The end of XAT marks the end of yet another entrance-exam season. I am sure all of us have had our highs & lows.. Putting them behind us, Henley’s words remind me, there are more battles ahead!
Well, with CAT results less than 24 hours away and consistently dipping temperatures, I have got goose bumps & nervous chills thinking about how things will change, for better or best, after the 9th of January 2012! So in order to get rid of the butterflies, I thought, what better way to distract myself than to delve into analysing, optimistically, the shape of things to come!
While I am sure most of you have already racked your brains & had extensive discussions & even debates about the admission criteria, a quick & simplified refresher wouldn’t hurt, now, would it?
(Do remember to check out our pertinent observations below this table..!)
| Before getting a GD/ PI/ WAT call, here’s what you need to know: | After you’ve earned the call, here’s what you need to know: | |
| IIMA | CAT score plus Application Rating (AR) score (in the ratio 7:3) is considered. AR score is based on 10th & 12th boards marks, bachelor’s & master’s degree marks & work experience.No minimum overall CAT percentile mentioned but it is unlikely that any general category candidate with a percentile lower than 95-96%ile overall and 90%ile in each section will be shortlisted. This is based on the number of candidates called by IIM A and track record. | PI & CAT score are assigned weights 70:30 respectively. |
| IIMB | CAT score plus adjusted scores of 10th & 12th boards, bachelor’s degree & higher of the scores of professional degree or work experience is considered.Also, the top 10 candidates as per each of the 5 parameters above automatically qualify for a PI. Minimum 90%ile overall for a general category student with 90%ile in Verbal and 80%ile in QA&DI. | The PI will be used to evaluate the candidate’s motivation & ability to fit in & benefit from the PGP. Letters of Reference may be required. |
| IIMC | Adjusted CAT score plus points allocated for scores in 10th & 12thboards & gender diversity factor (3 points) for females are considered.PI & WAT shortlist will be based on the weighted average of these scores. Minimum 95%ile overall for a general category student with 90%ile in Verbal and 90%ile in QA&DI. | CAT score (35), PI (44), WAT (10), Academic diversity at bachelor’s level (2), Academic diversity at Post-Graduate/ Professional level (1), Work experience (8) = Total 100 points So clearly, in the second phase, the PI matters & a post-graduation work experience of 31-36 months will earn you the highest (8) points. |
| IIML | Adjusted CAT score plus points allocated for scores in 10th & 12thboards, bachelor’s degree, work experience, academic diversity & gender diversity are considered. PI & WAT shortlist will be based on the weighted average of these scores. Minimum 90%ile overall for a general category student with 85%ile in Verbal and 85% in QA&DI. | WAT, GD & PI are assigned weights 10:10:30 respectively. |
| IIMI | CAT score is just hygiene. If you are a general category candidate all yu need is 90 percentile overall with 85 percentile in each section. That helps you make the cut. Beyond that its 100% acads for your Composite Score (CS). CS is based on is based on 10th & 12th boards marks & bachelor’s degree marks in the ratio of 35% 35% and 30%.Minimum 90%ile overall for a general category student with 85%ile in Verbal and 85%ile in QA&DI. | After the WAT & PI, candidates will be selected based on:10th boards marks (17%) + 12th boards marks (17%) + bachelor’s degree marks (16%) + PI (35%) + WAT (15%) |
| IIMK | CAT score (overall cut-off, no sectional cut-offs mentioned) plus adjusted 10th, 12thboards marks & bachelor’s degree marks are considered in the ratio 50:15:15:15 respectively. Also, 5 marks are allocated to gender diversity.Minimum 85%ile overall with NO sectional cutoffs | After the WAT & PI, candidates will be shortlisted based on:Adjusted CAT score (20%) + adjusted 10th boards marks (7%) + adjusted 12th boards marks (7%) + adjusted bachelor’s degree marks (6%) + PI (40%) + WAT (20%) |
| SPJIMR | Profile based calls are made based on the admission form. CAT, XAT & GMAT scores based calls are made thereafter. | Group interviews are conducted in two stages. |
| FMS | Not Available | Not Available |
Some of the things that we observed in this context are as follows:
Importance of Acads and low importance of CAT:
1) IIM Ahmedabad continues its highly past academic record skewed criteria. There is a multiplicative function to the academic record making the other factors literally irrelevant. So yes, you'd need a high CAT score (98+) but a 79% in any of your big past exams and you're out of the game. IIM A generally calls 600-650 general category candidates, so get 80+ in 10/12/Grad and 98+ percentile and you're through but a 99.9 percentile with 90,90 and 79.9 is unlikely to make it. And since there is no domain wise or board wise normalization, it is unlikely most Art and Commerce graduates in India stand any chance.
