CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 (Updated) - Expected Marks vs Percentile, Scaled scores

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 Expected - Section-wise & Slot-wise CAT Scores

The CAT 2025 marks vs percentile relationship helps you target the right score for your B-school goals. The table below shows expected slot-wise and section-wise scores along with net questions for each key percentile based on recent exam trends:

Read about CL's CAT Score Calculator and IIM Profilizer to find out the calls you would receive from IIMs and other B-schools.

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CAT Score vs Percentile 2025: Key Highlights

• Scoring a 99+ %ile in CAT usually requires a CAT score of roughly 100+ marks, but this varies each year based on paper difficulty.
• Sectional balance is important; even high overall scores won’t qualify you for IIMs without clearing each section’s cutoff.
• Slot-wise scaling can lift a difficult paper’s raw scores higher, so focus on accuracy even if a section feels tough.

Looking for top MBA colleges with a CAT score? Check out the extensive list of top MBA B-schools and their expected cut-offs for 2025

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CAT Marks Vs Percentile 2025 - What Is Your CAT Score?

The first question that pops up for any first-time CAT taker is, “What is CAT percentile and score?

Well, to answer this question in the simplest way possible, we can tell you that your CAT score comprises the marks you scored in your CAT exam, and your CAT percentile signifies nothing but the number of candidates you have performed better than. It is still crucial to decode how exactly you got those marks and the criteria behind converting them into scaled scores and percentiles. For that, let’s first try to understand what exactly these CAT scaled scores and CAT percentiles are.

What is the Raw CAT Score?

We are all familiar with the CAT raw scores, the total marks calculated based on a candidate's correct and incorrect attempts. As there are three slots in CAT with varying difficulty levels per section, each candidate's raw scores are converted to scaled scores to standardise the marks across all slots. CAT scorecards display only scaled scores and percentiles for each section and the overall exam. The raw scores are not shown to candidates.

Looking for CAT 2025 live analysis? Check out CAT slotwise exam analysis on 30th November with our CL experts

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CAT Marks Vs Percentile - What is CAT Scaled Score?

The CAT scaled score is evaluated based on CAT marks, whereas the CAT Percentile is the total percentage of candidates who secured less than or equal to a specific candidate’s score. This brings us to the question: How much do you need to score in CAT to get a 99%ile?

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CAT 2025 Score Vs Percentile - What is CAT Percentiles?

The CAT percentile represents a candidate’s relative performance compared to all other test-takers. It does not reflect the actual marks (raw scores) but instead indicates the percentage of candidates who scored less than or equal to you. In simple terms, if you secure a 95 percentile, it means you performed better than 95% of all CAT 2025 aspirants.

The overall percentile is derived from your performance across all three sections:

• Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
• Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)
• Quantitative Ability (QA)

Each section’s scaled score is first converted into a sectional percentile, and then the overall percentile is computed based on your total scaled score.

Understanding CAT percentiles is crucial because B-schools use them as the primary shortlisting criterion for further admission processes like the WAT (Written Ability Test), PI (Personal Interview), or GD (Group Discussion).

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How Is CAT Percentile Calculated?

Step 1: Calculate the total number of candidates (N) who appeared for CAT (i.e. including 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 all the sections. In the case of two or more candidates obtaining identical scaled scores of the particular section, assign identical ranks to all those candidates.

Note: If two or more candidates' scaled scores are the same, they will be given the same rank (r). That is, if two candidates get the highest scaled score in VARC, they will be assigned rank 1. Also, the candidate with the second highest scaled score will follow at rank 3. The Final Percentile (P) will be rounded off to two decimal places.

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

where,

P = Percentile of the candidate

N = Number of candidates who appeared for CAT 2025

r = The rank assigned to candidates based on their scaled scores

Step 4: Round off the calculated percentile score (P) of a candidate up to two decimal points.

For example, all percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.995 are rounded off to 100, and all

percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.985 but strictly less than 99.995 are rounded off to

99.99 and so on.

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

Also Check: CAT Syllabus | CAT Exam Pattern

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What Is Considered A Good CAT Score?

There is no specific answer to this question, as it is subject to the candidate's interests and the college they are aiming to get into. However, ideally, students should target a CAT percentile above 95% to secure a seat in some of the best MBA colleges in India. The table below represents the good CAT scores that have a high chance of achieving a good percentile in CAT 2025.

The above scores are indicative and based on the expected CAT 2025 pattern and past year trends. Actual scores and percentiles may vary depending on the difficulty level of the exam and normalization across different slots.

n order to achieve a high CAT percentile, you need to work on getting an appropriate score to match that level, considering the increasing competition nowadays.

Also check out what is a good percentile in 2025 to know more about a good CAT score.

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How Is CAT Composite Score Considered For Determining CAT Marks Vs Percentile?

There are several parameters based on which B-schools determine a candidate’s composite score for shortlisting after the CAT exam. While the CAT percentile reflects the percentage of candidates you’ve outperformed based on your scaled score, the composite score used for admissions considers additional factors such as:

• CAT 2025 Scaled Score
• 10th, 12th, and Graduation Marks
• Gender Diversity
• Academic Diversity
• Work Experience (if any)

Each IIM and participating B-school assigns different weightages to these components. Some institutes emphasise past academics more, while others focus on recent performance or overall profile strength.

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CAT Score Vs Percentile: Past Year Trends

The CAT exam’s past year's trends would help the aspirants understand the difficulty level of the exam and analyse the expected percentile and score for the year 2025. Studying past CAT score vs percentile data enables candidates to evaluate difficulty levels, identify competition trends, and establish achievable goals.

CAT Score Vs Percentile Trend 2024 Analysis

Aspirants should understand that MBA admissions through the CAT exam rely on percentiles rather than raw scores. This means that they need to perform well, and also outperform other test takers. The table below represents the slot-wise distribution of the CAT Score Vs percentile 2024 to have a fair idea about the expectations regarding the CAT score 2025.

*The data has been collected by our CAT students and is subject to change based on the number of responses collected on our CAT Score Calculator.

CAT Score Vs Percentile 2023 - Complete Analysis

*Fill in the score calculator to determine your overall score and predicted percentile using Career Launcher’s Percentile Predictor. Take advantage of our resources to stay one step ahead of your competition.

CAT Marks Vs Percentile Trend 2022 Analysis

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How Many Questions to Attempt for 99+ Percentile in CAT 2025?

Out of the 68 questions in CAT 2025, attempting around 45-48 questions with 85-90% accuracy can get you a 100 percentile. Here is the section-wise number of questions to attempt in CAT 2025 to get a good percentile for your reference: