IIM Call Cutoff Vs IIM Eligibility Cutoff: Why there is huge gap?

IIM Call Cutoff Vs IIM Eligibility Cutoff

CAT 2024 exam date is November 24, 2024, following which the CAT result 2024 will be announced tentatively on December 19. The previous year, while MBA aspirants rejoiced in the fact that the IIM Bangalore overall cutoff for general category candidates was 85 percentile and the sectional cutoffs were 75 percentile (Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning, Verbal and Reading Comprehension) the reality was quite different. The interview cutoff for the general category candidates at IIM Ahmedabad will probably be much higher for the 2025–27 batch.

Check out the related articles on IIM Call cutoff Vs Shortlist cutoff

What are IIM Eligibility Cutoff and IIM Call Cut-offs?

The IIM Eligibility Cutoff is the minimum CAT Cutoff score, which a candidate needs to secure in the CAT exam, to be eligible for the IIM admission process. There is no official IIM call cutoff for CAT test-takers. Each IIM that accepts the CAT score announces their own CAT cutoffs. The individual cut-offs by IIMs consist of both sectional and overall cutoffs, which candidates need to satisfy to be eligible for further selection rounds of admission criteria.

Hence, the eligibility cutoffs for each IIM are different, and before applying for admissions, candidates need to check the eligibility first. If a candidate falls under the eligibility cutoff range of an IIM, that does not mean they will get a call from that IIM.

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Why are there huge gaps?

The gap exists because the eligibility cutoff announced by an IIM is the minimum CAT percentile candidates are required to secure for getting into the list of candidates who can be considered for the next stage of the CAT selection process, comprising WAT and PI.

The actual IIM call cutoff, however, depends on the number of candidates available from the top. Thus for IIM Lucknow, which may call 600-1000 general category candidates (generally three times the seat capacity), it gets the desired numbers within the 98 to 100 percentile. This is because, within the top 2 percentile, it may get as many as 4,000 candidates in a scenario where the number of test-takers is near 2 lakh.

Thus, you must understand that the CAT cutoff percentile released by IIMs is the eligibility criteria or the minimum percentile a candidate has to secure to be eligible for getting shortlisted.

How do the number of test-takers and IIM intake influence the cutoff?

A percentile is a measure indicating the value below which a given percentage of test-takers come under. For example, the 90 percentile refers to the value below which 90% of the CAT exam takers would fall. Hence, test takers securing 90 percentile or above refers to the top 10% of the test takers. So, if the total number of actual test takers is near 2 lakh, approximately 20,000 candidates (1%) would come under the percentile range of 99 to 100.

IIMs, generally, shortlist three times the number of seats for the next level of the IIM selection process. The total number of seats in 20 IIMs is around 4000, which means the total number of short-listed candidates would be 12,000. Out of this, the number of general category candidates to be shortlisted will be 50 percent, which is nearly 6,000. Now, if we consider the case of IIM Lucknow, where the total number of seats is around 400, with around 200 general category seats, the number of shortlisted candidates in the general category would be around 600.

This means that in the top institute within the IIMs system, IIM-L could get the desired number of candidates within the range of 99.5–100 percentile. But since the candidate profile is also considered while shortlisting candidates, the shortlisting cutoff percentile finally settles in the range of 98 to 100 percentile. So, it is quite evident that the candidates to be finally shortlisted belong to the top percentile bracket of 98 to 100 and are not within the 90 percentile as mentioned in the IIM admission criteria.

For the top IIMs, which are popularly and collectively referred to as BLACKIS (B-Bangalore, L-Lucknow, A-Ahmedabad, C-Calcutta, K-Kozhikode, I-Indore, S-Shillong) by the MBA aspirants, the combined intake is around 2600, which is approximately half of the number of candidates falling within the top three percentile brackets (97 to 100 percentile). So you can understand why the actual interview call cutoff of the top IIMs ranges from 97 to 100 percentile.

Academics and work experience: Other factors which influence shortlist cutoff

Top IIMs—BLACKIS, consider other factors like past academic records, work experience, academic and gender diversity, and overall candidate profile for making the final shortlist offer. They calculate a scaled score or percentile based on the above-mentioned factors. To equate the scores in all other parameters, IIMs may have to go down a couple of percentiles, say 97 percentile. The actual interview call cutoff is the culmination of these factors.

At the same time, securing above the 99 percentile is not always a benchmark for appearing in IIM interview rounds, as the composite score for shortlisting depends upon multiple factors. For the final selection, IIMs also calculate the composite scores in terms of performance in CAT, WAT & PI, and candidate profile.