2) At IIM Indore, CAT score is irrelevant once a general category candidate gets 90%ile overall. Its the candidate's academic record that rules the roost. So don't be surprised to see candidates with 93%ile overall with 85+ in each section getting a WAT/PI Call from IIM Indore.
3) IIM Bangalore has never given too much importance to CAT and their shortlisting criteria has been consistent over the last 7-8 years since it has been made available publicly. Like Indore, they too have a basic filter but they do give a 20% weight to CAT in the first phase shortlisting formulae. Also, their basic filer asks for a higher verbal cutoff. Acads though are very important again.
4) At IIM Kozhikode if you're a male you are already -5 as girls get a bonus 5 marks! The CAT score is again very deceptively irrelevant. One would look at 50% weight and get excited but it is not very heavy. Since it is scaled to 50 points a 99 percentile is 49.5 and 94 percentile is 47.5 narrowing the gap to 2.5 points. Now the acads and your gender take over and make all the difference! So a 100%iler male and 90%iler female are almost equal! Because females get 5 marks for being females! Apart from that, graduation is more or less irrelevant as long as you have 65% in your grad final exam. SSC/HSC + your gender hold the key. IIM K does not mention the requirement of clearing sectional cut-offs in CAT. Only an overall minimum percentile requirement is mentioned.
5) At IIM Calcutta, if you're a male you are already - 3 but you have a greater chance of covering up for that difference through your CAT score and acads as the CAT weight is still 77%. In fact its the highest among all the old 6 IIMs. This is the first time IIM C has moved away from its tradition of CAT only or CAT weight of 90%+ in order to boost diversity.
6) IIM Lucknow uses multiple criteria to boost diversity and gives CAT a weight of 38/50 for shortlisting candidates for GD/PI.
7) IIM Ahmedabad allocates marks to applicants holding a Master’s degree. IIM B gives marks to certain special professional courses/degrees only. The other 4 IIMs give no weight to your masters degree at the shortlisting stage.
Diversity:
- Sorry boys: IIM C, L & K are certainly giving points for gender diversity to females
- Academic diversity: If you’re a dentist, CA or journalist, IIML gives you more points
- As for females from a diverse discipline applying to IIML with work experience, there’s a whooping 7 out of 50 points for you!
Post-call procedure:
- IIM A & C conduct PIs
- IIM B, I & K conduct WATs & PIs
- IIM L conducts a WAT, GD & a PI
- FMS conducts a GD and PI and has an extempore round. We don't know this year's process yet.
- SPJIMR conducts group interviews in 2 stages.
All IIMs have given at least some weightage to work experience at some stage or the other in the selection process. IIM C gives weight to diverse candidates (non-engineering) fulfilling their List Y in the final phase of selection. This is another first.All in all, there's no doubt that the PI itself is of utmost importance to earn the coveted seat!
May the Universe conspire to bring you contentment! All the very best..
- Prerna Lalwani, with inputs from Ankit Doshi
[Prerna is a talkative Chartered Accountant who graduated from NM College of Commerce & Economics. She enjoys dancing, writing, cracking poor jokes & clicking random photographs. A self proclaimed geek, you might catch her engrossed in her phone, smiling at strangers or ranting about Mumbai..]
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Comments
Suraj
IIM Ahmedabad too conducts WAT for 10 minutes. Though they never mentioned it explicitly in the criteria as such.
8 Jan 2013, 09.27 AM
Charan
Only a girl could have written this post....any guy attempting to spread these messages would have met stiff resistance from readers...thanks for throwing light!
8 Jan 2013, 07.11 PM
+Read Replies (1)
Prerna
Hey Charan.. If only somebody could change reality! As for me, I was merely stating facts :) Good luck..
8 Jan 2013, 08.54 PM |
FMS Student
For FMS, its 70% weightage given to CAT, 10% each for GD, PI, Extempore. Past acads usually not considered before giving a call.
