Why High CAT 2018 Scores Alone Are Not Enough To Gain IIM Admission

High scores in the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2018 alone may not gain you the much sought after seat at the Indian Institutes of Management as the IIMs increasingly seek bright young candidates from diverse academic and professional backgrounds with great communication skills.

While high CAT scores will get you to the final stages of the personal interview (PI) and written ability test (WAT), its weight drops in favour of other qualities including a stellar academic record and high professional achievements, according to an article in The Mint, an Indian financial newspaper.

For instance, at IIM Bangalore, CAT score gets just 25% weight while it goes up slightly to 30% at IIM Calcutta in the final round of selection. In effect, it means that an increased weight is given to your performance in PI and WAT.

For the PGP (Post-Graduate Program in Management) program, CAT score gets just 15 out of 50 points. PI gets 24, WAT 5, work experience 4 and candidates from non-engineering background gets an additional 2.

Thus, your communication and presentation skills may very well propel you ahead of the competition even if you have lower scores in CAT.

CAT 2018 convener and IIM Calcutta Professor Sumanta Basu dismiss possibilities of any bias creeping in during the PI with the admission committee favouring someone with a 95-99% score in CAT but below par performance in the interview.

He says the committee comprises of experienced individuals trained to assess the candidates’ capabilities on distinct evaluation scales. Both the CAT score and interview performance are taken into consideration. Incidentally, Prof Basu is also the chairperson of the admissions committee at IIM-C.

In the case of IIMC, high scores in CAT is not enough for a candidate to get shortlisted for PI and WAT. A 40% weight is given to the candidate’s Class X and Class XII marks. As part of a gender diversity initiative, female candidates get two extra points.

For the PGP (Post-Graduate Program in Management) program, CAT score gets just 15 out of 50 points. PI gets 24, WAT 5, work experience 4 and candidates from non-engineering background gets an additional 2.

IIM Bangalore takes into account the candidate’s previous academic performance along with the CAT score in the first phase of selection. In the second phase, CAT score gets a weight of 25 and PI 30. The candidate’s academic record and work experience get another 35 points and WAT 10. Thus, while CAT score gets only 25 points, all the other factors provide 75 points. So, those of you who might have missed a high CAT score could hope to compensate it with an excellent academic record and work experience.

IIM Ahmedabad also follows a similar pattern of taking the CAT scores along with the marks obtained in Class X, XII and Bachelor’s degree in shortlisting candidates for interview and analytical writing test. The final selection is based on all these factors plus work experience, co-curricular and extra-curricular achievements. Top candidates from each academic discipline also make it to the shortlist.