What Do You mean by Percentile Score in

CAT?
Most of the entrance exams today give students their percentile scores in addition to
absolute scores. Same is the case with daddy of all MBA entrance exams, CAT. Many
students who are just starting to prepare for such entrance exams are unaware of what a
percentile score means and some confuse it with percentage.
The fact that you are here and reading this article further, puts you in either of the following
categories:
1) You are a Commerce/Arts graduate who has no idea what a percentile is and hence,
wants to know about it.
OR
2) You are an engineering student who did not pay any attention during his engineering
lectures.
Just like 99% of Engineering Students.
In any case, we welcome you to the journey ahead that would make you familiar with the
word PERCENTILE.
Let us have a look at what percentile actually is and how is it calculated in entrance exams.

Basic meaning of Percentile

Let us take my example for understanding what Percentile is. My CAT Score in CAT 2011
was 95.15 percentile. What did it mean? It meant that out of all the test takers who appeared
for the examination, my score was better than that of 95.15 PERCENT people.
So, as 1,85,000 people had taken the CAT 2011 entrance exam, this would put my score in
the top 8972 ranks.
I see a lot of queries on various forums and in comments on various websites where
students are worried on hearing that students need 99+ percentile to get into good IIMs.
Some people confuse it withpercentage and would comment that I never got 90% in my life.
Does anyone ever get 99%?.
Except in Tamil Nadu
In reality, the percentage score required to get 99 percentile + is between 40 to 60 percent
depending on the difficulty level of the paper. You do not actually need to score 99 percent.
You need a rank good enough to be be in the top 1% of the students.

So, what rank do you need to get 99 percentile? Think of 99%ile as being in the top 1% of
students. So, if 2 lakh people are appearing for CAT, it would mean that you have to be in
the top 2000 people. Not as hard as getting 99% marks, eh?
So, go ahead and prepare well irrespective of your academic record till date. Remember,
99+ percentile is not something huge in terms of absolute score and hence your dream of
studying in one of the coveted B-Schools of the country is well within your reach.
With this, I sign off from here and hope this article cleared your percentile related queries. If
you have any further doubts, you may post them in the comments
Your percentile score = { (No, of people who got less than you/ equal to you) / (no. of people
appearing in the exam) } x 100
Thus, if in an exam, 10 people give the test and 9 people get either less than what you got or
equal to what you got, your percentile score is:
{9/10} x 100 = 90 percentile.
It is used in CAT and many other such entrance exams. Thus, the higher percenilte, the
better marks but, it is different from percentage and sop, percentile gives an idea of
RELATIVE performance with others and not how high you scored out of the total marks.

CAT Score Calculator

Dear Student,
Now that the CAT result is out, it's important for you to get the rest of your preparation into
perspective. Irrespective of how you've performed it is critical that you do not lose focus as there are
other exams round the corner and only consistent hard-work will help you crack them.
We have picked up enough data to understand the CAT score and how to convert your % score into
marks.
The CL faculty taking the exam marked exactly one correct answer of 1 mark in each of the three
sections to identify what %score would give 1 mark in each section.
Section

1 Mark Equal to

Data Interpretation 2.54 % of the Highest Score

Quantitative Ability 2.38 % of the Highest Score
Verbal Ability

2.00 % of the Highest Score

The highest score in the DI Section is thus 39.33 marks. This means that the scores of everybody
else taking the CAT exam have been derived from this. If you have a % Score of 50 in the CAT exam,
it means that you have scored 18 marks in this section. Your Percentile is derived based on the
number of people whose scores fall between yours and 36.

The highest score for Quantitative Ability is 42 and Verbal Ability Sections is 50.00. The highest Total
Score is the sum of these 3 and is equal to 131.33. (More info on this is available on Note 2 of
the CAT Scorecard)
Compare your scores with the highest scores:
Highest Marks

100th percentile

76

Individual Section Highest Scores

Data Interpretation

39.33

Quantitative Ability

42

Verbal Ability

50

Below is a marks calculator in which you need to enter your % Score and will get the output as the
marks that you have scored in the CAT exam. (The marks calculator already keeps into account
negative marking 1/3rd of the marks of the question)
% Score

Your Score

Logic and DI
Quantitative
Verbal
Total
Calculate

In the next couple of days we hope to be able to use this to identify the expected cut-off for the CATallied institutes.Find out the cut-offs for other institutes.
Best of Luck for the Rest of the Exams!
Career Launcher Team
Disclaimer: This is an indicative score. Career Launcher shall not be held responsible for any
discrepancy from the actual score and any decision taken on the basis of this information.