9 Jan 2013, 12.59 AM
JOKER
IIM Calcuuta takes WAT-GD-PI
9 Jan 2013, 01.52 AM
@IIMKozhikode
As written in the admission policy CAT Index Score: IIMK uses a linear scale to map the overall CAT score to a scale of 50. The highest possible score of all applicants to IIMK is mapped against 50 and the respective overall CAT score of each student is converted to the index score by dividing with the maximum score possible and multiplying by 50.. They have mentioned cat score and not percentile, hence the criteria changes this year I feel. Earlier the cat percentile was divided by 2 to reach the score. If this is the case where they use the scores then people above 99%le will receive a huge advantage unlike other years
9 Jan 2013, 04.45 PM
@IIMKozhikode
The admissions criteria have changed. How? 1. You will get more marks if you have 65% above in grads..i.e. 15 unlike 10 last years 2. The highest possible score of all applicants to IIMK is mapped against 50 and the respective overall CAT score of each student is converted to the index score by dividing with the maximum score possible and multiplying by 50.--> unlike last 2 years where the percentile was divided by 2 (It is however unclear whether they are using cat scores or percentiles) 3. Lower weightages to clasX and XII 4. 5 marks awarded if you are a girl So If they use scores and not percentile then people with very high percentiles will benefit. Hence the game changes as the low acads can be negated by very high cat scores
9 Jan 2013, 05.08 PM
+Read Replies (2)
null null
hw ll they convert the x and 12th mark to 15?
23 Oct 2013, 09.59 AM |
null null
my 10 and 12 percentage is 83.8 and 85 respectively..
23 Oct 2013, 10.01 AM |
Arnab
Hi i checked it out rite now, they had the same language last year .... really sorry for creating the confusion. I guess IIMK will stick to dividing by 2 and not use cat scores
9 Jan 2013, 05.16 PM
nidhi
hi, i'm a female student in my final year of engineering. i scored 91.26 percentile in cat. 90% in 10th, 93.33% in 12th and my cgpa is currently 7.37. what are my chances of getting a call from iimk and other iims?
11 Jan 2013, 12.26 PM
+Read Replies (1)
Abhi
+ve..prepare for PI
20 Jan 2013, 02.20 PM |
Thileep
Hi i(MALE) completed my B.E Mech engg last year and im currently working in an indian Automobile company. i scored 94.3 percentile in CAT woith 97.3 percntile in QUANTS and 79.99 percntile in VERB. My 10th score is 91% and 12th score 95%. my cgpa is 7.6. What are my chances of getting a call from IIM L,I. I come under OBC NC. Pls help me out.
12 Jan 2013, 05.13 PM
+Read Replies (1)
Mr. A
u can get call from FMS for sure
20 Jan 2013, 02.21 PM |
Rocky
Do IIM A conduct GD or written ability test before personal interview...?
14 Jan 2013, 10.58 AM
Sushrut
For IIM L, the CAT weightage is 76% and not 38% as mentioned in the article. Mods, kindly correct.
31 Jan 2013, 04.04 PM
kautilya
hi i am kautilya ...i got 83.1% in 10th n 54% in 12th now in btech 2nd year ...ll i get call from iim if got selected?
15 Mar 2013, 09.39 PM
San
Hi Prerna, I have low acads...85% in 10th, 77% in 12th, 60 % in Grad.....What are my chances if I can get a 95+% in CAT, where will I stand...can I get any call from IIM??? Please suggest am perplexed to do MBA here in INDIA or to go ABROAD...:(
12 Apr 2013, 01.00 AM
Roshni
wrong info./.. there was WAT in IIM C too
22 Apr 2013, 05.38 PM
rahul
Hello, i scored 85% in 10th, 56% in 12th and 57% in grad... i have 4+ years of work experience in BPO industry. If i score more than 96% in cat then is there any chance of getting a call from an iim?
2 May 2013, 09.25 AM
Sagar Asati
low academics 10 th 60.28% &12th 59.4% & graduation 80.32% .Are there any chances for me to be one of the student of prestigious iims.
3 May 2013, 02.12 AM
Saloni Srivastava
Imperfect.
I have average academics. 86% in 10th. 85% in 12th and 86% in Graduation. If i score around 95-96%ile, can I expect calls from IIM-K or IIM-S?
18 Jun 2013, 03.34 PM
+Read Replies (1)
Team InsideIIM
We are the team behind your favourite platform.
Dear Saloni, No one can predict your shortlist. Definitely not at this stage. Focus on scoring a high percentile and hope for the best.
19 Jun 2013, 12.50 AM |
Himanshu Singhal
@Prerna or @team inside iim I am GEM(general engg male) with 86%, 78.4%, 77.70% in Xth, XIIth, grad respectively. I am working in a big mnc and I will have 2 years of experience while writing cat. Last year I managed only 90.53 and I will try for 98+ in cat this year Please tell Do I have any chance in getting into coveted IIMS. Thanks Himanshu
25 Jun 2013, 07.56 PM
+Read Replies (1)
null null
Here's the answer to your question on your chances to get a call from the IIMs, but be warned that you're not going to like what you're going to read. The only 2 among the 6 old IIMs that you can get a call from are C and L. The others are out. B, I and K - as things stand, and as per my understanding of their criteria, you simply won't get a call even with a 450/450. As far as A is concerned, you may get a call at a score of around 440 or so (to put that in perspective, you will stand AIR 1 out of 2,00,000 people and AIR 2 will be a good 15% behind you). Summary: With a score of 99.9 percentile or above, you will get a second round call from C , L and all the new IIMs. Disclaimer: I haven't calculated the precise values for C and L, but they are very close to 99.9.
