CAT Score vs Percentile 2025: Check Expected and Previous Year Percentile

Q: What is the difference between CAT Exam Marks vs Percentile?

CAT Exam Marks refer to the actual marks scored by a candidate in the CAT Exam, while Percentile compares the candidate’s score to the scores of other candidates who have taken the exam.

Q: How is the CAT Exam Percentile calculated?

The CAT Exam Percentile is calculated by comparing the candidate’s score to all other candidates who have taken the exam.

Q: What are the maximum CAT Exam Marks and Percentile?

The maximum CAT Exam Mark is 198, and the maximum Percentile is 100.

Q: Is there any correlation between CAT Exam Marks and Percentile?

Yes, CAT Exam Marks and Percentile are directly related. The higher the marks scored, the higher the percentile of the candidate.

Q: What is the best way to improve CAT Exam Marks and Percentile?

The best way to improve CAT Exam Marks and Percentile is to practice regularly, understand the topics covered, and develop a good strategy for attempting the exam.

Q: How is the CAT percentile calculated?

CAT percentile is calculated based on the scaled score, reflecting your rank compared to all test-takers.

Q: Is CAT percentile more important than the score for MBA admissions?

Yes, most MBA colleges consider the percentile to shortlist candidates for admissions.

Q: Can a high CAT score guarantee a high percentile?

A high score usually leads to a high percentile, but it depends on the overall performance of other candidates.

Author : Lalita Vishwakarma

December 17, 2024

Overview: CAT score vs Percentile 2025 is the method to find out the CAT raw score against the CAT percentile. This can be calculated once the CAT answer key is released. In this blog, we will look into the steps to compute the CAT 2025 marks vs percentile.

The individual sectional scores are calculated from the number of questions answered correctly and the difficulty level of the CAT exam. The overall score is derived from your performance in all sections.
The CAT exam score is then converted into a percentile, which compares one candidate's performance with other candidates who appeared for the exam. This is why candidates search for CAT 2025 marks vs percentile.

Coming to CAT marks vs Percentile the percentile is calculated based on the number of candidates who appeared for the exam and the number of candidates who secured the same or higher score than others. Let's understand the distinction between CAT score vs Percentile 2025!

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025

How to calculate CAT score? The CAT exam score is converted into a percentile to determine a candidate's relative performance compared to other candidates who appeared for the exam.

The percentile helps the IIMs and other top B-schools compare candidates' performance with other candidates.

This helps the institutions to determine the candidate’s ranking within the group of candidates who appeared for the exam.

The percentile score is calculated based on the number of candidates who appeared for the exam and the number of candidates who secured the same or higher score than the candidate.
The percentile score is then used to determine the overall rank of the candidate.

Note: Candidates can also use the CAT percentile calculator or CAT score calculator available online to get an instant overall idea of their CAT exam performance. Calculation of the scaled score of a candidate for CAT score vs percentile 2024: The following steps are followed to calculate the scaled score of a candidate in each of the three sections for CAT 2025 score vs percentile, i.e.,

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The overall scaled Score vs Percentile CAT 2025 score is obtained by adding the scaled scores of these three sections. The QA section is chosen as an example to illustrate the scaling process. A similar process is valid for the other two sections, DILR and VARC.

Steps to Compute CAT Score vs Percentile 2025

Here are the steps to calculate the CAT 2025 score vs percentile or CAT marks vs Percentile

Step 1: Calculate the mean and the standard deviation (SD) of the raw scores in the QA section for all candidates appearing in the morning session.

Let's consider Mean = M1 and SD = S1 and G1 = M1 + S1.

Step 2: Calculate the mean and the standard deviation (SD) of the raw scores in the QA section for all candidates appearing in the afternoon session.

Let's consider Mean = M2 and SD = S2 and G2 = M2 + S2.

Step 3: Calculate the mean and the standard deviation (SD) of the raw scores in the QA section for all candidates appearing in the evening session.

Let's consider Mean = M3 and SD = S3 and G3 = M3 + S3.

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Step 4: Calculate the mean and the standard deviation (SD) of the raw scores in the QA section for all candidates appearing in CAT (i.e. including all three sessions).

Let's consider Mean = M, SD = S, and G = M + S.

