Old Vs New IIMs: A breakdown of CAT scores’ weightage for upcoming batch

With the admission season for the upcoming batch underway, understanding how much weightage each IIM assigns to CAT scores offers insight for aspirants strategising their applications. (Image: AI generated)

The Common Admission Test (CAT) remains the gateway to India’s management institutes, although its role in final admissions varies significantly across campuses. While the older IIMs balance CAT scores with academic records, personal interviews, many of the newer IIMs still place a heavier reliance on the MBA test performance.

With the admission season for the upcoming batch underway, understanding how much weightage each IIM assigns to test scores offers insight for aspirants strategising their applications.

This breakdown highlights the weightage of the IIM Common Admission Test scores in the final admission list, shedding light on how the evaluation process is evolving across the country’s top B-schools. Here is the table of the IIM Common Admission Test scores weightage: All numbers written in the table are in percentage form.

The above table highlights that at one end of the spectrum, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Ranchi place the highest premium on the entrance exam, with the Common Admission Test score accounting for 65 per cent of the total selection weight. They are followed closely by IIM Lucknow, IIM Rohtak, and IIM Udaipur, all of which assign a 60 per cent weightage.

Conversely, several institutes adopt a more holistic or profile-based selection approach, where the Common Admission Test score is just one of many components. IIM Visakhapatnam stands out with the lowest reliance on the exam at only 25 per cent, followed by IIM Kashipur at 33 per cent and IIM Indore at 35 per cent.

Most other institutes, including the IIM Bangalore (55%) and IIM Calcutta (56%), maintain a middle ground, ensuring that while the CAT score remains the primary driver of the application, the candidate’s performance in the subsequent selection rounds carries nearly equal importance.