CAT or Common Admission Test is one of the toughest and most challenging exams of India. Its scores are valid for admissions into 20 IIMs and more than 200 business schools across India. CAT 2019 was conducted by IIM Kozhikode on November 24th, 2019. The answer key has been released by the IIM on November 29th. Candidates were given time till December 6th to raise any objections with the answer key. The answer key has remained unchanged upon examination of objections, an official notice had said.
With more than 2 lakh applicants, the results are highly awaited. The official declaration date is yet to be announced, but going by the trends of previous years, the tentative date is the first or second week of January. As soon as the results are uploaded on the website, candidates will get an SMS alert. This SMS will, however, not contain the score. For checking their score, candidates have to visit the official website.
How to check results through the official website?
The results of CAT are available only through online mode. No hard copy will be provided by the conducting authority, i.e, IIM. Follow the below-mentioned steps to check your CAT result:
- Visit the official website: iimcat.nic.in.
- Click on the ‘CAT Login’ button on the home page.
- Enter the login ID and password provided to you at the time of registration.
- Click on the ‘scorecard’ tab to view your result.
- Candidates can download their scorecard in PDF format by clicking on the ‘Download Scorecard’ button.
Since the result will be available only till December 31st, 2020, candidates are advised to download the scorecard for future reference since no hard copy will be provided.
What all information is provided in the CAT scorecard?
The CAT scorecard contains all the personal information provided by the candidates at the time of registration, such as the name of the candidate, contact details, city, registration number, gender, date of birth, PwD status, etc. Since the examination is conducted in two-time slots, it also mentions the date and time of the examination that the particular candidate took. Candidates should verify all the details and contact the IIM in case of any discrepancies.
Coming to the actual scores, the scorecard provides a section-wise result. All the three sections, i.e., Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Ability have a scaled score as well as the percentile. The result also mentions an overall scaled score and overall percentile.
What are the scaled score and percentile?
Since the exam is conducted in two different time slots, morning and evening, there is a chance that there might be some difference in the difficulty level of both the papers. Hence, a score normalization process is followed to ensure equity in judging the performance of the students. First, raw scores of each candidate are calculated by adding three marks for each correct answer and deducting one mark for each incorrect answer.
Then, parameters such as standard deviation, mean deviation, mean score, and median score are considered to calculate the scaled score. This scaled score is then used to calculate the percentile. Percentile is the percentage of candidates who received less than or equal to the score obtained by the candidate. This percentile is used to calculate the rank of the candidates. Percentiles are calculated and rounded off up to two decimal points.
For how long are CAT scores valid?
CAT results are valid for one year. This means that the scores of CAT 2019 can be used for admission in the same academic year only. In case you have to take the admission next year, you will have to appear for CAT again.
What happens after CAT results are announced?
After the results are announced, each IIM will declare its cutoff list. The cutoff marks for each IIM and each category can vary. Generally, the cutoff for general category ranges from 85-90, while for the reserved category it can be 55-80. The candidates who clear the cutoff criteria are required to apply for IIMs on their official website. Then, the IIMs will call the candidates for WAT/GD-PI round.
The WAT is the written ability test, wherein the topics can be very abstract to very specific that requires a rigorous study. Group discussion and personal interview rounds are important to assess the personality of the candidate. Candidates should make sure to groom and prepare themselves for any questions they may be asked.
The IIM admission process will consider the CAT score and the scores in the WAT/GD-PI round for the selection of the candidate. Final selection is also subject to other parameters such as academic history, work experience, etc.
Candidates who do not clear the cutoff for IIMs can also apply to other participating institutions where they clear the cutoff, such as IIT Delhi, XIMB, Nirma University among many others.
Check all information for CAT Exam such as registration, application, admit card exam date, result etc. at https://www.shiksha.com/mba/cat-exam
