Revealed: Role Of CAT Percentile In Receiving Admission From IIMs

I did not just clickbait that. It is true. But before we dive deep into it, lets start with an interesting story that you can relate to. During my second year of my under graduation at Delhi University, as usual like the majority, I got to know about the infamous CAT Exam and the MBA route for primarily huge salary, easy career advancement and non-productive flexing in front of relatives and neighbours. And like all students, Youtube channels run by coaching centres is the most sought after source of information. The dream/hope that is sold is of IIM ABC or the BLACKI IIM and for mostly the right reasons. I got all charged up with those videos, dreamt of being at IIM A and only IIM A and went for CAT 2021. You can see the photo below to see how I smiled in the scorecard with confidence only to get a 84.xx percentile.

Anyway, after graduating in 2022, I gave the CAT again and got a 99.07 percentile because of the right people and resources that I am grateful to. Also I did not smile this time as you can see on the scorecard and that has made all the difference XD. 

Now, how I did that is not today's topic. Since I got a 99+ percentile as a B.Com (H) graduate, my parents and I started our 'dhindora'. I kept dreaming of the IIM A admit and how I am going to be a 'bada aadmi with bohot saara paisa' only to realise that IIM ABCL did not even call me for an interview as I got to know a lot of caveats involved. I was very disheartened and disappointed. I was mostly propagated the myth that 99+ as a non engineer and IIM ABC is the place you are going to if you have good acads.
(I had 95 in X, 91.2 in XII and 8.77 cgpa in my B.Com)

---

Recommended For You: Free CAT Masterclass - Ace CAT With A Free Online CAT Program By ARKSS (Ex-National Head - Career Launcher)

---

I am glad you found my article as I am going to present some facts and suggestions which will give you a clear picture and set realistic expectations. They are :-

1) Percentile doesn't matter, Composite Score matters. 
Composite Score is a cumulation of your cat score (not percentile), academics of X, XII and graduation, Work experience, gender and academic diversity points. Different B schools take different combinations and weightages of the above criteria for their Composite Score. You can find the previous year criteria on the official websites of different IIMs as well.

For example : IIM Indore gives 74% weightage to X, XII acads, only 20 % to CAT score and the rest 6% if you are a female candidate to prepare your CS. Special Tip : Know the shortlisting criteria of the B schools you are interested in especially in terms of composite score from past year data and trends.

2) Different Composite score for different categories/reservation.
General category Composite score is normally substantially higher than categories like EWS, NC-OBC, SC or ST.

3) All Non engineers are not the same. 
Some B-schools like IIM Ahmedabad, differentiates between a B.Com/Eco graduate and a Literature/Fashion technology graduate. The former might require a much Higher CAT score compared to the latter to get shortlisted for an interview.

4) Apply to Non IIMs
Apart from the BLACKI IIMs, there are some non IIMs which are at par with top IIMs and better than the second generation (New IIMs) and third generation IIMs. (Baby IIMs). Some are XLRI, SPJIMR, FMS, MDI etc. They can drastically boost your chances of getting into a good B school. Some of their shortlisting criteria might work better in your favour due to your profile. Most Non IIMs don't have reservation.

5) Roles offered are the same in IIM ABC and other Tier 1 B schools
Corporates don't differentiate in terms of roles offered at IIM ABC vs a B school like XLRI or MDI. For example, the best role in Marketing for an MBA graduate is considered that of an Area Sales Manager. The role and the salary will be at par in the same FMCG company.

But yes, when it comes to fields like Consulting and Front end IB, only the volume of roles offered at IIM ABC is higher than other Top B schools. However, for fields like Marketing, General Management, Product Management etc similar roles and in hand salaries are offered by the same company. LinkedIn is the best place to verify this.  6) Interviews MATTER a lot and can be UNPREDICTABLE Even if you have a 100 percentile in CAT, you can get rejected by the top IIMs in the interview stage. Also, interviews can be unpredictable as well. You might think you had a great interview and end up being rejected and at the same time, your perception of an awful interview for you will be your direct convert. Special Tip: Take your interview prep more seriously than your CAT Prep.

Key Takeaways
This should give you a very good starting point to know where you stand. Try to score as high as possible in your CAT 2023. Apart from CAT, give other exams like XAT, SNAP, NMAT, IIFT and MICAT etc. Don't be very stubborn about going only and only to IIM ABC and end up dropping/repeating another attempt. There are some scenarios where only the top 3-5 institutions will make sense. For example, when one is from an Old IIT or only wants front end IB roles. For others, there are plethora of opportunities/B-schools which will save your time, money and effort giving you the same career trajectory.

Thank you for reading and all the best to everyone for your MBA Prep journey ahead. Please don't smile during photo verification in the CAT/OMETs exam hall if you want to ace it ! XD.