No Sectional Cut-offs, No Worries!
Common Admission Test (CAT) 2020 exam was conducted on November 29 in Computer Based Test mode in 156 cities across. This year, the CAT exam was held in three sessions. The total time given to the candidates was 120 minutes. The time duration of each section was 40 minutes, and the total number of questions was 76. Overall, the difficulty level of the CAT 2020 exam was moderate to difficult.
CAT is one of the most important management entrance exams in India. Having a dream of getting into a good B-school, every year, more than 2 lakh students appear for this exam, but not all of them are able to crack it.
But does it mean that it is the end of the road for getting into a dream B-school?
The answer is a big NO!
By this time, you would have matched your answers with the official answer key, and you probably know where you stand and what all calls you can expect. If you know that your exam went really bad and there’s no hope that you will make it to a good college this year, then you should definitely take CAT next year.
However, it is always advisable to take another shot at CAT, but there are scenarios where you can’t repeat and have to take admissions this year. There could be various reasons, such as:
- a) Unplaced or didn’t get a good placement from your undergrad college
- b) frustrated with the current job
- c) work ex-on the higher side (4 years and above)
- d) family pressure
- e) personal reasons
If you are sailing in any of these boats, then there is still a ray of hope!
If you feel that you have a decent overall score and you won’t get calls from top IIMs just because you messed up one of the sections, then you can target those colleges which do not have sectional cut-offs. Now some of you might have a question that what’s a decent score since it is subjective. If you’re getting anywhere in the range of 80-95%ile, I would call that decent. There are many good B-schools (some of them with very good ROI) who don’t have sectional cut-offs and accept CAT scores in this range.
Here are a few colleges which you could target. The below list mentions the CAT cut-off, total fees, and the average package offered by these colleges.
| Rank | College Name | Cut-off | Fee | Avg. Package |
| 1 | Department of Management Studies (DMS), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) | 90+ | 9.6+ | 16 |
| 2 | Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) | 85+ | 21 | 13.9 |
| 3 | Department of Management Studies (DoMS), Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) | 96+ | 8 | 12.4 |
| 4 | Delhi School of Economics (DSE), University of Delhi | 90+ | 0.4 | 9 |
| 5 | Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad | 93+ | 17.5 | 12.5 |
| 6 | Department of Industrial and Management Engineering (IME), Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT–K) | 78 | 2.91 | 10.42 |
| 7 | Department of Management Studies (DOMS), Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) | 95 | 8 | 9.18 |
| 8 | Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa | 87 | 14.35 | 11.5 |
| 9 | Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) | 85+ | 14 | 11.39 |
| 10 | K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR), Mumbai | 80+ | 16.2 | 10 |
| 11 | T. A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal | 85+ | 18.3 | 11.5 |
| 12 | University Business School (UBS), Punjab University, Chandigarh | 88+ | 0.4 | 9.5 |
| 13 | Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM), Gurgaon | 80+ | 17.15 | 10.4 |
| 14 | Christ University Institute of Management (CUIM), Bengaluru | 80+ | 8 | 8.75 |
| 15 | Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) | 80+ | 15.26 | 8.5 |
All the best!
