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97 percentile in CAT 2025 means approximately 70-76 marks, based on the trend of the previous years. Management aspirants wondering whether is 97 percentile good in CAT or not should know that 97 percentile in CAT is considered a good score in CAT. Looking at the trends of previous years, management aspirants with 97 percentile in CAT would get into IIMs like IIM Kashipur, IIM Rachi etc. Apart from that 97 percentile in CAT can fetch you a good management college like SPJIMR, IMI New Delhi, XLRI, MDI Gurgaon etc. This year's CAT 2025 examination will take place on November 30, 2025. The CAT official answer key and the response sheet will be published, probably in the 2nd week of December 2025. With the help of the CAT answer key 2025, candidates will be able to understand 97 percentile in CAT marks means how many marks. Read this article to learn about 97 Percentile In CAT 2025 means, how many marks, Is 97 percentile in CAT a good score and CAT 97 percentile colleges 2025
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Those who are wondering about the 97 percentile in CAT means how many marks should first know that the full mark of the CAT 2025 exam will be 204. The CAT 2025 question paper will have a total number of 68 questions, 22 questions came in the VARC section, LRDI and QA sections had 22 questions each. Here is the approximate list of the CAT marks which would be useful to understand the 97 percentile in CAT means how many marks.
CAT Marks needed for 97 percentile: Percentile | CAT Marks needed for 97 percentile: Marks (Approximately) |
97.9 | 75.9+ |
97.8 | 75.5+ |
97.7 | 75.1+ |
97.6 | 74. 5+ |
97.5 | 73.8+ |
97.4 | 73.0+ |
97.3 | 72.3+ |
97.2 | 71.6+ |
97.1 | 70.9+ |
97.0 | 70.2+ |
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Let us look at the section-wise marks and the probable percentile for that. These would be crucial for candidates to understand how many CAT marks for the 97 percentile are needed in the CAT 2025 examination.
Percentile | Slot 1 Score | Slot 2 Score | Slot 3 Score |
100 Percentile | 150 | 140 | 140 |
99.5 Percentile | 97 | 95 | 96 |
99 Percentile | 91 | 85 | 88 |
98 Percentile | 80 | 74 | 77 |
| 97 percentile | 76 | 74 | 70 |
95 Percentile | 67 | 62 | 65 |
90 Percentile | 55 | 50 | 53 |
85 Percentile | 46 | 41 | 44 |
80 Percentile | 40 | 35 | 38 |
Also Read: 96 Percentile In CAT Means How Many Marks.
Management aspirants wonder if 97 percentile is good in CAT or not. For those, here is an expected table about the CAT Marks vs percentile 2025 for slot 1, based on the trends of the previous year. It would be crucial for the candidates not only to understand how many marks are needed for 97 percentile in CAT 2025, but at the same timee is 97 percentile good in CAT 2025 for slot 1 or not?
CAT 2025 Percentile | CAT VARC Score | CAT LRDI Score | CAT QA Score | Overall CAT Score |
99 | 39-40 | 31-32 | 30-31 | 90 |
95 | 31-32 | 24-25 | 23–24 | 66 |
90 | 25-26 | 19-21 | 17-18 | 56-57 |
85 | 22-23 | 16-18 | 14-15 | 45-46 |
80 | 20-21 | 13-14 | 12-13 | 40-41 |
70 | 16-17 | 11-12 | 10-11 | 35-36 |
Data by Careers360
Also Read: CAT Colleges Rank-Wise: Top B-Schools Accepting CAT Scores
Check out the section-wise marks and the approximate 97 percentile in CAT Marks for Slot 2. These would be crucial for candidates to understand how 97 percentile in CAT means how many marks in CAT 2025 slot 2.
CAT Percentile | CAT VARC Score | CAT LRDI | CAT QA Score | Overall CAT Score |
99 | 41-42 | 27-28 | 28-29 | 87 |
95 | 33-34 | 22-23 | 22-23 | 63 |
90 | 26-27 | 18-19 | 16-17 | 55-56 |
85 | 23-24 | 15-17 | 13-14 | 44-45 |
80 | 21-22 | 12-14 | 11-12 | 39-40 |
70 | 17-18 | 11-12 | 10-11 | 35-36 |
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One of the best ways to get an idea about 97 percentile in CAT marks is to look at the expected scaled score of CAT 2025.
| CAT Percentile | CAT 2025 Expected Scaled Score |
| 100 | 142.9 |
| 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 | 58.1 |
| 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 |
Before looking into the 97 percentile in CAT marks, and if 97 percentile good in CAT or not, students need to get a clear idea about the CAT 2025 section and the mark division. There are three sections in the CAT 2025 Examination: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Aptitude (QA). 68 questions will be divided into these three sections, each correct answer carrying 3 marks. The candidate would get 40 minutes for each of the sections. Each section would contain several non-MCQ questions along with primarily MCQ questions.
