CAT 2015: Result, 99 percentile not to fetch call from IIMs; admission parameters changed

Add Review

MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
January 9, 2016
99 percentile in CAT 2015 may not get you shortlisted by an IIM as the Admission weightage and parameters have been changed for 2016
There are shocking but true stories of high percentilers in CAT exam who despite scoring a high percentile of 99+ have not been shortlisted by a single IIM

CAT 2015 result declared on Friday January 8, 2016 might have awarded you with an overall percentile as high as 98 or 99 but if you think that this will suffice to get a call from an IIM, you are mistaken.

Thousands of CAT 2015 takers have scored 97 to 99 percentile but they are lacking what is needed by the IIMs – old or new and this fact cannot be denied when you view your score cards.

There are shocking but true stories of high percentilers in CAT exam who despite scoring a high percentile of 99+ have not been shortlisted by a single IIM not to say of converting it. It is good to be happy on scoring such a high percentile but the situation becomes quite disturbing when you are not shortlisted by IIMs ot other top management institutes.

In fact 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.

Ofcourse, 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.

In addition to scoring high percentile in CAT 2015, if you have all round knowledge, intelligence and good academics, you may get shortlisted by IIMs.

Uniform sectional percentile scores
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 2 sections on Quant and Verbal but score a low percentile in the DILR section, 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 Verbal but 70 in DILR, the percentile appears fine but you will not get a call from any IIM despite scoring such a high percentile. Lagging behind in scoring a balanced high sectional percentile may not be an ideal situation as per the shortlisting criteria of IIMs.

Academic profile & diversity; key to get into IIM
If you have a good academic record with 90+ percentage of marks in class X, XII and graduation, you stand better chances of getting shortlisted even if you have scored less in CAT 2015.

On the academic diversity front, IIMs will prefer candidates with background from Humanities, Arts, Commerce etc for PGP 2016-18 batch. Accordingly higher weightage for the candidates coming from non-engineering back ground will be awarded to the students of Arts, Commerce, Economics and other non technical courses.

Girl candidates preferred by 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. 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. Maximum weightage in the range of 5 to 10 percent will be awarded for the work experience which includes the quality of work also.

Past CAT toppers and MBAUniverse.com experts suggest the candidates to take note of all the changes in the admission policy of IIMs available on MBAUniverse.com site to explore their chances in IIMs as CAT 2015 result has since been declared.

Related Article

CAT 2015: Result out on website; follow the key steps and instructions to know the sectional percentile

CAT 2015: Result out, Can the process be termed as leaked or only a TCS technical glitch?

CAT 2015: Result out fate of 1.80 aspirants decided after up & Downs; check your score

CAT 2015: Result out, Score on mobile; Check Your Detail

CAT 2015: Result no pre announcement of date, declare directly; Confirms Convener

CAT 2015 Result : Is the score normalization process holding it back ? A different exam posing hindrance in declaration

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2015