CAT Score vs Percentile, Section-Wise Analysis

Getting know about the CAT score vs percentile is very indispensable part for every aspirant who are targeting IIMs and other top B-Schools in India. The CAT exam is not just about attempting questions but it is also about how you score compared to others that sets a strong competition and this is where CAT percentile plays an indispensable role.

There are many students who get confused with a common question-“What should be the targeted CAT Score vs Percentile for the top B-Schools or IIMs?”. According to the past year trend analysis, 123 marks are required to get 99.9 percentile, 104 marks to get 99.5 percentile and similarly we have mentioned a detailed table for the CAT scores with respect to the percentile below, candidates will directly check from there to get familiar with the score vs percentile trend. According to the recent updates, CAT 2025 slot 1 paper was of moderate level. This blog is the comprehensive guide about the complete understanding of CAT Score vs Percentile by covering the detailed analysis about the past year papers with section-wise comparison of percentile with the marks.

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What is the CAT Score vs Percentile?

You must first understand the CAT score and percentile to gain insights into the CAT marks vs percentile trends in a detailed manner. Firstly, the CAT raw scores are normalized across different sections to arrive at the scaled scores, which shall be further converted into percentiles. While the CAT percentile indicates the percentage of test-takers who scored less than you. For example, if you score 99 percentile in CAT. This implies that you are ahead of 99% of the test takers. We have shared below the previous year’s analysis to help you understand the marks you need to score 99+ percentile in CAT 2025.

Difference Between CAT Score vs Percentile

Getting each and every term clear about this topic helps you to understand the CAT exam properly where CAT score refers to the total marks obtained in the exam based on the marking scheme whereas CAT percentile is the relative ranking received by the candidate among all the test-takers in the Common Admission Test. Please find the detailed table mentioned below for the comparison of CAT Score vs Percentile.

CAT Score vs Percentile

CAT Score	CAT Percentile
This term is used to refer the total marks or scores obtained in the CAT examination based on both correct and incorrect answers.	CAT percentile refers to the relative ranking of a candidate compared to all other test-takers.
Absolute value	Relative value
Based on CAT marking scheme (correct +3, incorrect –1)	Based on the number of candidates scoring less than you in the CAT exam
0 to 198 (approx.)	0 to 100
Your raw performance in the test	Your position or rank among all test-takers
Slightly affected	Heavily affected by normalization and scaling

CAT Score vs Percentile: Trend Analysis

The exam authorities release scaled scores for each section Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA) and total along with the CAT Percentiles on the official website. Aspirants must analyze the CAT score vs percentile previous years to get an idea of the competition trends, difficulty level, and set realistic goals accordingly during the preparation. This approach can help them optimize their current study plan and improve their chances of scoring 99+ percentile in CAT 2025. Understanding the expected score vs percentile CAT 2025 after appearing in the exam can also enable them to predict their percentile and chances of clearing the CAT cutoff marks of their target B-school. It has been observed that the CAT marks vs percentile changes every year due to factors like the number of test-takers, difficulty level, etc. Read to find complete details of CAT Score vs Percentile trends and how these insights can help you strategize your preparation effectively.

CAT Score vs Percentile 2026 (Expected)

This is the expected CAT Score vs Percentile 2026. Clear knowledge of CAT marks vs percentile help candidates in getting the clear way for CAT preparation.

Percentile	VARC (Score)	LRDI (Score)	QA (Score)	Overall (Score)
99.9%ile	53	38	37	111
99.5%ile	48	33	31	93
99%ile	44	30	27	84
95%ile	33	22	18	62
90%ile	26	17	15	52
85%ile	22	14	14	44
80%ile	19	12	10	38

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025

As CAT 2025 exam is near and every aspirants get well prepared as well as doing their best to get good scores but here in the section we will be coveing the expected CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 by analyzing the previous year trends. The detailed information about the CAT marks vs percentile 2025 (expected) along with difficulty level is mentioned in the table given below.

Percentile	VARC (Score)	LRDI (Score)	QA (Score)	Overall (Score)
99.9%ile	53	38	37	111
99.5%ile	48	33	31	93
99%ile	44	30	27	84
95%ile	33	22	18	62
90%ile	26	17	15	52
85%ile	22	14	14	44
80%ile	19	12	10	38

CAT Score vs Percentile 2024

This section covers the CAT score vs percentile of CAT 2024 where 123 marks in the exam covers 99.9 percentile, 104 marks approx. covers 99.5 percentile and the detailed information is mentioned in the table below.

Percentile	Marks in 2024
99.9	123
99.5	104
99	96
97	79
95	70
90	58
80	44

Read More: CAT Score vs Percentile 2024

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023

In the year 2023, if the candidate has covered 101 marks then it is equal to 99.9 percentile among the test takers. The complete information about the CAT marks vs percentile 2023 is mentioned in the table.

