CAT 2016: You score 99 but may not get call from IIMs; know why

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
September 6, 2016
CAT 2016 score with 99 percentile may not necessarily stay your smile for long and may turn it into 'zero' percentile as far as call from IIMs is concerned
Why shouldn't you, with such a high overall percentile of 99 in CAT 2016 expect a call from any IIM can be understood by the complex shortlisting criteria

CAT 2017 Result declared: Score card available for download; No Score on mobile sent till now​

CAT 2016 score with 99 percentile may not stay your smile for long and may turn it into ‘zero’ percentile as far as call from IIMs is concerned unless you have complied with other key parameters. It happened in past and it will happen after CAT 2016 result is declared. Now if you think that this percentile score in CAT 2016 will suffice to get a call from an IIM, you are mistaken.

Thousands of high percentilers between 97 and 99 plus in CAT were deprived of getting any call from for any programme in IIMs and this fact cannot be denied when you view their score cards.

There are shocking but true stories of high percentilers in CAT exam who despite scoring a high percentile of 99+ remained without getting shortlisted by any of the 20 IIMs not to say of converting the call. You can be happy on scoring such a high percentile but the situation becomes quite embarrassing when you are not shortlisted by even the newest IIMs and your high percentile score proves no better than your peer who scored only 30 or 40 percentile.

What else IIMs need…
Why shouldn’t you, with such a high overall percentile of 99 in CAT 2016 expect a call from any IIM can be understood by the complex shortlisting criteria and CAT score parameters prescribed by all the 20 IIMs.

In fact only a high score in CAT 2016 may not be taken as granted to cover all the essentials for admission in IIMs in 2017. Alongwith high overall percentile you must qualify as per the prescribed score of IIMs, in each of the 3 sections in CAT 2016. If you have done it, your score of 95 or 99 could be an asset for you else it is of no use.

You may have scored 100 percentile in Quant section; 95 in Verbal Ability section but couldn’t score 70 in VARC. It is very much possible that your overall CAT 2016 percentile can go up to 99 but your sectional percentile reflect that you could not qualify the minimum required sectional percentile of 80 in VARC section. It takes you nowhere and you will not be shortlisted by any IIM. The sectional dip has become a thorn in flash and your high percentile is no good.

It is an astonishing fact that candidates like Ankit, Prerna, Archana who scored 99, 93, 84 percentile had very good score in 2 sections but could not score high enough in one of the 3 sections. This has not only created a gap among sectional percentiles but has also reduced their overall percentile which could have soared up, if they had scored well in the third section also.

Interestingly, not only these 3 but many others also informed MBAUniverse.com that they expected a very good score in the section in which low percentile was awarded to them. While taking the Mocks they always used to score high but when the CAT result was declared on website, their score card revealed a different story.

Ofcourse, scoring high percentile in CAT 2016 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 2016 provided you have a little extra with you.

Sectional percentile: Basic requirement
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 2016 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 2016 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 20 IIMs.

High sectional score deviation: Not preferred
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, 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.

Academics: Key to selection
If you have a good academic record with 90 percent marks in class X, XII and graduation, you stand better chances of getting shortlisted even if you have scored less in CAT 2016.

On the academic diversity front, IIMs will prefer candidates with background from Humanities, Arts, Commerce etc for PGP 2017-19 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.

Work Ex: Good for IIMs
Apart from CAT 2016 scores, if you have quality work experience between 2 to 3 years, you will be awarded weightage by IIMs in admission. Please remember 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.

Almost all the IIMs have changed their admission policy for PGP 2017-19 batch and will look beyond your high overall percentile in CAT 2016 before offering you admission.

Besides, IIMs have reduced the weightage substantially to be awarded to CAT 2016 scores in shortlisting and final admission round. Now higher weightage will be awarded to your academic profile, written and verbal communication skill, gender diversity among others. IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow among other IIMs have taken lead and have reduced the weightage to be awarded for CAT 2016 scores by about 10 points. A dip of 10% in awarding the weightage to CAT 2016 scores can be rated as the major change in the admission policy of the top IIMs in the country. 

Now you need – high and balanced sectional percentile in CAT 2016 as the basic criterion to remain eligible for shortlisting by IIMs. The qualifying sectional percentile scores have also been lowered by top IIMs, for example IIM Ahmedabad needs only 70 sectional and 80 overall percentile; IIM Calcutta requires 80 sectional and 90 overall percentile as the qualifying scores in CAT 2016 for 1st stage shortlisting.

Make sure that your preparation for CAT 2016 does not leave any section weak and you should be able to score high in each of the 3 sections. Your high sectional scores will spontaneously lead to high overall percentile score in CAT 2016. The most important thing you should remember is that IIMs prescribe minimum qualifying percentile whereas actual cut off percentile in CAT 2016 may go much higher in the range of 97 to 99 percentile.

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