CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile: Calculation, Slot-wise Scores, and Trends

Updated on Mar 22, 2025 18:11

CAT score vs percentile for 2025 helps candidates understand how their raw scores correspond to their percentile ranks. This comparison becomes clear once the CAT answer key is released. Candidates planning to take CAT 2025, it's essential to know the key factors that affect selection. Since the CAT result is announced in percentile form, MBA colleges also rely heavily on percentile scores for admissions. Naturally, questions arise like "What is CAT percentile?", "How is it different from the CAT score?", and "Which one matters more?"

CAT score reflects the total marks a candidate secures in the exam, while the CAT percentile shows a candidate's rank relative to the total number of test-takers. Both are equally crucial because they significantly impact your chances of getting into IIMs and other top B-schools. The CAT percentile plays a vital role in the initial shortlisting for the Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI). However, this percentile is calculated based on the CAT score, making both elements interconnected and important. Read the blog below and check out all the details mentioned.

CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile: What is CAT Percentile?

The CAT percentile shows how a candidate performed compared to others who took the exam. For example, if you score in the 99th percentile, it means you performed better than 99% of all test-takers that year. In simple terms, if your percentile is above 90, you are among the top 10% of candidates.

Let's say 1,000 people appear for the exam, and you secure the top rank. Since 999 candidates scored lower than you, your percentile would be 999/1000 x 100 = 99.9.

So, the CAT percentile doesn't reflect your actual score but shows how your performance ranks among all the candidates who took the test.

CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile: What is Scaled Score?

The CAT exam takes place in three different sessions, with each session having a slightly different question paper. To ensure a fair comparison of candidates' performance across all sessions, the scores are adjusted through a normalization process. This process uses a specific formula to calculate the scaled score. As a result, the scaled score can be either higher or lower than the raw score, ensuring fairness for everyone regardless of the session they attended.

Calculation of CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile

The steps to calculate CAT 2025 score vs percentile are given below:

Step 1: First, find the mean (M1) and standard deviation (S1) of the raw scores in the QA section for all candidates who took the exam in the morning session, and then calculate G1 by adding M1 and S1.
Step 2: Next, determine the mean (M2) and standard deviation (S2) of the raw scores for candidates in the afternoon session, and compute G2 by adding M2 and S2.
Step 3: After that, calculate the mean (M3) and standard deviation (S3) of the QA scores for all candidates who appeared in the evening session, and then find G3 by adding M3 and S3.
Step 4: Now, calculate the overall mean (M) and standard deviation (S) of the QA scores for all candidates across all three sessions, and obtain G by adding M and S.
Step 5: Then, find the average raw score (M1 0.1) of the top 0.1% of candidates from the morning session.
Step 6: Similarly, calculate the mean raw score (M2 0.1) of the top 0.1% of candidates in the afternoon session.
Step 7: Next, determine the mean raw score (M3 0.1) of the top 0.1% of candidates who appeared in the evening session.
Step 8: Finally, calculate the mean raw score (M0.1) of the top 0.1% of candidates from all three sessions combined.

Difference Between CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 Difference

The CAT score and CAT percentile differ in several key ways. The CAT score is an absolute value that represents the raw marks a candidate earns by adding up the scores from all three sections of the exam. It plays a crucial role in determining the candidate's percentile. On the other hand, the CAT percentile is relative, showing how a candidate performed in comparison to others. It reflects the percentage of candidates who scored lower than the candidate. While the CAT score gives a direct total of marks, the percentile is standardized and is mainly used by top B-schools during the final admission process.

CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile: Percentile Calculation

The section- wise percentile calculation for CAT 2025 score vs percentile is given below:

Let's consider a candidate named XYZ who appeared for the morning session. If her raw score in the QA section is R, her scaled score (R) will be calculated using the formula:
R^=(R-G1) x(M0.1-G) M10.1-G1+G\hat{R} = \frac {(R - G1) \times (M0.1 - G)}{M1_{0.1} - G1} + G
Now, if XYZ took the exam in the afternoon session, her scaled QA score will be calculated using a similar formula:
R^=(R-G2) x(M0.1-G) M20.1-G2+G\hat{R} = \frac {(R - G2) \times (M0.1 - G)}{M2_{0.1} - G2} + G
Likewise, for the evening session, XYZ's scaled QA score would be:
R^=(R-G3) x(M0.1-G) M30.1-G3+G\hat{R} = \frac {(R - G3) \times (M0.1 - G)}{M3_{0.1} - G3} + G
This same method is used to calculate scaled scores for the other sections as well. If the final scaled score exceeds 100, it will be rounded down to 100.

CAT 2025 Score vs Percentile: Percentile Score Calculation

The steps to calculate percentile score for CAT s2025 score vs percentile are given below:

Step 1: First, determine the total number of candidates (N) who appeared for CAT 2025 across all three sessions-morning, afternoon, and evening.
Step 2: Next, rank all candidates (r) based on their scaled scores in the QA section, giving the same rank to candidates with identical scores. For example, if two candidates share the highest score, both get rank 1, and the next candidate is ranked 3.
Step 3: Then, calculate the percentile score (P) for a candidate in the QA section using the formula: P=(N-r) Nx100P = \frac {(N - r)} {N} \times 100
Step 4: Finally, round the calculated percentile score (P) to two decimal places. For instance, scores equal to or above 99.995 are rounded to 100, while those between 99.985 and 99.995 are rounded to 99.99.