Step 5: Calculate the mean raw score in the QA section of the top 0.1% of candidates in the morning session and denote it by 𝑀1 0.1

Step 6: Calculate the mean raw score in QA of the top 0.1% of candidates in the afternoon session and denote it by 𝑀2 0.1

Step 7: Calculate the mean raw score in QA of the top 0.1% of candidates in the evening session and denote it by 𝑀3 0.1

Step 8: Calculate the mean raw score in QA of the top 0.1% of candidates appearing in CAT (i.e. considering all three sessions) and denote it by 𝑀0.1

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CAT Score vs Percentile 2025: Section-wise Scaled Score Calculation

Here are the details for the section-wise scaled score calculation:

CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile Slot 1

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC Score	CAT DILR Score	CAT QA Score	Overall CAT Score
100	42-44	29-30	30-32	100-102
99+	40	25-27	25-28	80
95+	28-30	18-20	20-22	55
90+	22-24	15-17	15-17	45-48
85+	20-22	13-14	15-14	40-45
80+	18-20	18-22	18-20	35-37

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CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 Slot 2

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC Score	CAT DILR Score	CAT QA Score	Overall CAT Score
100	43-44	25-27	29-30	98-100
99+	40-42	22-23	27-28	82-83
95+	30-33	18-20	20-22	57-58
90+	24-26	14-15	15-17	46-48
85+	20-22	13-14	15-14	40-43
80+	18-20	18-22	18-20	36-39

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 Slot 3

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC Score	CAT DILR Score	CAT QA Score	Overall CAT Score
100	42-23	27-28	32-34	98-100
99+	38-40	23-24	27-28	78-80
95+	28-30	18-20	18-20	57-58
90+	24-25	15-17	15-17	46-48
85+	20-22	13-14	15-14	40-41
80+	18-20	18-22	18-20	36-37

How to Calculate Percentile in CAT 2025?

CAT 2025 score vs percentile - Section-wise

Suppose now XYZ is a candidate who appeared in the morning session, and her raw score in the QA section is R. Then the scaled score of XYZ in QA, say 𝑅̂, given by:

𝑅̂ = (𝑅 − 𝐺1) 𝑀0.1 − 𝐺/ 𝑀10.1 − 𝐺1 + 𝐺

In case XYZ is a candidate who appeared in the afternoon session and her raw score in the QA section is R. Then the scaled score of XYZ in QA, say 𝑅̂, given by:

𝑅̂ = (𝑅 − 𝐺2) * 𝑀0.1 − 𝐺/ 𝑀2 0.1 − 𝐺2 + G

In case XYZ is a candidate who appeared in the evening session and her raw score in the QA section is R. Then the scaled score of XYZ in QA, say 𝑅̂, given by:

𝑅̂ = (𝑅 − 𝐺3) 𝑀0.1 − 𝐺/ 𝑀30.1 − 𝐺3 + 𝐺

A similar Methodology is applied to compute scaled scores for other sections. If this formula yields any scaled score of more than 100, it will be rounded to 100.

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CAT Score vs Percentile 2025: Percentile Score Calculation

Calculation of the percentile score of a candidate:

The steps described below are followed to calculate the CAT 2025 overall and sectional percentile scores obtained by a candidate. The QA section is chosen as an example to illustrate the percentile score calculation process. A similar process is followed for the overall percentile score calculation and the other two sections, DILR and VARC, in CAT 2024.

Step 1: Calculate the total number of candidates (N) who appeared for CAT (i.e., morning, afternoon, and evening sessions).

Step 2: Assign a rank (r) to all candidates who appeared for CAT based on the scaled scores obtained in the QA section. If two or more candidates obtain identical scaled scores in the QA section, assign identical ranks to all those candidates. As an illustration, suppose exactly two candidates obtain the highest scaled score in the QA section, and then both candidates are assigned a rank of 1. Moreover, the candidate(s) obtaining the second highest scaled score in the QA section are assigned a rank of 3.

Step 3: Calculate the percentile score (P) of a candidate with rank (r) in the QA section as:

CAT score vs percentile -

𝑃 = (𝑁 − 𝑟)/ 𝑁 x 100

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Step 4: Round off a candidate's calculated percentile score (P) to two decimal points. For example, all percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.995 are rounded off to 100; all scores greater than or equal to 99.985 but strictly less than 99.995 are rounded off to 99.99.

A methodology similar to the one described above is used to compute the overall CAT percentile scores and the percentile scores of other sections.

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Conclusion

The CAT 2025 score vs percentile is used to determine the candidate's relative performance compared to other candidates who appeared for the exam.

The Score vs Percentile CAT 2025 helps the IIMs and other top B-schools compare the candidate's performance with that of other candidates. This helps the institutions determine the candidate’s ranking within the group of candidates who appeared for the exam.

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