CAT 2025 Section | Number of Questions | Time Allotted | Marks (+3 for every correct answer and -1 for every wrong answer) |
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) | 24 | 40 | 72 |
Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (LRDI ) | 22 | 40 | 66 |
Quantitative Aptitude (QA). | 22 | 40 | 66 |
Total | 68 | 120 | 204 |
Read Also: CAT Score Calculation: How Raw Score Converts to Scaled Score
New: CAT Score Calculator: Estimate Your Raw and Scaled Scores Instantly
Suggested: CAT Percentile Predictor: Estimate Your Percentile Instantly
To understand how many CAT marks are needed for a 97 percentile, one needs to understand how the raw score is calculated. The RAW CAT score is determined according to the following process-
Raw Score = 3 * (number of correct answers given by the candidate) - 1 * ( number of wrong answers given by the candidate)
Example: Let us assume that one of the applicants has attempted 58 questions out of 66 questions. Out of these, they have answered 48 correctly. Out of 10 wrong answers, 8 wrong answers are from MCQ and 2 are from non-MCQ, so the RAW CAT Score would be
Attempted - 58
Correct- 38
MCQ incorrect- 20
So Total = (38*3) - (20*1) = 94
Moreover, being a competitive exam, the CAT 2025 also provides the percentile apart from the RAW CAT Score. The percentile shows how one candidate has scored better than other candidates. For instance, last year 76.02 marks fetched one candiate 99 percentile, which in turn implies that one candidate has scored better than 99% of the appeared candidates. To calculate the percentile of one candidate, the following process is taken-
Percentile = [1-{One’s CAT Rank / Number of Candidates appeared for the test}] * 100
CAT Percentile Predictor can be a handy tool for applicants to get a glimpse of what they can expect as a percentile. They need to calculate the RAW score and then put it in the calculator tool mentioned above to get a sneak peek at the expected Percentile.
After getting a hold of an idea about what the 97 percentile in CAT means, many management aspirants wonder about the CAT 97 percentile colleges. Those who are wondering about the CAT 97 percentile Colleges 2025, here is the list of the top CAT MBA colleges accepting 97 percentile, depending on the category of the management aspirants.
1. IIM Ranchi
2. IIM Boodhgaya
3. II Kashipur
4. XLRI
5. MDI Gurgaon
6. IMI New Delhi
7. Great Lakes
8. SIBM Pune
9. Loyola Institute of Business Management, Chennai
10. TISS
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
To get into top IIMs, candidates must have a percentile above 99%ile. While for other top colleges, the percentile can range from 94% to 97%. Moreover, there are three CAP rounds until the final selection of the candidates.
As per last year (CAT 2024) the total marks for CAT 2025 will be 204.
The CAT 2025 Exam has three sections. The CAT VARC section will include 24 questions with a weightage of 72 marks. These will be followed by the DILR section and QA section. The DILR and QA sections comprise 20 and 22 questions, respectively, and they contain 60 and 66 marks.
The difficulty level of CAT 2025 is expected to be moderate to hard, looking into the past trends. However, with the proper preparation, the candidates will be able to clear it.
Looking at the past trends, scoring 120 will gain the candidate's 90 percentile. However, this score can vary according to the difficulty level of the examination each year.
Applicants can try the Careers360 Percentile to know their CAT percentile. Upon putting the CAT Raw score in the predictor tool.
To calculate the the CAT Raw Score one needs to follow these steps
Raw Score = 3 * (number of correct answers given by the candidate) - 1 * ( number of wrong answers given by the candidate)
On Question asked by student community
Hi there,
The minimum eligibility criteria for a general candidate to receive a call from IIM Sambalpur are as follows:
VARC: 65%ile
QUANTS: 65%ile
LRDI: 65%ile
Overall: 90%tile
Keep practising and aim to improve your score. You can also focus on other management exams where you may secure a strong
Hi there,
With a B.tech in industrial engineering from IIT Roorkee and a CAT 2025 score of 98.89 percentile and strong sectionals your profile is solid for top B-schools. For the top IIMs like Ahmedabad and Bangalore, calls for engineers usually go to candidates with near perfect percentiles. Your score
Hello,
The IIT Guwahati cutoff for SC and EWS categories depends on the branch, year, and JoSAA counselling round, but you can get a general idea from recent trends.
For the SC category, closing ranks usually range from 4,000 to 9,000 for popular branches like CSE, ECE, and Mechanical, while
with this percentile, you can get into tier 2 or tier 3 college, the list of the few notable college is given below-
1) FLAME university, Pune
2) AIMS institute, Bangalore
3) Doon business school, Dehradun
4) Christ university, Bangalore
5) NIT Trichy
6) KIIT school of management, Bhuvneshwar
A CAT percentile of 99.64 is an excellent score and definitely places you in a strong position for top IIM calls, including IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta. However, admission to these institutes is not based on CAT score alone. Each of these IIMs follows a holistic selection process
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