CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: Check CAT Scaled Score, Percentile Predictor, Cut off

Q: What is a good percentile score in CAT?

Based on previous years analysis, at least 98+ percentile is needed for the top IIMs. For new IIMs and IITs, a percentile score of 95 would be sufficient. There are also good MBA colleges that accept 85-95 percentile like TAPMI Manipal, IFMR Chennai, IMT Ghaziabad, XIMB, and SPJIMR Mumbai.

Sachin Gupta

Associate Content Manager | Updated On - Nov 8, 2023

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CAT score vs percentile is an analysis of the score required in CAT exam to get the desired percentile. To know what CAT score is required to get a 99+ percentile, it is essential you know last year’s CAT score vs percentile, CAT score calculation and normalization process, and cut off percentiles for the 21 IIMs, 8 IITs, and 1000+ other top MBA colleges. In this article, we have covered all the aspects to clear your doubts and apprehensions about what is a good score and percentile in CAT, difference between CAT score and percentile, calculation process, percentile predictor, and more.

CAT score is of 2 types- raw score and scaled score. Raw CAT score is the total marks obtained out of 198. CAT scaled score is obtained after normalization of the raw score to ensure equality across all shifts. The normalized CAT score can be either less or more than the raw score.

CAT percentile is the relative score of a candidate in comparison to all others who take the exam.

What does 99 percentile in CAT indicate? Often candidates confuse percentile with percentage. But these two are completely different. Percentage is nothing but a conversion of your CAT score into a fraction of 100. On the other hand, CAT percentile is a measure of your performance in relation to every other competitor. 99 percentile in CAT indicates that your score is more than 99% of the total test-takers.

For example: You have a CAT score of 110 after normalization. Now, in terms of percentage, it will be (110/198)*100 = 55.55%. However, your score of 110 is higher than 99.5% of the total test-takers, so your CAT percentile will be 99.5%ile.

Note that CAT percentile is always calculated on the scaled scores and not the raw score. IIM CAT Cut off includes both sectional and overall percentile. It is mandatory to clear both the sectional and overall CAT cut off percentile to be shortlisted for the PI process.

Based on last year’s CAT score vs percentile analysis, you need above 100 to get a 99.5+ percentile. The level of competition is high this year with more than 3.3 lakh applicants. So, you can expect the score range to be higher to get 99+ percentile, likely around 110.

Table of Contents

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: Predicted Estimation
How Many Questions to Attempt for 99+ Percentile in CAT 2023?
CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: How is CAT Score Calculated?
CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: How is CAT Percentile Calculated?
CAT Score vs Percentile 2022
CAT Score vs Percentile 2021
Calculate and Predict Your Percentile Based on CAT Scaled Scores
Check CAT Cut off for IIM
Expected CAT Score and Percentile for Top Non-IIM MBA Colleges
IIM and Non-IIM Call Predictor
What is CAT Composite Score for IIM Admission?
Frequently Asked Questions

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: Predicted Estimation

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC Score	CAT DILR Score	CAT QA Score	Overall CAT Score
100	40-45	33-35	40-42	120+
99+	34-35	28-30	36-37	100-110
98-99	32-33	27-28	30-32	90-95
95+	32-34	20-21	28-30	80-82
90+	29-30	17-19	26-27	72-75
85+	24-25	14-15	20-22	59-61
80+	20-22	11-13	15-16	46-48

Both CAT scores and CAT percentile are mentioned in CAT result. This year, CAT 2023 result will be released in January 2024 as per the notification by IIM Lucknow.

CAT Marks vs Percentile Section Wise

Knowing CAT marks vs percentile section wise is equally important. What score you need in each section for a particular percentile is essential as you need to clear the sectional cut offs as well.

CAT VARC Score vs Percentile

CAT VARC score vs percentile for the last 3 years is tabulated below. Based on the analysis of the data, attempting 7-8 questions with 100% accuracy can easily get you between 85-90 percentile. For VARC, if you attempt all 24 questions with 60% accuracy, you will still score somewhere between 35-36 and get around 97-98 percentile.

CAT VARC Percentile	CAT 2022 Score	CAT 2021 Score	CAT 2020 Score
99+	38-39	44-45	41-42
95+	29-30	34-35	33-34
90+	23-24	29-30	29-30
85+	20-21	23-24	24-25
80+	17-18	20-21	21-22

CAT DILR Score vs Percentile

CAT VARC score vs percentile for the last 3 years is tabulated below. Based on the analysis of the data, attempting just 1 set of 5 questions with 100% accuracy can easily get you between 85-90 percentile. For DILR, if you attempt at least 2 sets (10 questions) with 75% accuracy, you will easily end up getting 95+ percentile.

