CAT Score vs Percentile 2024 – Section-wise analysis of how many marks you need to score 99%+

It is almost unanimously agreed across India that the fastest way to accelerate one’s career and jump a few steps on the corporate ladder is to take the CAT exam and get into a renowned BSchool. But with over 3 lakh aspirants vying for just a few thousand seats across India’s top BSchools, the competition is intense. While a lot rests on your syllabus coverage and prep, strategy also plays an important part. And it is no secret that to whittle down your strategy into actionables, you need to know your target score. To do that, you must understand the CAT score vs percentile conversion process. Understanding the scoring process will help you better grasp:

 

1. What score do you need to get the percentile required to maximise your chances of landing a call from your target college?
2. How much do you need to score to clear the sectional as well as overall cutoffs?
3. What is the CAT score normalisation process that nets you the scaled score?
4. How to calculate your CAT percentile?
5. How well do you stack up against your peers?
6. What is a good CAT score?

So, let’s dive right into the CAT score vs percentile debate and see how much you need to score to get into your target college.

 

CAT score vs percentile – What exactly is your CAT score?

 

While any layman can tell you that your CAT score comprises of the marks you scored on the CAT exam, it is still critical to decode how exactly you got those marks. For that, let’s look at the CAT exam pattern and CAT marking scheme.

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CAT marks vs percentile – CAT exam pattern and marking scheme

 

The CAT exam has three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Aptitude (QA). Each section has between 20 and 24 questions, each worth 3 marks. There is negative marking in CAT to the tune of -1 for each incorrect attempt. 

Section	Number of Questions	Time Allotted (In Minutes)	Marks (+3 for every correct answer and -1 for every incorrect answer)
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)	24	40	72
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)	20	40	60
Quantitative Aptitude (QA)	22	40	66

 

However, not all questions are the same in CAT. While the MCQs have negative marking, the TITA or ‘Type in Your Answer’ questions have no negative marking.

 

Section	MCQs	Non-MCQs	Total No. of Questions	CAT Exam Duration
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)	21	3	24	40 min
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DI & LR)	14	6	20	40 min
Quantitative Ability (QA)	14	8	22	40 min
Total	49	17	66	120 (2 hours)

 

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CAT score vs percentile – What is your raw CAT score?

 

Based on the number of correct and incorrect responses you produce, you can calculate the raw CAT score. Give yourself a +3 for every correct answer and a -1 for every incorrect MCQ. However, the CAT exam is held across multiple slots, and the probability of each slot’s paper being exactly the same in difficulty level is low due to the inherent randomness in question distribution. 

To ensure fairness and avoid any misgivings, the process of CAT score normalisation was introduced. Through a scientifically rigorous normalisation process, the differences in difficulty level are accounted for. For instance, the third slot for CAT 2023 was easier than the first one. This meant that during normalisation, 4 marks were deducted from the raw CAT score of test-takers in the third slot while 3 marks were added to those of the first slot. 

 

CAT score vs percentile – What is your CAT percentile?

 

CAT in itself is a comparative evaluation method; it does not have a pass, fail, or minimum score. Unlike the absolute CAT marks you get awarded, the CAT percentile helps you compare your performance to that of other test takers. For instance, scoring 76.02 marks in CAT 2023 corresponded with a percentile of 99, i.e., you scored better than 99% of all CAT test takers.

 

Here is the general formula to calculate your CAT percentile:

 

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P = [1 – { r/N }] * 100

Where,

P = CAT percentile

r = Your CAT rank

N = No. of total test takers

 

Your CAT percentile is a crucial bit of information that will be used by colleges and universities to determine whether you’re deserving of admission. Your final percentile will be rounded off to two decimal places. 

 

CAT score vs percentile 2023 – Previous years’ CAT marks vs percentile table

This table will help you see the corresponding normalised CAT score required to score different percentiles in 2023. For our 2024 estimates, scroll below.

CAT score vs percentile 2023 (Overall)

As you can see, the highest CAT score was 142.90. The difficulty level of the CAT 2023 paper was slightly lower than 2022 because of which the CAT scores corresponding to each percentile went up. 99% was at 76.02, while 95% was at 45.16. 

 

Read More – CAT Exam Pattern – Questions, exam pattern, marking scheme

 

CAT Percentile	Scaled CAT Score
100.00	142.90
99.99	118.67
99.95	106.95
99.90	101.43
99.83	95.96
99.50	84.29
99.37	81.75
99.00	76.02
98.50	71.15
98.37	70.31
98.00	66.68
97.70	65.91
97.00	61.56
96.60	59.99
96.00	58.10
95.42	56.13
95.00	54.86
94.00	53.32
93.00	52.35
92.05	47.99
91.00	46.13
90.00	45.16
85.00	42.29
80.00	41.19
75.00	40.02

 

CAT score vs percentile 2023 (VARC)

For the VARC section in CAT, the highest score was 61.66. As you’ll notice, VARC has the lowest rate of corresponding decline in scaled CAT scores as we move down the percentile list. 

