CAT 2025 Total Marks: Section-Wise Marks, Cutoff Scores & Selection Criteria

CAT 2025 Total Marks: Section-Wise Marks, Cutoff Scores & Selection Criteria

Team Careers360Updated on 30 Nov 2025, 09:36 AM IST

The CAT total marks for 2025 are 204 for all the CAT sections, with a total of 68 questions. The CAT 2025 total marks will be divided into three different sections, which are 24, 22, and 22 across the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Aptitude (QA), respectively. The total time duration for the CAT exam is 120 minutes, with 40 minutes for each section. For every correct answer, 3 marks are given. For each wrong answer, 1 mark is deducted as per the CAT negative marking scheme. This year, IIM Kozhikode will conduct the CAT 2025 on November 30, 2025. The result for CAT 2025 is expected to be announced around December 19-20.

This Story also Contains

  1. CAT 2025 Total Marks for Eligibility
  2. How to Calculate Your Score from CAT Total Marks 2025?
  3. CAT Total Marks for Cutoff
  4. CAT 2025 Total Marks for Selection Process
CAT 2025 Total Marks: Section-Wise Marks, Cutoff Scores & Selection Criteria
CAT Total Marks 2025

CAT 2025 Total Marks for Eligibility

As per the CAT 2025 eligibility criteria, a candidate needs to have at least 50% marks or an equivalent CGPA (45% for reserved category candidates) in the Bachelor’s Degree. Only the candidates with the above-stated marks are eligible to apply for the CAT 2025. Apart from these, the marks of the 10th and 12th standards. IIMs and other colleges give weightage to the marks of the 10th and 12th standards for the final selection process.

How to Calculate Your Score from CAT Total Marks 2025?

To calculate your CAT 2025 score or total mark, you must follow the steps given below:

  • You will need to begin with raw score calculation, which will be based on the marking scheme.
  • Since the CAT 2025 exam will be conducted in slots, the difficulty level might vary. Therefore, to ensure fairness, the process of 'normalisation' or 'scaling' will be used by the exam authorities.
  • Your percentile score will indicate your performance relative to all other candidates who will take the exam.
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CAT Total Marks for Cutoff

The CAT total marks for cutoff are the marks required for the candidate to apply for different colleges for admission to their MBA/PGDM courses. The CAT total marks for the CAT cutoff depend on certain factors like the CAT difficulty level, the number of appearing candidates, the normalisation process, etc. The expected CAT 2025 total marks for different percentile cutoffs are provided in the table below.

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CAT percentile

Score VARC

Score DILR

Score QA

CAT Total Marks

99.5

42

30

30

86

99

36

25

25

74

95

30

20

22

52

90

24

14

13

42

80

20

11

9

35

70

18

9

7

30

CAT 2025 Total Marks for Selection Process

The CAT total marks for the selection process will be released after the 2025 CAT results are declared. The candidates having enough scores will have the CAT total marks for the selection process at IIMs and other top B schools. The CAT total marks for the selection process will be released by different colleges for shortlisting candidates to their respective MBA/PGDM programs. The CAT total marks for the selection process across IIMs and other colleges are given in the table below.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: What are the total marks of the CAT exam?
A:

The total marks for the Common Admission Test (CAT) exam are 204. The time duration of the CAT exam is 120 minutes (2 hours). The three sections have 24, 22, and 22 questions, respectively. Each question carries three marks. It also has a negative mark, with 1 mark being deducted for every wrong answer.

Q: What is a good score for CAT?
A:

A good CAT score will depend on the college that a candidate aims for. If the goal is to pursue an MBA from IIMs then a good score would be percentile between 98-99.9. Other than IIMs a percentile between 90-99 would be considered good enough.

Q: What is a good attempt in CAT?
A:

A good number of attempts in CAT would be different for each section and would depend on the accuracy with which a candidate attempts each section. With an estimated accuracy of 90% a good number of attempts would be somewhere between 40-55. Difficulty level of the exam should also be considered.

Q: Does CAT have a negative marking?
A:

Yes. The CAT exam has negative marking. For every answer marked wrongly by a candidate, 1 mark will be deducted. For every correct answer, 3 marks are awarded. No marks are deducted for questions left unattempted by the candidate.

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Questions related to CAT

On Question asked by student community

Have a question related to CAT ?

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