IIM K's shortlisting and selection criteria has changed. And in our opinion, changed for the better.
Why?
1) Sectional Cutoffs are back - 80%ile in each section for the General Category
2) Overall CAT Cutoff for General Category has gone up to 90%ile
3) Overall weight to CAT in the shortlisting criteria has gone up to 76%.
4) 10th and 12th have only been used as a filter. They have no weight anymore ! Also, no normalization headaches there.
5) Higher importance to Grad scores which means more weight give to your recent academic performance.
6) Return of Work-Ex component in the shortlisting criteria. This was absent from IIM K's criteria for a while now.
The 2013-15 Selection criteria can be found
here. There were no sectional cutoffs. CAT Cutoff was as low as 85%ile. There was heavy reliance on 10th,12th and Grad scores. It is not uncommon to find general category students at IIM K currently with overall percentiles in late 80s and sectional percentiles in mid 60s (Source : Anecdotal Evidence + RTI Responses). However, that will not be the case for the batch of 2016 for sure. We will be on our way back to pre-2011 levels. And that is great news. The importance of CAT has been restored.
The policy of awarding extra marks for being a women continues. We had written about this policy
here.
Following IIM Lucknow and IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode is also awarding extra marks to non-engineers from this year. So, engineers have some bad news from IIM K too after IIM A. (You can read our deconstruction of IIM A's criteria
here.)
CAT Index Score : Please note that the 76% weight has been given to the Scaled Score that one receives when you get the CAT result. So, it is difficult to point out an approximate percentile cutoff at this stage. This is what the IIM K Admission Policy document says -
"Performance in CAT is an important input in the admission process. Students should note that it is important to perform well in each section of the test. Scaled Scores from both the sections (with equal weightages) of CAT 2013 will go into computation of CAT Index Score. CAT Index Score will carry a weight of 76%."
This is a little ambiguous. We don't know how exactly this CAT Index score will be calculated.
Our Guess : Candidate scores 116 out of 225 in Sec 1 and 122 out of 225 in Sec 2. So the total is 238/450. The Total Scaled Score by composition has equal weightage of both sections. So CAT Index score could be 52.88/100 which can then be used in the final analysis with a weight of 0.76 or 76%
Graduation Index Score : It is silent on normalization. No idea how grad scores across various universities will be considered. There is a substantial weight of 12% here.
What is going to happen?
- Number of women at IIM K is going to go down. It will definitely not be 190+ as is the case currently.
- Number of overlaps with IIM C and IIM L call getters will go up. With small variations the criteria of all 3 seem very similar. CAT Percentile filter being raised to 90 means that overlaps with IIM Indore may also go up but given that no weight to 10th/12th has been given that number could be offset.
Overall, we welcome the changes at IIM K. Although women get extra marks, it is not as heavily tilted in their favour as last year and guys with good CAT Percentiles and decent grad scores should easily get an IIM K call this year.
The details of the admission policy are given below
Basic Filter
| Minimum requirements for Stage 1 shortlist at IIM Kozhikode (2014-16 PGP)* |
|
CAT Score |
Sectional |
SSC/X |
HSC/XII |
| Category |
Percentile |
Percentile |
Percentage |
Percentage |
| General |
90 |
80 |
60 |
60 |
| OBC (NC) |
80 |
70 |
60 |
60 |
| Scheduled Castes |
65 |
50 |
55 |
55 |
| Scheduled Tribes |
55 |
40 |
55 |
55 |
| Persons with Disability |
55 |
40 |
55 |
55 |
| * The cut-offs of those called for Stage 2 could be much higher. |
Shortlisting Criteria
| Basis for giving out Calls |
| Parameter |
Weight |
| CAT Index Score |
76% |
| Grad Index Score |
12% |
| Work Experience |
5% |
| Gender Diversity (for Women) |
5% |
| Academic Diversity (for Non-Engineers) |
2% |
Final Selection
| Final Selection |
| Parameter |
Weight |
| Personal Interview |
35% |
| CAT Score |
45% |
| WAT/GD |
15% |
| Quality of Work Experience |
5% |
The final selection criteria is standard and no big surprises here. Read the original policy document
here.
Read PGP Shortlisting Criteria for the Class of 2013-15
here.
Our analysis of IIM Lucknow's criteria
Our analysis of IIM Indore’s criteria
Our analysis of IIM Ahmedabad’s criteria
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