Percentile	Marks in 2023
99.9	101
99.5	84
99	76
97	61
95	54
90	44
80	35

Read More: CAT Score vs Percentile 2023

CAT Score vs Percentile 2022

In the financial year 2022, the candidate who scored 109 marks covers 99.9 percentile which is slightly less in comparison to 2021. The CAT marks vs percentile for 2022 is mentioned in the table below.

Percentile	Marks on 2022
99.9	109
99.5	92
99	84
97	72
95	62
90	49
80	36.02

Read More: CAT 2022 Score vs Percentile

CAT Score vs Percentile 2021

In the financial year 2021, the candidates who secured 124 marks covers 99.9 percentile, for 110 marks it is 99.5, for 98 marks it is 99 percentile and simultaneously entire information is mentioned in the table below which covers the CAT 2021 exam percentile respective to the CAT marks.

Percentile	Marks in 2021
99.9	124
99.5	110
99	98
97	82
95	73
90	60
80	45

Read More: CAT 2021 Score vs Percentile

CAT Score vs Percentile 2020

This section covers the respective CAT marks vs percentile trends for CAT 2020 exam. If we are talking about 99.9 percentile, this can be attained with the help of 130 marks, followed by 97 percentile with 85 marks and so on. The detailed information table about the CAT score vs percentile 2020 trend is mentioned below.

Percentile	Marks in 2020
99.9	130
99.5	115
99	101
97	85
95	76
90	63
80	48

Section-Wise CAT Score vs Percentile Trends

Aspirants should also check the previous year’s CAT Score vs Percentile across all the sections to get an idea of the competition level and set target scores for each subject accordingly. In CAT 2024, aspirants needed to score around 36 marks to secure 99.5 percentile in Quant. Similarly, those who were aiming for 99.5 percentile in LRDI were required to obtain around 41 marks in CAT 2024. Students needed to achieve around 44 marks in CAT VARC 2024 to secure 99.5 percentile. Check below the section-wise Score vs Percentile CAT Trends from 2024 to 2022 in the tables below.

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 (VARC, DILR & QA)

CAT Percentile	VARC	DILR	QA
99.9%ile	53	38	37
99.5%ile	48	33	31
99%ile	44	30	27
95%ile	33	22	18
90%ile	26	17	15
85%ile	22	14	14
80%ile	19	12	10

CAT Score vs Percentile 2024 (VARC, DILR & QA)

Check with the respective CAT marks vs percentile for the Quant score is mentioned below.

CAT Percentile	VARC	DILR	QA
99.9	55	50	45
99.5	44	41	36
99	40	37	33
97	33	30	25
95	30	27	22
90	24	22	17
85	20	19	13
80	18	17	11
75	15	14	9

CAT Score vs Percentile 2023 (VARC, DILR & QA)

The respective scores given in the table represents the data for CAT 2023 where 100 percentile is equivalent to the 61.66 scaled CAT scores, 99.99 percentile is equivalent to 57.32 scaled scores and so on. This represents that CAT 2023 data completely to understand the CAT score vs percentile 2023 for Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension.

CAT Percentile	VARC
99.94 %ile	52.43
99.73 %ile	45.57
99.41 %ile	41.77
98.12 %ile	35.42
97.84 %ile	34.18
95.35 %ile	29.12
93.43 %ile	26.59
90.80 %ile	24.06
83.13 %ile	18.99
77.59 %ile	16.46

CAT Percentile	DILR
100	50.6
99.99	42.7
99.9	36.58
99.71	32.78
99.43	29.71
99.14	27.56
99	27.39
98.37	24.58
96.83	20.88
95.53	19.6
90	15.63
84.87	13.01
80	11.67
77.88	10.81
72.94	9.67

CAT Percentile	QA
100	61.66
99.99	57.32
99.87	51.02
99.5	44
99.26	41.76
99	39.7
98.21	35.88
96.72	31.47
95	28.68
93.5	26.33
90	23.39
86.43	20.66
80	17.58
75	15.27
62.28	11.53

CAT Score vs Percentile (2020–2025)

The table covers the brief information where the CAT marks vs percentile trends arranged from 2020 to 2025 which helps in analyzing the CAT percentile relevant to the scores in a particular year. Candidates can easily get 99.9 percentile if they scored 111 marks according to CAT 2025, 123 marks in CAT 2024, 101 marks in CAT 2023, 109 marks in CAT 2022 and so on. The combined table is specified in the table given below.

CAT Percentile	CAT 2025	CAT 2024	CAT 2023	CAT 2022	CAT 2021	CAT 2020
99.9	111	123	101	109	124	130
99.5	93	104	84	92	110	115
99	84	96	76	84	98	101
97	73	79	61	72	82	85
95	62	70	54	62	73	76
90	52	58	44	49	60	63
80	38	44	35	36	45	48

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How to Convert CAT Score to Percentile?