CAT DILR Percentile	CAT 2022 Score	CAT 2021 Score	CAT 2020 Score
99+	28-29	32-33	34-35
95+	19-20	25-26	25-26
90+	15-16	20-21	21-22
85+	12-13	17-18	18-19
80+	10-11	14-15	16-17

CAT Quant Score vs Percentile

CAT Quant score vs percentile for the last 3 years is tabulated below. Based on the analysis of the data, it can be easily deciphered that attempting just 10 questions with 80% accuracy can get you above 95 percentile. For 99+ percentile in CAT quant, managing to attempt 14-15 questions and getting 12-13 right is enough to score above 99 percentile.

CAT Quant Percentile	CAT 2022 Score	CAT 2021 Score	CAT 2020 Score
99+	33-34	35-36	44-45
95+	22-23	24-25	30-31
90+	17-18	17-18	23-24
85+	13-14	13-14	19-20
80+	11-12	11-12	16-17

How Many Questions to Attempt for 99+ Percentile in CAT 2023?

Out of the 66 questions in CAT 2023, attempting around 45 questions with 85-90% accuracy can get you a 100 percentile. Given here is the section-wise number of questions to attempt in CAT 2023 to get 99+ percentile, 95+ percentile, and 90+ percentile.

CAT Percentile	VARC questions to attempt	DILR questions to attempt	QA questions to attempt	Overall questions to attempt
100	15-16	11-12	15-16	42-45
99+	14-15	10-11	13-15	40-41
95-98.99	13-14	9-10	12-13	35-39
90-94.99	11-12	7-8	11-12	29-34
85+	9-10	6-7	9-11	24-28

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023

Must Read:

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: How is CAT Score Calculated?

To understand CAT score vs percentile analysis, you need to have an idea of how CAT raw score and CAT scaled score is calculated..

CAT Raw Score: These are the total marks obtained as per the marking scheme.

VARC section: 24 questions (72 marks)
DILR section: 20 questions (60 marks)
QA section: 22 questions (66 marks)

As per CAT 2023 marking scheme, 3 marks are awarded for every correct answer and 1 mark is deducted for the incorrect answers to MCQs only.

Raw CAT Score: (3*total correct answers) - (number of incorrect answers)

CAT Scaled Scores: As CAT is held in multiple shifts, the IIMs normalize the raw scores to ensure that all candidates are scored at an equal level irrespective of the difficulty level across shifts. These normalized CAT scores are called CAT scaled scores.

How is CAT Score Normalized? Know CAT Score Normalization Process to Get Scaled Scores

The scaled scores of each section are calculated and then added to get the overall CAT scaled score. The steps to calculate CAT scaled scores are provided below:

Calculating Mean and Standard Deviation of raw scores obtained by all candidates of slot 1 (8:30 am to 10:30 am)
Calculating Mean and Standard Deviation of raw scores obtained by all candidates of slot 2 (12:30 pm to 2:30 pm)
Calculating Mean and Standard Deviation of raw scores obtained by all candidates of slot 3 (4:30 pm to 6:30 pm)
Calculating Mean and Standard Deviation of raw scores obtained by all candidates of all slots of CAT 2023 exam
Calculating mean scores obtained by top 0.1% candidates of slot 1 (8:30 am to 10:30 am)
Calculating mean scores obtained by top 0.1% candidates of slot 2 (12:30 pm to 2:30 pm)
Calculating mean scores obtained by top 0.1% candidates of slot 3 (4:30 pm to 6:30 pm)
Calculating mean scores obtained by the top 0.1% candidates of all slots of CAT 2023 exam
Then, based on these values, the scaled score is calculated.

To know the formulas used to calculate CAT scaled scores after normalization, click here

[Source: iimcat.ac.in]

How is CAT Percentile Calculated?

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: How is CAT Percentile Calculated?

CAT percentile is a measure of the comparative performance of candidates. It indicates the percentage of test-takers who have scored less than the given candidate.

For example, if there are 1500 candidates and you have secured a 100 percentile, this means that you have scored higher than the 1499 candidates. The formula used to calculate CAT percentile is:

P = [(N-r)/N] X 100;

N is the total number of candidates, r is the rank assigned on the basis of the scaled score in CAT

The percentile score obtained is then rounded off to 2 decimal points.

