How many marks are required for 100 Percentile in CAT exam?

Common Admission Test (CAT)

Last Date to Apply
13th September, 2025

Ridhima Jindal
Ridhima Jindal

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Is it tough to score 100 percentile in CAT 2025? - There is no doubt to it that securing a score of 100 percentile is a dream of every CAT aspirant but it is also a tough nut to crack. If we go through the previous years’ trends, only 10 or 11 candidates are able to secure 100 percentile in CAT Exam while the number of test takers is way too high. Almost 2.3 lakh candidates appear in the MBA entrance exam every year and those who qualify with flying colors stand very less in number.

Though, securing 100 percentile in CAT Exam is difficult but achieving the ideal score puts you in a position where you can choose the best MBA college from a pool of IIM and Non-IIM colleges in the country. Also Read - Is CAT Exam Tough?

“What does 100 percentile in CAT mean?”- It means that the candidate has performed better than all the other CAT test takers. In better words, it represents the comparison of a candidate's relative performance to the other test takers of the CAT. For example, if a candidate gets 99.99 percentile in CAT Exam, it means that that candidate’s performance is better than 99.99% candidates who took the examination.

Calculate Your Expected CAT Exam Percentile:

CAT Percentile Predictor 2025

What Does CAT Percentile Mean? How to Calculate CAT Percentile?

The CAT examination authority uses the CAT Normalization Process to calculate the final marks of candidates and then the final CAT Score is converted into CAT Percentile. There is a formula which is applied to calculate the percentile. The percentile of every candidate is calculated based on their raw score. Read in Detail - CAT Normalization Process.

Firstly, the raw scores of all the candidates across each section is taken and then normalized to bring them on a common scale. After the normalization process, the final score obtained is then converted into percentile on the basis of the below mentioned formula:

P = (R/N) × 100

where,

  • P = CAT Percentile score
  • R = Rank of the candidate on the basis of scaled CAT score or the total number of test takers ranking below that particular candidate.
  • N= Number of candidates who took CAT exam (all three sessions)

For example, if there are 1000 candidates who take the CAT Exam and one candidate secures a scaled score of 196 out of 198 marks and the rest of the 999 candidates secured any marks below 196. Then CAT Percentile of the students with highest marks will be calculated as below:

999/1000 * 100 = 99.9 percentile.

Thus, the candidate obtains 99.9 percentile.

How Many Candidates Get 100 Percentile in CAT Exam?

Looking at the previous trends, on an average almost 9 to 11 candidates get to score 100 percentile in CAT Exam every year. Below mentioned is the number of candidates who scored 100 percentile in previous CAT Exam.

CAT Exam

No. of Students with 100 Percentile

Students from Engineering (E) and Non Engineering (NE) Background

CAT 2023

14

11 (E) + 2 (NE)

CAT 2022

11

10 (E) + 1 (NE)

CAT 2021

9

9 (E)

CAT 2020

9

8 (E) + 1 (NE)

CAT 2019

10

10 (E)

CAT 2018

11

11 (E)

What are the Admission Chances after Getting 100 Percentile in CAT Exam?

Candidates who secure 100 percentile in CAT Exam need not worry about their chances of admission. They are, by all means, most likely to get admission to any of the top management institutes in the country. They will definitely get interview calls from the top IIMs such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta or IIM Lucknow. 100 percentile CAT Score is the highest CAT Cutoff for shortlisting candidates for Personal Interview (PI) for Top IIMs (for general category candidates).

The only factors that determine their possibility of getting the final admission call from the top management colleges are candidates’ academic record and their performance in WAT - PI rounds conducted by the institutes.

Candidates with 100 percentile are not only privileged to get admission to the top IIMs but they can actually get any Business school they wish to pursue their MBA degree from. Being the top rankers with a good profile, all the top management institutes will be more than willing to accept their candidature.

Can I Get Admission to Foreign University If I Score 100 Percentile in CAT Exam?

The answer to this question is ‘No’. Candidates with 100 percentile will not be able to apply to foreign universities since the CAT Exam Score is not accepted internationally. CAT is a national level management entrance exam and is only accepted by Indian MBA Institutes.

CAT 2023 Marks vs Percentile

Mentioned below is the conversion of marks to their respective percentile in CAT 2023 exam:

VARC Score

DILR Score

QA Score

Overall Score

CAT Percentile

48

36

48

106

99.9 %ile

44

32

32

89

99.5 %ile

40

28

28

80

99 %ile

36

25

24

71

98 %ile

30

19

19

57

95 %ile

25

16

15

49

90 %ile

21

13

12

40

85 %ile

19

11

10

36

80 %ile

17

10

9

31

75 %ile

15

9

8

29

70 %ile

Read in Detail - CAT Score vs Percentile

CAT Cutoff 2025 (Expected)

Check the CAT 2025 expected cutoff below.

Expected CAT Cutoff 2025 for IIMs

B-Schools

CAT Cutoff 2025 (Expected)

IIM Ahmedabad

99.5+ percentile

IIM Bangalore

99.5+ percentile

IIM Calcutta

99+ percentile

IIM Lucknow

97.5+ percentile

IIM Indore

97 - 98 percentile

IIM Kozhikode

97 - 98 percentile

IIM Amritsar

95 - 96 percentile

IIM Nagpur

95 - 96 percentile

IIM Sambalpur

95 - 96 percentile

IIM Trichy

94 - 95 percentile

IIM Raipur

94 - 95 percentile

IIM Ranchi

94 - 95 percentile

IIM Kashipur

94 - 95 percentile

IIM Vizag

92 - 94 percentile

IIM Rohtak

92 - 94 percentile

IIM Udaipur

92 - 94 percentile

IIM Bodhgaya

92 - 94 percentile

IIM Shillong

90+ percentile

IIM Sirmaur

90+ percentile

IIM Jammu

90+ percentile

Expected CAT Cutoff 2025 for Non IIMs

Non IIM

CAT Cutoff 2025 (Expected)

SPJIMR Mumbai

92-94 percentile

XIMB Bhubaneswar

90-92 percentile

FMS Delhi

95-97 percentile

MDI Gurgaon

94-96 percentile

IRMA Anand

85-88 percentile

NMIMS Mumbai

90-92 percentile

JBIMS Mumbai

92-94 percentile

SIBM Pune

90-92 percentile

SCMHRD Pune

88-90 percentile

Top Colleges Accepting CAT

View All

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