The CAT raw scores will be initially computed based on the marking scheme outlined by the official authorities. The marking scheme states that 3 marks shall be awarded to each correct response, and 1 mark will be deducted for every wrong answer in MCQs. As the entrance test will be conducted in different sessions, so normalization process will be adopted to ensure fairness and equity in the comparison of candidates’ performances. Upon completing the normalization across different forms, the scores will be further normalised for different sections. The Scaled Scores secured by this process shall be converted into percentiles for the shortlisting purpose. We have shared below an example on how to calculate the percentile score for the QA section. A similar procedure will be followed for the overall percentile score calculation for the other two sections, i.e. DILR and VARC. The guide to compute the CAT overall and sectional percentiles is shared below:

CAT Marks vs Percentile Conversion

Step 1: Determine the overall number of test-takers (N) who took part in the CAT examination, including all sessions.

Step 2: Assign ranks to all CAT test-takers based on their scaled scores in the QA section. If two or more test-takers have the same scaled score, they should be given the same rank.

For example, if two aspirants secure the highest scaled score in the QA section, they will be assigned a rank of 1. Furthermore, the aspirant (s) who secure the 2nd highest scaled score in the QA section will be allocated a rank of 3 and so on.

Step 3: Compute the percentile score (P) of the test-taker with rank (r) in the QA section as:

𝑃 = ((𝑁 − 𝑟)/𝑁) x 100

Step 4: Round off the computed percentile score (P) of the aspirant up to two decimal points.

For example:

• Percentile scores which is above or equal to 99.995 are rounded off to 100.
• Percentile scores between 99.985 and 99.995 are rounded off to 99.99, and so on.

Top MBA Colleges in India Based on CAT Score vs Percentile

This is other but yet very important aspect that candidate need to understand before appearing for the actual exam because targeting your CAT percentile goal while maintaining proper information about the top MBA colleges in India based on CAT marks vs percentile is quite important. The detailed information for the same is mentioned below.

For 99+ CAT Score vs Percentile

Here are the respective list that candidate should target if they are aiming for 99+ percentile in the CAT 2025: These colleges required 99+ percentile in the CAT exam along with giving weightage to the strong academic background of a candidate.

1. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad)
2. Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM Bangalore)
3. Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM Calcutta)
4. Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIM Indore)
5. Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM Kozhikode)
6. Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai (IIM Mumbai)
7. Faculty of Management Studies (FMS Delhi)
8. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi)

These are the top tier 1 MBA colleges in India and requires high CAT score vs percentile to shortlist candidates for admission in the MBA or PGP programs with excellence.

For 95+ CAT Marks vs Percentile

Please find the respective colleges that accepts candidates with the CAT percentile range more than 95.

1. Indian Institute of Management, Jammu (IIM Jammu)
2. Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai (TISS Mumbai)
3. Management Development Institute, Gurgaon (MDI Gurgaon)
4. Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak (IIM Rohtak)
5. Indian Institute of Management, Sirmaur (IIM Sirmaur)
6. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi (IIFT Delhi)
7. Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur (IIM Udaipur)
8. Indian Institute of Management, Bodhgaya (IIM Bodhgaya)

For 90+ CAT Score vs Percentile

Here are the respected list mentioned below that will take admission on 90+ CAT score vs percentile in exam.

1. Indian Institute of Management, Amritsar (IIM Amritsar)
2. Indian Institute of Management, Visakhapatnam (IIM Visakhapatnam)
3. Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur (IIM Sambalpur)
4. Indian Institute of Management, Nagpur (IIM Nagpur)
5. Indian Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli (IIM Trichy)
6. T.A. Pai Institute of Management (TAPMI)
7. Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA Ahmedabad)
8. Institute of Management Technology (IMT Ghaziabad)
9. International Management Institute (IMI Delhi)

Also Check : Tier 1 MBA Colleges in India

CAT Score Calculator by iQuanta

iQuanta’s CAT score calculator is a tool that will help you calculate your CAT scores and predict their percentiles even before the declaration of CAT results. The tool predicts your overall score based on sectional scores in VARC, QA, and DILR. It then helps you know the CAT percentile. This will help you know your chances of admission to your desired B-school. Check the tool by clicking on the button mentioned below.

Conclusion: CAT Score vs Percentile

Understanding the CAT score vs percentile is important for tracking goals as well as the CAT preparation progress. While the raw score reflects your actual performance in the CAT exam, the percentile actually defines where the candidate stands among all the competitors. That’s why it is important for candidates to focus on consistent practice, time management as well as accuracy to convert marks into higher percentile. With the structured approach and the right strategy, securing 99+ percentile in the CAT exam is achievable.

CAT Score vs Percentile FAQs