CAT Cut off at IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta to Go Up: 2.09 Lakh Take CAT 2018; Records 87.1% Attendance

It is out and can be well calculated now! Dont expect any miracle in CAT 2018 cut offs to be applied at IIM A,B,C,L shortlisting as there has been a record breaking attendance in CAT 2018. According to Dr Sumanta Basu, CAT 2018 exam convener and faculty at IIM Calcutta, Attendance in CAT 2018 has gone up to 87.1% with 209,405 test takers as against 199,632 in 2017, marking a presence of ten thousand more candidates. It may be noted that the total test takers in some of the MBA entrance exams in India are limited to 10000 only.

Actual CAT Cut off May Go Up
Most of the IIMs have reduced the threshold CAT cut offs as well as weightage to the exam score to improve diversity, but will it really help to achieve the goal given the fact that CAT 2018 has seen a massive presence of well-prepared test takers.

Even after reducing the minimum required CAT 2018 cut offs in admission 2019 and reducing the weightage of CAT 2018 score in shortlisting, it seems unlikely that the actual CAT 2018 cut off may go down at IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow or for that matter at FMS Delhi. On the contrary it is expected that it would go up with 2.09 lakhs actually taking CAT 2018 exam on November 25, 2018 in two slots out of 2.41 lakh registered candidates for CAT 2018.

Expected Cut offs 2019
Apart from the top 3-4 IIMs, the CAT cut off in top MBA colleges is also expected to go up for MBA admission 2019 as under:

IIMs
CAT 2018 Cut off as per Admission Policy
Expected Actual CAT 2018 cut off Range

IIM Ahmedabad
80
98-99

IIM Bangalore
90
99+

IIM Calcutta
90
98-99

IIM Lucknow
90
97-98

IIM Indore
90
92-93

IIM Udaipur
90
94-95

IIM Tiruchirappalli
90
93-94

IIM Kozhikode
90
95-96

FMS Delhi
Differential Weight to Sectional Score
98+

SPJIMR, Mumbai
85
90+

MDI Gurgaon
90
94+

IMI New Delhi
90
90+

IMT Ghaziabad
90
90+

XIM Bhubaneshwar
90
92+

JBIMS Mumbai
96
98+

Read More on CAT Cut off in Top MBA colleges

Past Trends in CAT Exams
During the last 3-4 years not only the registrations for CAT have been going up consistently but also the ratio of test takers in CAT exams is also increasing. Here are the last 4 years trends in IIMs-CAT exam:

CAT Exam Year
Total Registered Candidates
Actual Test Takers

CAT 2018
2,41,000
2,09,405

CAT 2017
2,31,067
1,99,632

CAT 2016
2,32,436
1,95,679

CAT 2015
2,18,664
179,602

More Women Candidates Take CAT 2018
CAT 2018 exam right from the beginning aimed to improve gender diversity in IIM class rooms in the academic session beginning 2019. The strategic planning to allot nearest test centre to female candidates and move to restructure CAT 2018 on the pattern and content with the objective to achieve this goal has turned out to result in more number of women appearing in the exam than in previous CAT exams.

CAT Exam Year
Total Women Registered for CAT
Actual Women test takers in CAT

CAT 2018
84,350
73,326

CAT 2017
78,009
NA

CAT 2016
76,704
64,774

CAT 2015
69,176
58,270

56000 Expected to Be Shortlisted by IIMs
It is expected that 56000 MBA aspirants will be shortlisted by IIMs only, out of 2.09 lakh candidates who took CAT 2018 exam. Out of this number, 5600 are proposed to be offered final admission letter by these IIMs in order of merit, if they fulfil the eligibility criteria and qualify the minimum required cut off percentile.

IIMs Admission Criteria: More Academic Diversity Expected
CAT 2018 achieved a new feat as its aim to achieve academic diversity in IIM class rooms has begun to take shape with the significant increase in number of non-engineers.To turn the vision into reality in 2019, the top rated IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta among others have reduced the weightage to CAT 2018 scores and have increased the weightage to academic profile and academic diversity in their admission process for PGP batch 2019-21.

CAT 2018 result is expected to be declared on January 7, 2019 in the morning hours. IIM Calcutta will send an SMS on the CAT Result alongwith total percentile score to each of the CAT test takers. CAT 2018 score card will contain the scaled score as well as the CAT percentile score. The CAT score card has to be downloaded by login with CAT 2018 ID and password at CAT 2018 exam website.

Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have not only revised the admission policy for the forthcoming academic session commencing 2019 but have also increased their intake and have liberalized the shortlisting criteria to improve academic and gender diversity in their class rooms.