IIM Bangalore CAT Cut Off

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, shortly popular as IIM Bangalore, is among Asia's top-notch management institutes. This institute was established in 1973, and it functions with over 1200 students joining various programs every academic year. In 2019, IIM Bangalore was accredited by EQUIS. In addition, it is the only Indian Management B-school listed in the Global Network for Advanced Management, a Yale-initiated network of around 32 top-notch global B-schools.

According to the recent ranking done by NIRF in 2020, IIM Bangalore was listed in the second rank amongst the 100 management colleges in India. The institute is located in Bangalore, where the leading corporate companies are in proximity. It is known for providing one of the best placement records every year.

• There are various courses offered by IIM Bangalore, mainly at PG, doctoral, and certificate levels, such as PGP (MBA), EPGP, and Ph.D., among others.
• Amongst all these courses, the PGP and the MBA programs are the flagship degrees offered at IIM Bangalore. 
• Candidates willing to apply for admission at IIM Bangalore must clear the CAT Entrance Test with a valid score.
• The primary admission criteria to get into any IIM is to have cleared the CAT entrance exam with valid cut-off scores. 
• The cut-off scores for IIM Bangalore admissions for the MBA program are released in January, but the minimum cut-off marks for MBA admissions are released. 
• The CAT cut-off scores for IIMs have slight variation among all the institutes across the country. 

CAT cut-off scores for IIMs

• The usual cut-off scores for the CAT exam range from 99 to 100 percent for general category students.  
• The cut-off percentile for reserved students ranges from a slightly lower percentage of 95 to 98.
• Other than IIMs, the cut-off scores for MBA admissions in any top B-School like The FMS, MDI, SPJIMR, and others will be between 95 to 99. 
• The scores of cut-off marks for the CAT exam will not be put up openly, and they can be accessed only by logging into the account of those who have appeared for the CAT exam.
• There are two types considered for IIM Admissions in the CAT cut-off- one is the qualifying cut-off, and the other is the final cut-off scores.
• The minimum qualifying cut-off for the CAT exam will be released before the declaration of the CAT exam. CAT's final cut-off will be released after the exam results are out.  
• Apart from IIMs, the other management institutes will also accept the scores of the CAT exam by releasing a minimum fixed cut-off to shortlist the eligible applicants for admission.

What determines the cut-off scores for the CAT entrance exam?

Each institute has different factors on which the cut-off scores will depend. But some of the basic and minimalistic factors are as follows:

• The level of difficulty with the CAT exam is conducted
• Number of eligible students who are willing to appear for the exam
• Number of students who have cleared the exam
• The seat availability in the individual participating institutes.
• Ranking of the All India regarding the institutes.

IIM Bangalore 2020 cut-off scores in CAT exam

CAT 2020 exam sections	Cut-off scores
VARC	85
DILR	75
QA	75
Overall scores	85

The aspirants of IIM Bangalore will have to understand that the final cut-off scores will always be higher than the minimum qualifying scores released before the results. They will consider both section-wise and overall scores to get the correct percentage for CAT results. For example, to qualify for PGP admissions with CAT results, the cut-off scores must be 80% for the general category. But for admission to the MBA program at IIM Bangalore, the qualified percentile will range from 99-100 in 2020.  

Expected Cut-offs for IIM CAT 2021 

The CAT 2021 exam will be held on November 28, 2021, and its expected cut-offs to get admission will depend on the difficulty level of the CAT exam paper in each slot. For the estimation purpose, the exam authority has shared the estimated CAT 2021 cut-off percentage and the score to range between 57/228 and 122/228. Therefore, the expected percentage of getting into any IIM will be between 90-100 percent and nothing less than 90%. For IIM Bangalore, the cut-off percentile is 99-100 to qualify for admission to this management institute.

Below is the table to know how to range between the CAT Cut-off score and the CAT cut-off percentile

CAT Cut-off percentile/ Cut-off section wise	VARC	DILR	QA	Overall
80%	25	17	19	57
90%	30	23	27	69
95%	35	27	33	83
98%	39	33	40	101
99%	42	36	44	106
99.5%	47	41	48	122

Things to know about qualifying CAT cut-offs in IIM Bangalore

• Qualifying CAT cut-off is also known as IIM eligibility or IIM cut-off shortlist. These are the minimum marks a student is asked to score to qualify for an interview call (like WAT or GD-PI round) for IIM Bangalore admissions. This remains the same for all the items.
• The students will not be selected for the selection rounds by meeting the CAT qualifying cut-off scores.
• As said earlier, CAT qualifying scores will be announced even before the exam results are out, and they will be fixed and slightly vary every year.
• Each IIM campus gives out the qualifying CAT cut-off percentages in their notification regarding the admission criteria and the selection process for that academic year.
• Usually, the qualifying cut-offs for CAT will remain above 90% for all IIMs, except IIM Ahmedabad, and its qualifying cut-off for Cat has been 80% since 2016.
• The CAT qualifying cut-offs are inclusive of sectional scores and overall scores.
• The cut-off scores for qualifying CAT are usually fixed based on the category of the applicants. General category students will begin from 90 (highest), and for the reserved category students, it will begin from 70 and above (lowest).  

Things to know about Final CAT cut-off scores for IIM Bangalore

• The final cut-off scores of CAT are known for the minimum percent for the selection for section rounds like GD, WAT, and PI rounds.
• Securing the final CAT cut-off does not assure that the students will be given admission to IIMs.
• The final cut-off of CAT will be given out after the CAT results are released.
• The CAT cut-off scores as final will not be publically given out by any IIM or top institutes of MBA.
• The final CAT cut-offs for IIMs will remain as high as 99+ percent and for all other top institutes of MBA is 95%
• Even in the final CAT, the cut-off scores will include sectional and overall.
• Similar to the qualifying cut-off scores for CAT, even the final cut-off is given based on the category of the applicants.
• The final cut-off is high compared to reserved students, female students, and those from non-engineering backgrounds.

Available CAT cut-offs of the previous years for IIM Bangalore

CAT Cut-off percentile section-wise	CAT 2018 cut-off in percentage	CAT 2019 cut-off in percentage	CAT 2020 cut-off in percentage
VARC	85	85	85
QA	80	80	80
DILR	80	80	80
In total	90.72%	99%	99%

Note: The given percentiles are based on the estimation, and the actual value of the scores may vary.