Only a high score in CAT 2015 may not be taken as granted to cover all the essentials for admission in IIMs in 2016. Almost all the IIMs have changed their admission policy for PGP 2016-18 batch and will look beyond your high overall percentile in CAT 2015 before offering you admission.
No doubt scoring high percentile in CAT 2015 is necessary for admission to top rated IIMs, but it is not the only requirement. It is not necessary that your 99+ percentile may make you eligible to receive a call from IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta or Lucknow. On the contrary you can expect to be shortlisted by these top MBA institutes even if you score 92 or 94 percentile in CAT 2015 provided you have a little extra with you.
IIMs have reduced the weightage substantially to be awarded to CAT 2015 scores in final admission round. Now higher weightage will be awarded to your academic profile, written and verbal communication skill, gender diversity among others. IIM Calcutta has reduced the weightage to be awarded for CAT 2015 scores from 77 to 67. A dip of 10% in awarding the weightage to CAT 2015 scores can be rated as the major change in the admission policy in one of the top 3 IIMs in the country.
IIMs have devised variable standards and percentiles to shortlist the cream of CAT 2015 toppers and high percentile score is only one of those important criteria for admission to PGP 2016-18 batch. If a candidate doesn’t qualify on these prescribed standards, he may either not get shortlisted or even if shortlisted may not be able to convert the call in final admission round as each of them has specific weightage which facilitates the offer of admission in IIMs.
Apart from scoring high percentile in CAT 2015 with your knowledge, intelligence and smart way of attempting the test if you have following 5 key assets, you may sure get shortlisted by IIMs.
Deviation in CAT 2015 scores; not a good sign
Your year-long hard preparation for CAT 2015 with dedication should bring the desired fruits is what you always think. Scoring a very high percentile above 98 or 99 is considered the basic requirement to get shortlisted by IIMs. In the race we forget that the primary requirement to qualify for getting shortlisted by the IIMs is scoring high and balanced sectional percentile in CAT 2015 and not the over-all percentile.
IIMs after applying their equated normalization system would prefer a candidate with fairly high balanced percentile of 90+ and 94+ in each section with overall percentile of 95-97 to a candidate with overall high percentile of 98-99 having greater deviation in sectional percentile.
In view of Prof S K Agarwal Expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation, out of the 3 sections, if you are able to score a very high percentile in last 2 sections on Quant and DILR but score a low percentile in the first section of VARC, you will not even qualify to be considered for shortlisting by any of the 19 IIMs.
Similarly too much deviation in percentile also puts a question mark on your ability to perform. If your overall percentile is decent enough with 99 but there is a slip in sectional percentile for example you have scored 99 in Quant, 94 in DILR but 82 in Verbal, the percentile appears fine but during your PI round you will be grilled for scoring such an uneven percentile. Lagging behind in scoring a balanced high sectional percentile may not be an ideal situation as per the shortlisting criteria of IIMs.
The candidate with 99 percentile with such deviation may not be shortlisted for GDPI by older IIMs unless he is very strong on other 4 points. On the other hand the candidate with 94 percentile (having balanced and fairly high percentile) may get shortlisted.
Your Academic diversity; key to get more weightage
The preferred candidates in IIMs for PGP 2016-18 batch would be from Humanities, Arts, Commerce etc back ground. Accordingly the propose higher weightage for the candidates coming from non-engineering back ground and the maximum weightage will be awarded to the students of Arts, Commerce, Economics and other non technical courses.
If you scored 90% marks in class 12 and in graduation and are from engineering back ground, your excellent academic profile would get lesser weightage as compared to your peer who scored less marks but is from non-technical back ground.
If you have a good academic record, you stand better chances of getting shortlisted even if you score less in CAT 2015.
Communication skill: gateway to success
How you package and present yourself in the PI/WAT round is very important. Your communication skills matter much in this context. Almost half of the weightage will be awarded to PI/WAT round by IIMs after CAT 2015 scores. Now IIMs would put you to verbal as well as written communication test. If you perform well in written communication as well as oral communication, you are sure to get an edge over others.
You might have come across number of students who are bursting with knowledge but are more confused and are not able to express themselves coherently. There may be candidates who have great speaking power but find it difficult to pen down their ideas and thoughts in a natural flow.
IIMs need such candidates who can develop good managerial skills, the ones who have clarity of thought and can write well, can convey the message in their writing piece with no ambiguity. With use of simple and clear vocabulary words they should be able to speak out what they want to say. Hence the IIMs need a person with good knowledge and intelligence who is smart enough to project himself/herself.
A girl; preferred candidate for IIMs
IIMs are planning to improve gender diversity in their classrooms in 2016. Alarmed at the depleting number of females, IIMs have begun awarding direct or indirect weightage to girl candidates. For example IIM Calcutta awards 3 marks out of 100 to a girl candidate in shortlisting the candidates for final admission round.
If you are a girl candidate, you may have better luck. But for others it can’t be helped since whatever gender you are, you are supposed to be throughout your life.
Work Experience
Apart from CAT 2015 scores, you will be awarded weightage by IIMs for relevant quality work experience in final admission round. A work experience of 2-3 years is considered the best period since no IIM gives any weightage to the work experience of less than 6 months. Work experience beyond 4 years onwards also has very less or no weightage and is not much preferred by IIMs.
Your work experience should be in supervisory cadre. The work experience with an NGO; your participation in spread of education and other contribution to social cause reflect your leadership skills. A quality internship may also be included to express your work experience. Such experiences must be answered with a positive attitude and optimistic view during the PI round, says Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation.
Maximum weightage in the range of 5 to 10 percent will be awarded for the work experience which includes the quality of work also.
Please remember IIMs do not require any candidate with superfluous knowledge and CAT 2015 in a changed pattern is going to be a reflection of this fact.
Past CAT toppers and MBAUniverse.com experts suggest the candidates to take note of all the changes in CAT 2015 at structural and content level and ensure time management in the exam. CAT 2015 aspirants should prepare well and find out how many of the 5 most needed assets to get into IIMs are available with you and how you can improve further to get the admission offer from IIMs in 2016.
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