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025: Slot-wise Scaled Scores

The details for CAT 2025 score versus percentile calculation, including section-wise scaled scores and slot-wise breakdown, are provided below.

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 Slot 1

The section-wise scaled score calculation for Slot 1 in the CAT 2025 score versus percentile analysis is provided below.

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC Score	CAT DILR Score	CAT QA Score	Overall CAT Score
100	42-44	29-30	30-32	100-102
99+	40	25-27	25-28	80
95+	28-30	18-20	20-22	55
90+	22-24	15-17	15-17	45-48
85+	20-22	13-14	15-14	40-45
80+	18-20	18-22	18-20	35-37

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 Slot 2

The section-wise scaled score calculation for Slot 2 in the CAT 2025 score versus percentile analysis is provided below.

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC Score	CAT DILR Score	CAT QA Score	Overall CAT Score
100	43-44	25-27	29-30	98-100
99+	40-42	22-23	27-28	82-83
95+	30-33	18-20	20-22	57-58
90+	24-26	14-15	15-17	46-48
85+	20-22	13-14	15-14	40-43
80+	18-20	18-22	18-20	36-39

CAT Score vs Percentile 2025 Slot 3

The section-wise scaled score calculation for Slot 3 in the CAT 2025 score versus percentile analysis is provided below.

CAT Percentile	CAT VARC Score	CAT DILR Score	CAT QA Score	Overall CAT Score
100	42-23	27-28	32-34	98-100
99+	38-40	23-24	27-28	78-80
95+	28-30	18-20	18-20	57-58
90+	24-25	15-17	15-17	46-48
85+	20-22	13-14	15-14	40-41
80+	18-20	18-22	18-20	36-37

CAT Score vs Percentile Previous Years

The details below display the CAT score versus percentile data from the past five years.

CAT Score VS Percentile 2024

The section-wise CAT score vs percentile 2024 is given below:

CAT Percentile	VARC score	DILR score	QA score	Overall score
99.9	48	49	48	120-124
99.5	40	43	43	106-110
99	36	40	35	95-98
98	25	33	24	71-74
95	20	29	18	59-61
90	17	23	14	50-51
85	15	21	13	46-47
80	13	19	11	41-42
75	12	16	10	36-37
99.9	48	49	48	120-124

CAT Score VS Percentile 2023

The section-wise CAT score vs percentile 2023 is given below:

Percentile	Score VARC	Score DILR	Score QA	Overall Score
99.5	42	30	30	86
99	36	25	25	74
95	30	20	22	52
90	24	14	13	42
80	20	11	9	35
70	18	9	7	30

CAT Score VS Percentile 2022

The section-wise CAT score vs percentile 2022 is given below:

Percentile	Score VARC	Score DILR	Score QA	Overall Score
99.5	43	32	38	93
99	39	29	33	84
90	23	15	17	49
80	18	11	12	36
70	13	8	9	28

CAT Score VS Percentile 2021

The section-wise CAT score vs percentile 2021 is given below:

Percentile	Score VARC	Score DILR	Score QA	Overall Score
99.5	49	37	40	107
99	45	34	34	97
90	28	20	18	60
80	22	15	12	45

CAT Score VS Percentile 2020

The section-wise CAT score vs percentile 2020 is given below:

Percentile	Score VARC	Score LRDI	Score QA	Overall Score
99.99	52	46	59	131
99.5	46	38	49	115
99	43	35	43	101
98	40	33	37	91
95	32	24	30	76
90	28	20	24	63
85	24	18	18	56
80	22	16	16	49

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Ans: Scoring a 100 percentile in the CAT exam is a remarkable achievement, but it’s not easy to attain. On average, only around 9 to 11 candidates manage to secure a perfect 100 percentile each year, despite over a lakh aspirant appearing for the test.

Ans: The exam had 68 questions in total, with an overall difficulty level that varied from moderate to challenging. The DILR section was relatively easy to moderate, while the QA section featured questions that ranged from moderate to tough. The VARC section included a few tricky questions that required extra attention.

Ans: The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a tough competition, and doing well in the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section can greatly improve your overall score. With 24 questions, the VARC section plays an important role in shaping your performance.

Ans: To score a 99 percentile in the CAT exam, you should target answering around 47 questions correctly. This estimate assumes a balanced number of attempts across all sections. Ideally, you should aim for 18 out of 24 questions in VARC, 13 out of 20 in DILR, and 16 out of 22 in the Quantitative Aptitude section.

Ans: The Percentile Predictor CAT 2025 Tool by Supergrads is a highly useful online tool that helps you estimate your expected CAT percentile based on your raw scores. It’s simple and user-friendly! With this tool, you can easily compare your performance with other test takers and get a clear understanding of how you did in the CAT 2025 exam.