/ Free tool
Your CAT score,
as a percentile.
Enter the score you expect and read the percentile it has earned in recent years. It runs right here, no sign-up and no card.
Estimated from the normalised results of 2023 to 2025. Your real percentile depends on your slot and how everyone else does, and is only known after the exam.
Estimated percentile
around the 98th percentile
What score gives which percentile
The score that earns a percentile drifts a little each year, but these recent-year figures are close enough to aim by. Notice how tight the top is. A few more correct questions near the top is worth more percentile than the same effort lower down.
| Percentile | Approx. score | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| 99.5 | 96 | Old IIM A/B/C shortlist territory |
| 99 | 85 | The classic top-IIM threshold |
| 98 | 73 | New IIMs, strong non-IIM calls |
| 95 | 62 | Good MBA colleges in range |
| 90 | 52 | Solid score, many calls open up |
| 85 | 46 | Respectable, work on one weak section |
| 80 | 40 | A base to build on |
How CAT percentile actually works
CAT runs in three slots on the same day, and no two slots are equally hard. So the raw marks are normalised into a scaled score, and your percentile is your rank against everyone else, not a fixed pass mark. That is why the score for a given percentile moves year to year, and why nobody can promise you an exact number in advance.
Two things follow from this. First, aim for a percentile, not a mark, and give yourself a small buffer above your target. Second, because percentile is decided at the margin, the cheapest gains are the questions you get wrong for avoidable reasons and the section you have been avoiding. Fix those and the number climbs faster than raw effort would suggest.
A predictor tells you where a score lands. It cannot tell you whether you are getting better. For that you watch your own mastery move, week over week.
Common questions
What CAT score do you need for 99 percentile?
In recent years, roughly 84 to 86 marks out of about 204 has been enough for the 99th percentile. The exact figure shifts each year with slot normalisation, so treat it as a close estimate, not a fixed target.
What marks give 95 and 90 percentile?
About 62 marks has mapped to the 95th percentile and about 52 to the 90th in recent years. A little goes a long way near the top, so a few extra correct questions can move your percentile more than you expect.
Is this percentile predictor accurate?
It is an estimate built from the normalised results of the last three years. Your real percentile depends on the difficulty of your slot and how everyone else does, which is only known after the exam. Use it to set direction, not to predict a decimal.
How can I actually raise my percentile?
Percentile is decided at the margin, so the fastest gains come from your weakest section and the questions you get wrong for avoidable reasons. Practising the right topics and tracking real mastery per topic, rather than hours logged, is what moves the number.