29 Jul 2013, 02.46 PM |
Himanshu Singhal
@team inside iim Please Dont tell to focus on CAT rather I want the honest truth so that I can prepare accordingly. If I dont have any chance then I will look for other opportunity. Please be honest it will be highly appreciated Thanks Himanshu
25 Jun 2013, 07.58 PM
Himanshu Singhal
Waiting for a reply! :)
27 Jun 2013, 11.04 AM
+Read Replies (2)
Team InsideIIM
We are the team behind your favourite platform.
There isn't anything to reply. We do not predict and cannot predict what will happen to your shortlisting chances. You won't like this answer but yes - Focus on CAT.
27 Jun 2013, 08.49 PM |
Himanshu Singhal
Thanks for replying. However I didn't want you to predict my chances. I was thinking that you will give me past references of what happened to those with almost same credentials. Sorry but it will hurt a lot that you clear the cut offs but you are not eligible just because you are not good enough throughout your life. So if I dont have any chance than I should look other things who are more interested in my present than past. Hoping to get a reply what I ask for! Thanks
28 Jun 2013, 02.10 PM |
Torque stinatch
I have 86% ,72.3 and 6.8 CPI in 10th,12th and grad respectively. If I can score 95+ percentile in CAT, Can I expect calls from FMS? Would 2-3 years job experience matter much ? Awaiting reply!!!!
7 Dec 2013, 03.17 PM
Sadiq Ali
My 10 th and 12th Mark is very low 52% and 49.6% and my bachelor degree 79% is there any chance to go iim b. If I perform in cat exam 90% above is any chance pls tell I am confusing in that
5 Nov 2014, 04.21 PM
RICKO oreo
My 10th score is 95.45% but am not sure of 12th score and am thinking of getting about 85% will that reduce my probability to get admission in IIMA ?
4 Mar 2015, 10.30 PM
smruti sarvade
I have 81% , 47% and 60% in 10th,12th and graduation respectively. If I can score 95+ percentile in CAT, Can I expect calls from IIMA? Awaiting reply!!!!
10 Aug 2015, 10.16 PM
+Read Replies (1)
Team InsideIIM
We are the team behind your favourite platform.
Your 12th % makes you ineligible for any IIM call according to us unless you have a category certificate. Even then the odds are against you.
11 Aug 2015, 05.19 PM |
Shantharam Sanaka
10th - 83%(CBSE), 12th - 92% , Graduation - 74.8%. How good are my chances with CAT greater than 95%?
24 Sep 2015, 03.58 PM
+Read Replies (1)
Team InsideIIM
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Please register on http://konversations.com to get a detailed evaluation of your profile
24 Sep 2015, 04.09 PM |
mshrenik mehta
Hi, prerna I am a Ca and did my graduation from a private college. my question is whether CA is considered as a post graduate programme for the purpose of CAT?
29 Sep 2015, 02.10 PM
+Read Replies (3)
Team InsideIIM
We are the team behind your favourite platform.
It is considered as a professional degree exam and not under post graduate programme
29 Sep 2015, 03.07 PM |
mshrenik mehta
OK, so do I get any additional benefit for having the ca degree in addition to regular bcom
29 Sep 2015, 04.39 PM |
Team InsideIIM
We are the team behind your favourite platform.
There are extra points in a few schools if you have done very well in those exams plus it helps after you get a call in an interview - very few CAs don't convert their calls -because of rarity in a world of engineers
29 Sep 2015, 07.52 PM |
aashini varia
@Team InsideIIM hello sir i have scored 81% in 10 as well as 12 nd preparing for c.a.t 2016 nd my graduation gradings are also distinction till now what are my chances to get call from iim if i might score 95+ percentile in c.a.t
16 Oct 2015, 09.24 PM
Saurabh Sam
Hello sir, I scored 71 % in 10th, 61% in 12th and currently in final year with 8.22 cgpa (graduation). If i get 99+ percentile in CAT 2015. Can i get call from any IIMs ?
28 Oct 2015, 04.42 PM
+Read Replies (1)
Team InsideIIM
We are the team behind your favourite platform.
It is borderline but you can get 1-2 calls - why don't you get yourself 1-on-1 counselling here : http://konversations.com
28 Oct 2015, 04.50 PM |