 

CAT Percentile	Scaled CAT Score
100.00	61.66
99.99	57.32
99.87	51.02
99.50	44.00
99.26	41.76
99.00	39.70
98.21	35.88
96.72	31.47
95.00	28.68
93.50	26.33
90.00	23.39
86.43	20.66
80.00	17.58
75.00	15.27
62.28	11.53

 

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CAT score vs percentile 2023 (DILR)

The CAT score vs percentile table for the DILR section clearly shows that 50.60 was the highest score, while 99% was at 27.39 marks and 90% was at just 15.63 marks. 

 

CAT Percentile	Scaled CAT Score
100.00	50.60
99.99	42.70
99.90	36.58
99.71	32.78
99.43	29.71
99.14	27.56
99.00	27.39
98.37	24.58
96.83	20.88
95.53	19.60
90.00	15.63
84.87	13.01
80.00	11.67
77.88	10.81
72.94	9.67

 

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CAT marks vs percentile 2023 (QA)

You’ll notice an accelerated drop in the corresponding CAT scores for subsequent CAT percentiles. In QA, usually, the sectional cutoffs are as low as 12 marks for most colleges. While toppers score well above 40 marks in the QA section, even the 90th percentile score is just 13.63 marks. 

 

CAT Percentile	Scaled CAT Score
100	49.46
99.98	41.87
99.9	37.83
99.5	31.39
99	28.18
98.5	25.73
98	24.31
97.5	23.71
97	22.7
96.5	21.69
96	21.41
95.5	20.44
95	19.68
94	17.91
93.5	17.66
93	17.54
92.5	15
90	13.63
80	9.2

 

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CAT score vs percentile 2024 – Expected marks needed to score 90%

 

Based on our mentors’ experiences with students across the decade, we can fairly gauge the CAT scores and CAT percentiles for this year. While this table is not deemed to be accurate, it will give you a fair idea of the score you should target to get a good percentile. We’ll solidify the data gathered here once the CAT 2024 exam is up and we have more information regarding its difficulty level. For now, it is a fair assumption to make that CAT 2024 will be harder than CAT 2023.

 

Expected CAT score vs percentile 2024 (Overall)

 

We expect the 95th percentile score to be around 55 marks, while the 99th percentile mark should fall around 80 marks. 

 

CAT Percentile	Overall CAT Score
100	98 -102
99+	80-83
95+	55-58
90+	45-48
85+	39-43
80+	35-39

Expected CAT score vs percentile 2024 (VARC)

 

For VARC, we’re looking at 30 marks for 95 percentile and 40 for 99 percentile.

 

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC Score
100	42-44
99+	38-40
95+	29-31
90+	23-26
85+	20-22
80+	18-20

 

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Expected CAT score vs percentile 2024 (DILR)

 

For DILR, expect a CAT score of 20 to reach 95 percentile and 26 for 99 percentile. 

 

CAT Percentile	CAT DILR Score
100	26-30
99+	23-26
95+	18-20
90+	14-17
85+	13-14
80+	10-12

 

Expected CAT score vs percentile 2024 (QA)

 

Along similar lines as DILR, the QA section, too, should have the 95th percentile to be at 20 marks and the 99th percentile score at 26.

 

CAT Percentile	CAT QA Score
100	29-33
99+	25-28
95+	19-22
90+	15-17
85+	12-14
80+	10-12

 

Read More – CAT Cutoff – How much do you need to score for the top colleges?

CAT 2024 score vs percentile – What is a good CAT score?

 

While the answer to this question is subject to one’s college and program preferences, ideally, students should target a CAT percentile score above 90% to stand a chance at the best MBA colleges in India. And to get to that score, you should target attempting around 24 questions with an accuracy of 85%-90%. This will result in you getting to a net question count ( a general count of how many questions you’d need to attempt assuming your accuracy was 100%) of 14 questions. 

 

For more information, refer to the table below:

 

CAT Percentile	VARC questions to attempt	DILR questions to attempt	QA questions to attempt	Overall questions to attempt	Net Questions
100	15-16	11-12	15-16	42-45	28+
99+	14-15	10-11	13-15	40-41	25+
95-98.99	13-14	9-10	12-13	35-39	18+
90-94.99	11-12	7-8	11-12	29-34	14+
85+	9-10	6-7	9-11	24-28	12+

 

Understanding the whole CAT score vs percentile picture will aid you in finetuning your strategy for your target college. Based on the cutoffs for the college you are targeting, you need to decide on a score you want to achieve. Then, you match that score with the number of questions you need to attempt. Finally, you can match the total questions with the topics you need to study based on the weightage assigned to each topic. While there is no solid weightage for each topic, past trends do help zero down on the expected weightage for each topic. 

 

You can learn more about the topics and their weightage in this blog – CAT Syllabus – Topic-wise weightage for all sections.

 

Based on your target score, your prep will also vary. To get the best preparation strategy for your goals, you require personalised mentorship from the top CAT mentors in India. The IMS CATapult Program gives you more than 100 classes and 100+ mock tests covering all the major MBA entrances apart from multiple one-on-one mentorship and strategy sessions with India’s top mentors. Just click on the link below, fill out the form, and one of our Education Advisors will reach out to you regarding your CAT prep.