CAT Score vs Percentile 2022

Given below are section-wise analysis of CAT Score vs Percentile 2022. [Source: IMS India]

CAT Percentile	Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
99.5%ile	101	101	98
99%ile	90	92	88
97%ile	80	80	77
95%ile	66	66	63
90%ile	53	53	50
85%ile	45	45	42
80%ile	40	40	37

CAT Score vs Percentile 2021

The slot-wise analysis of CAT Score vs Percentile 2021 is provided here by one of the most trusted coaching institutes in India. [Source: IMS India]

2021 CAT Score vs Percentile Slot 1

CAT Percentile	CAT Score VARC	CAT Score DILR	CAT Score QA	Overall CAT Score
99.5 %ile	46	35	42	108
99 %ile	42	32	39	100
98 %ile	37	29	35	90
95%ile	31	23	28	75
90%ile	26	19	23	64
85%ile	24	16	20	58
80%ile	21	14	17	53

2021 CAT Score vs Percentile Slot 2

CAT Percentile	CAT Score VARC	CAT Score DILR	CAT Score QA	Overall CAT Score
99.5 %ile	47	41	43	114
99 %ile	43	38	39	106
98 %ile	39	34	34	95
95%ile	32	29	27	79
90%ile	27	24	21	67
85%ile	23	21	17	60
80%ile	21	19	14	54

2021 CAT Score vs Percentile Slot 3

CAT Percentile	CAT Score VARC	CAT Score DILR	CAT Score QA	Overall CAT Score
99.5 %ile	51	31	40	108
99 %ile	48	29	35	102
98 %ile	44	26	31	92
95%ile	38	22	25	81
90%ile	33	18	20	69
85%ile	31	16	17	62
80%ile	29	15	15	58

CAT Percentile Predictor 2023: Calculate and Predict Your Percentile Based on CAT Scaled Scores

Various top coaching institutes provide free CAT percentile predictor tools to help you predict your percentile based on the scores obtained in CAT exam. You just need to register on the website of the coaching institute and use CAT percentile predictor tool to get the most accurate results. The predictions are based on a comparative analysis of the number of candidates who register for the coaching’s CAT score and percentile predictor.

Coaching Institute	Percentile Predictor
CL CAT Percentile Predictor	Check Here
TIME CAT Percentile Predictor	Check Here
IMS CAT Percentile Predictor	Check Here

CAT Marks vs Percentile Analysis

A comparative analysis of CAT Marks vs Percentile of the last 5 years is presented below. Note that CAT total marks were not consistent every year leading to changes in what constitutes an ideal score for a given percentile. A detailed comparison report is tabulated here for your reference.

CAT Exam	CAT Total Marks	CAT Score for 99.5-99.9 percentile	CAT Score for 99-99.5 percentile	CAT Score for 95-99 percentile	CAT Score for 90-95 percentile
CAT 2022	198	95-110	93-84	65-83	50-63
CAT 2021	198	108-120	99-107	75-95	60-70
CAT 2020	228	115-132	102-114	75-100	65-70
CAT 2019	300	170-195	157-170	120-155	90-120
CAT 2018	300	170-192	155-170	125-155	110-125

CAT 2023 Percentile Score: Check CAT Cut off for IIM

Every IIM releases its separate CAT qualifying cut off percentile much before the announcement of CAT result. You can check CAT 2023 Cut off and admission criteria for the batch of 2024-26 using the links given below. The IIMs are listed in order of the latest NIRF management rankings 2023.

IIMs	Cut off and Admission Criteria
IIM Ahmedabad	Check Here
IIM Bangalore	Check Here
IIM Kozhikode	Check Here
IIM Calcutta	Check Here
IIM Lucknow	Check Here
IIM Indore	Check Here
IIM Raipur	Check Here
IIM Rohtak	Check Here
IIM Udaipur	Check Here
IIM Kashipur	Check Here
IIM Trichy	Check Here
IIM Ranchi	Check Here
IIM Shillong	Check Here
IIM Visakhapatnam	Check Here
IIM Jammu	Check Here
IIM Nagpur	Check Here
IIM Amritsar	Check Here
IIM Bodh Gaya	Check Here
IIM Sambalpur	Check Here
IIM Sirmaur	Check Here

Expected CAT Score and Percentile

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: Expected CAT Score and Percentile for Top Non-IIM MBA Colleges

We have provided below the expected CAT score vs percentile 2023 for top MBA colleges other than IIMs. Using the links provided below, you can also check the previous year cut offs, MBA fees, and placement reports of each non-IIM institute listed.

MBA Colleges	CAT Percentile	CAT Score	CAT Cut off Trends
FMS Delhi	98+	95 - 110	Check Here
IIFT	98+	85-90	Check Here
SP Jain	95+	85-90	Check Here
IIT Bombay	95+	85-90	Check Here
IIT Delhi	95+	85-90	Check Here
MDI Gurgaon	95+	85-90	Check Here
XIMB	90+	75-80	Check Here
IMT Ghaziabad	90+	75-80	Check Here
IMI Delhi	90+	75-80	Check Here
MICA	85+	65-72	Check Here
GIM Goa	85+	65-72	Check Here
Great Lakes	85+	65-72	Check Here
K J Somaiya	78+	58-64	Check Here
BIMTECH	78+	58-64	Check Here
IMT Nagpur	78+	58-64	Check Here
Welingkar Mumbai	78+	58-64	Check Here

IIM and Non-IIM Call Predictor

CAT 2023 Score vs Percentile: IIM and Non-IIM Call Predictor

Now, based on your predicted or actual CAT scores and percentile, you can use CAT Call Predictor 2023 to predict your admission chances in top MBA colleges including 21 IIMs, 8 IITs, and 1000+ other non-IIM MBA colleges.

