CAT 2015 Result declared in January

CAT 2015 Result

The result of CAT 2015 has been declared by IIM-Ahmedabad officials on January 8, 2016. The CAT 2015 Results have been communicated via text message to the registered contact numbers of the candidates, IIM-A Officials told . The CAT 2015 official log-in page was not enable earlier but now has been enabled and the candidates can check and download their CAT 2015 score card. Earlier, students were able to check only their CAT 2015 percentile which was notified via message to their registered numbers. The CAT 2015 exam was held on Sunday, November 29, 2015. IIM Ahmedabad had conducted the test this year. 

The score card of CAT 2015 has now been released and the candidates can check their composite score, sectional and overall percentile. The CAT 2015 official results data available with Careers360 suggests that candidates who left their answer sheet blank came out with an overall 5.01 percentile. This means that any candidate with less than 5 percentile would have scored zero or negative scores. Statistically, with a total of 1,79,602 candidates taking the coveted exam this year, the number of candidates below 5 percentile is a little less than 9000.  

The 3 sections, Quantitative Ability, Verbal and Reading Comprehension and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning carried equal marks. According to the marking scheme, each question carried 3 marks and for each wrong answer, there was a negative marking of 1 mark. The non-MCQ type questions did not bear the negative marking scheme. The exam pattern had undergone massive changes this year.

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The process to check the CAT 2015 Result or download CAT 2015 Score Card  is given below:

• Log-in to your account in the CAT 2015 website
• Click on the CAT 2015 Result and enter your User-id along with your password
• Click on the tab- Candidate Score Card and download your CAT 2015 Score card

 Candidates can download  CAT 2015 Result and Score Card below and by clicking here
Since no hard copy of the score card will be sent, you have to take the print out of your CAT 2015 Result and preserve it till your admission process is complete.
CAT 2015 Score Card looks like this:

Expected cut offs for various IIMs

On the basis of the CAT 2015 Result, the 19 IIMs will announce the shortlist of candidates based on their admission criteria and CAT 2015 cutoff. The shortlisted candidates have to appear for Written Ability Test and Personal Interview rounds. The new IIMs conduct a Common Admission Process consisting of Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds. 

Soon after the results will be declared, the important thing for the candidates will be CAT 2015 Cutoff.  Cutoff refers to the minimum score or percentile which a candidate must secure to get shortlisted by the participating institute for the next rounds of the selection process. While the top B-schools will have a higher range of CAT 2015 cutoffs, 90+ percentile, the mid rung B-schools’ cutoffs range from 75 to 80 percentile and that of the lower rung B-schools is around 50 percentiles.
Click here to get the CAT 2015 expected cutoff of top IIMs

This year, 1,79,602 candidates appeared for the exam out of 2,18,664 applicants. Around 62% of the test takers were from the engineering background. The following infogram brings to you the number of total applications and the actual number of test takers over the years.

Last year, 1,67,830 candidates had taken CAT out of 1,96,000 registrations. A total number of 16 candidates secured 100 percentile. Among the 16 toppers, 1 was a female candidate, Neha Manglik who happened to be the only girl to secure 100 percentile since 2009.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the online testing partner of CAT 2015.

Normalization and Shortlisting at IIMs:
According to the normalization process announced by IIM-A officials, the scores of CAT 2015 results have been adjusted for location and scale differences of score distributions across different test forms. Besides normalization across different forms, the result prepared for CAT 2015 has been further normalized across different sections and the scaled scores obtained by this process have been converted into percentiles. The same percentile will be used as final results for shortlisting by IIMs and other top B-schools accepting Cat scores in India, IIM officials said.

IIM selection process:

After CAT 2015 results, separate shortlist will be announced by different IIMs for next stage of selection process which will include GD-PI and WAT depending on the selection criteria of different B-schools.  “Each IIM will send interview letters to the short-listed candidates directly. The criteria for short-listing vary from IIM to IIM,” officials said.

While the scores of CAT 2015 is given due weightage, different IIMs also use academic performance of the candidates, relevant work experience, and other similar inputs in short listing and ranking of candidates at various stages of the admission process. Click here for details on IIM selection criteria and weight-age to different component in selection process.

The results for the Common Admission Test (CAT), held in November, 2015, are expected to be released in the second week of January, 2016. The candidates who sat for the exam must be aware that this year onward, six new IIMs have been added to the list of 13 existing ones, thereby, increasing the total number of seats at IIMs.  

CAT score, overall percentile score, along with the sectional cut-offs, play a major role, for candidates to get a call from various IIMs and other non-IIM management institutes for the next round.

As compared to the last five years, the number of CAT takers was quite high in the year 2015, crossing two lakhs. Therefore, the cut-offs are likely to be affected this year, towards the higher side, since the number of candidates per percentile score is higher. 

Let us have a look at how CAT results will decide the next round calls for candidates:
The aspirants must know that they need a balanced high percentile because they would not only require overall high percentile, but also, across all the sections; sectional cut off percentiles should be around 85+ for the newer IIMs and 90+ for the existing ones. This implies that a student who scores overall 96 percentile with 95 in Quant, 90 in DI & LR and 87 in Verbal might get a call from IIMs, perhaps the new IIMs, whereas someone with overall score of 98 percentile getting 100 in Quant but 80 in Verbal would miss out.

Here are some estimates of CAT percentile scores and cut-offs for the various IIMs:
IIM Ahmedabad gives 70 per cent weightage to CAT score and 30 per cent to application rating (academics, co-curricular, extracurricular and work experience). IIM Ahmedabad also majorly focuses on getting students from varied academic backgrounds; Arts, Commerce and Humanities. The cut-off is likely to be 99.5 percentile.

IIM Calcutta gives 67 per cent weightage to CAT score and 30 per cent to academics. The remaining 3 per cent points are given to girl candidates to promote gender diversity. For IIM C, the cut off is probably going to be above 99 percentile.

IIM Bangalore does not have the strict percentile criteria for second round of short-listing. However, it gives major emphasis on candidates' academics (Class 10, 12 and Bachelors).
IIM Lucknow and IIM Kozhikode give around 75-80 per cent weightage to CAT score.
One can expect calls from IIM Bangalore and IIM Kozhikode from percentile score as low as 90 percentile, with strong academic profile.  

For the six new IIMs opened this year, CAT 2015 score (overall and sectional) would be the only deciding factor for call to the next round. 

The lowest percentile expected for a call from the new IIMs should be in the range of 96-97 percentiles. 

The candidates looking for a place in various non-IIM institutes; A percentile above 99 is required to get a call from Indian Institute of Technology (SJMSOM) Bombay. 

For, Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi and Indian Institute of Technology (DMS), Delhi - a percentile score of 98 percentile, should fetch you a call for the next round.

One can expect a call from Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai at percentile score of 95 plus. 

The institutes such as T. A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Ghaziabad, Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai and International Management Institute (IMI), Delhi, a score of 90 percentile above should fetch you a call to the next round.

The candidates should note that each IIM shortlists candidates for second stage of selection, which may be independent of each other. The process may include Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussions (GD) and Personal Interviews (PI). The processes, academic cut-offs and the weights allocated to the evaluation parameters may vary across IIMs. In general, IIMs give weightage to CAT score in the range of 60 per cent to 80 per cent, and the rest is contributed by a candidate's academics and work profile. 

List of the candidates shortlisted for the next round, will be made available at respective IIMs' or other institutes' websites. The candidates should start their preparations for second round of admission process. Also, the candidate should keep all their documents (academic certificates, work experience certificates, personal documents and curriculum vitae) ready for the next stage process for various B-schools' admissions.

Wishing all the candidates a good luck.