IIM Ahmedabad: Admission policy announced; shortlisting at 80 percentile in CAT 2016

Get ready to study at IIM Ahmedabad in 2017 after scoring 80 percentile in CAT 2016, so says the top B-school of India. IIM Ahmedabad can shortlist you for admission to PGP 2017-19 batch, even if you score as low as 80 overall and 70 sectional percentile in CAT 2016 provided you have excellent academic record.

Announcing its admission policy for PGP 2017-19 batch after release of CAT 2016 notification on July 31, the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad has placed on record the shortlisting criteria which state that General category candidates will have to score a minimum 70 sectional percentile in each of the 3 sections and minimum 80 overall percentile in CAT 2016 to be eligible for first stage shortlisting by IIM Ahmedabad.

The two-year Post-graduate Programme in Management (PGP) at IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) is a full-time residential course for graduates from all disciplines wishing to choose a career in management. This Programme was ranked at No.16th in the world by the Financial Times Masters in Management category in the year 2014

The selection of the candidates for admission to the 2017-19 batch of the PGP at IIMA is a two-step process. In the first step, candidates are short-listed for Academic Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI) from among the candidates who have a valid CAT-2016 score, who have applied to the programme and who satisfy the eligibility criteria for the programme and next is the PI round after which final admission offer is made.

Percentile slashed by 10: From 90 to 80 in CAT 2016
The first stage shortlisting based on CAT 2016 scores for admission to PGP 2017-19 batch at IIM Ahmedabad will now require only a minimum 80 percentile overall as against 90 last year and only 70 in each of the 3 sections as against 80 last year.

Last year also, after declaration of CAT result, IIM Ahmedabad reduced the minimum qualifying percentile in DILR section from 80 to 75.

Category wise qualifying CAT 2016 percentile for IIMA
According to IIM Ahmedabad Admission Policy for PGP 2017-19 batch There will be three sections, viz., Quantitative Aptitude (QA), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VRC). Only the candidates above the following minimum cut-offs in the sectional percentile ranks, the overall percentile rank and obtaining a positive (greater than zero) raw score in all sections of CAT-2016 will be considered for all the subsequent stages.
Your CAT 2016 score should have minimum following sectional and overall percentile to be eligible to get shortlisted by IIM Ahmedabad

Category
Percentile Rank in Verbal & Reading Comprehension (PVRC)
Percentile rank in Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (PDILR)
Percentile Rank in Quantitative Aptitude
(PQA)

Overall Percentile Rank

General
70
70
70
80

NC-OBC cum transgender
65
65
65
75

SC
60
60
60
70

ST
50
50
50
60

PWD
60
60
60
70

Cut off may go higher than prescribed
Above is only the minimum qualifying percentile score in CAT 2016 without which IIM Ahmedabad will not consider the candidates for stage shortlist. For example, if a General category candidate scores 99 percentile in 2 sections and scores 60 percentile in 3rd section, his overall percentile may be as high as 98 or 99 but since he has not cleared the threshold limit of qualifying percentile, he will not be shortlisted by IIM Ahmedabad. In case some other IIM prescribes minimum sectional qualifying percentile as 60, he may be shortlisted by the concerned IIM.

According to IIM Ahmedabad, Performance in CAT is an important input in the admission process. Candidates should note that it is important to perform well in each section of the test. In addition to the performance in CAT, IIMA uses academic performance of the candidates throughout their academic career up to the bachelors level for shortlisting for AWT & PI.

AR scores at all stages of shortlisting
At different stages of the selection process Application Rating (AR) score of an applicant will be used. An applicants AR score is the sum of all the rating scores based on their percentage of marks obtained in the 10th standard, the 12th standard (depending upon the stream, viz., Science, Commerce and Arts & Humanities) and the bachelors degree programme (depending upon the discipline) respectively.
For different streams/disciplines the equivalent ARs are arrived at by using a (sort of) percentile equivalence of the score distributions using previous years CAT data.

After the stage 1 shortlisting the successful CAT 2016 takers shall have to go through the final admission process at IIM Ahmedabad. The final admission round will comprise Academic Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI). Both the tests will be conducted on the same day and the admission offers shall be issued based on the scores obtained in CAT 2016, AWT, PI and other key parameters in the month of April, 2017.