stages include written ability tests and personal interview rounds.

IIM Shortlisting Criteria

Each Indian Institute of Management (IIM) releases its own shortlisting criteria annually. These criteria specify minimum overall and sectional percentiles required for consideration. Final selection uses a composite score. This score combines the CAT percentile, performance in written ability tests and personal interviews, academic record, and work experience. Other parameters defined by each IIM are also considered.

Percentile Benchmarks for Top IIMs

IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta historically require 85 percentile or above in each section. They also require an overall percentile of 95 or higher for first-stage shortlisting in the general category.

IIM Lucknow and IIM Kozhikode set overall percentile cut-offs around 90. Their sectional cut-offs range between 80 and 85. Newer IIMs, including IIM Trichy, IIM Nagpur, IIM Udaipur, and IIM Ranchi, consider general category candidates with percentiles between 92 and 94.

Meeting the percentile cut-off does not guarantee final admission. IIMs assess candidates through multiple stages beyond the CAT score.

CAT Cutoff Marks vs. Percentile

Raw scores achieved in CAT convert into percentile ranks. Historically, candidates scoring 95 to 100 marks often fell into the 99 to 100 percentile range. Scores around 73 to 78 marks typically corresponded to the 95 percentile range. Marks between 60 and 65 generally aligned with the 90 percentile bracket.

The table below details previous years’ CAT cutoff marks required to achieve specific percentiles across different exam slots.

Previous Year IIM Admission Cut-offs

IIMs publish their minimum CAT percentile cut-offs for admission each year. These figures indicate the threshold for first-stage shortlisting. The table below shows previous years’ cut-off trends for various IIMs.