Do IITs accept CAT scores?

Yes, 8 IITs accept CAT scores- IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee, IIT Jodhpur, and IIT-ISM Dhanbad. As per the previous year cut off, candidates would need CAT scores above 98%ile for IIT Delhi & Bombay, 95+%ile for IIT Madras & Kanpur, 90+%ile above for IIT Kharagpur, and 80%ile for ISM Dhanbad. Check CAT 2023 Cut off & Admission Process for IITs

CAT Score vs Percentile: What is CAT Composite Score for IIM Admission?

CAT Composite Score is calculated by each IIM for shortlisting CAT appeared candidates for PI and WAT rounds. While preparing the composite scores, the IIMs take into consideration various factors apart from CAT scaled scores and percentile.

Class 12th Marks
Class 10th Marks
Graduation Marks
Work Experience
Gender Diversity
Academic Diversity

Every IIM has a different set of weighted scores assigned to each parameter.

Must Check:

Frequently Asked Questions

Ques. What percentile is 40 marks in CAT?

Ans. 40 marks in CAT is equivalent to 75-78 percentile. It is an estimate on the basis of last year's CAT score vs percentile by experts from top coaching institutes. With this percentile score in CAT, getting a call from IIM is difficult but you can get admission to other MBA colleges like IMT Nagpur, XIME Bangalore, BIMTECH Greater Noida among others.

Ques. How much percentile is 50 marks in CAT?

Ans. 50 marks is approximately between 85-89 percentile in CAT as per last year's reports. However, as per the 2021 estimates by IMS India, 50 marks would get you less than 80 percentile. This year, it is expected that the corresponding percentile range for 50 marks may be lower than 78 percentile given the highest number of CAT applicants 2023 at 3.3 lakhs.

Ques. How much percentile is 48 marks in CAT?

Ans. 48 percentile in CAT can be anywhere close to 80 percentile or lower depending on the number of CAT test takers and their exam performance.

Ques. What is 120 marks in CAT?

Ans. 120 marks in CAT is a very high score. Not many candidates manage to get such a high score in CAT. With 120 marks in CAT, it is very likely that you get a 100 percentile or 99.9+ percentile.

Ques. What score is 99.5 percentile in CAT?

Ans. There is no particular score that may guarantee a 99+ percentile since it changes every year with the difficulty of the CAT exam. But based on previous years’ analysis, 99.5+ percentile in CAT would require a minimum score of 100-105. For getting this score in CAT, it is important to attempt at least 45 questions out of 66 with 98% accuracy.

Ques. What percentile is 30 marks in CAT?

Ans. With 30 marks in each section of CAT, i. e. an overall scaled score of 90 means your percentile can be expected somewhere around 98-99. But 30 marks overall in CAT is a very low score. It would be equivalent to no more than 60-65 percentile in CAT.

Ques. How much is 99 percentile in CAT?

Ans. CAT 2023 exam will have 66 questions carrying 3 marks each. Based on expert CAT score vs percentile analysis, it is believed that a score in the range of 98-102 would be sufficient to get 99 percentile. The expected sectional scores required to get this percentile would be:

VARC Score: 34-35
DILR Score: 28-30
QA Score: 36-37

Ques. How much is 60 marks in CAT percentile?

Ans. 60 marks in CAT percentile would be somewhere between 85 to 90 percentile as per the CAT percentile vs score analysis of 2022 and 2021.

Ques. CAT percentile is calculated on raw scores or scaled scores?

Ans. CAT percentile is calculated on the basis of the scaled scores. CAT scaled scores are calculated after normalizing the raw scores for the difficulty level across all 3 slots of CAT exam.

Ques. What is a good percentile score in CAT?

Ans. Based on previous years’ analysis, at least 98+ percentile is needed for the top IIMs. For new IIMs and IITs, a percentile score of 95 would be sufficient. There are also good MBA colleges that accept 85-95 percentile like TAPMI Manipal, IFMR Chennai, IMT Ghaziabad, XIMB, and SPJIMR Mumbai.

*The article might have information for the previous academic years, which will be updated soon subject to the notification issued by the University/College.

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023: Check CAT Score Calculation, Normalization, Percentile Predictor, Cut off for IIM and Other MBA Colleges