One of the biggest confusion after appearing for B-school entrance exams is the evaluation procedure. There is a void in information and the candidates are not aware of the parameters basis which their performance is judged and get calls from colleges. The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) being some of the most desirable b-schools follow a very structured selection criteria.
The most frequently asked questions by B-school aspirants is, ‘What after the score of the exam is declared?’ Since different colleges accept scores different entrance exams, the evaluation criteria is also different for every college. Same goes for IIM Ahmedabad. Being the top business school of the country, IIM Ahmedabad receives thousands of applications every year.
IIM Ahmedabad is one of the best and oldest Indian Institutes of Management in the country. Students seeking admission in masters of business administration apply for IIM Ahmedabad through CAT. Like all other Indian institutes of Management, IIM-A follows a pre-defined criteria to shortlist students for group discussions, writing ability tests and personal interviews.
In order to help you understand the evaluation criteria better, we have gathered the information regarding evaluation criteria of top B-schools in India.
Also Read: What Happens After I give my CAT exam?
Selection Criteria of IIM Ahmedabad:
IIM Ahmedabad has a three-step evaluation process to shortlist students that include:
1. Preliminary screening for IIM Ahmedabad
Preliminary screening is done on the basis of Application Rating (AR) and CAT score secured by the candidate. The candidate has to clear defined overall cutoff as well as sectional cutoffs in order to qualify the first stage. The minimum cutoff requirements for IIM Ahmedabad are as follows:
| Category |
Verbal & Reading Comprehension Percentile Rank (PVRC) |
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning Percentile Rank (PDILR) | Quantitative Aptitude Percentile Rank (PQA) | Overall Percentile Rank (PT) |
| General | 70 | 70 | 70 | 80 |
| Non-OBC-cum-transgender | 65 | 65 | 65 | 75 |
| SC | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 |
| ST | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 |
| Differently Abled | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 |
AR evaluated on the basis of your throughout academic performance and marks scored in class 10 board exams, class 12 board exams as well as graduation. AR is computed on the basis of the following tables:
Class 10 Board Score
| Percentage in Class 10 Board Exams | Rating Score A |
| <= 55 | 1 |
| > 55 and <= 60 | 2 |
| > 60 and <= 70 | 3 |
| > 70 and <= 80 | 5 |
| > 80 and <= 90 | 8 |
| > 90 | 10 |
Class 12 Board Score (Commerce)
| Percentage in Class 12 Board Exams | Rating Score B |
| <= 50 | 1 |
| > 50 and <= 55 | 2 |
| > 55 and <= 65 | 3 |
| > 65 and <= 75 | 5 |
| > 75 and <= 90 | 8 |
| > 90 | 10 |
Also Read: Which is the Top MBA College in India for my requirement?
Class 12 Board Score (Science)
| Percentage in Class 12 Board Exams | Rating Score B |
| <= 55 | 1 |
| > 55 and <= 60 | 2 |
| > 60 and <= 70 | 3 |
| > 70 and <= 80 | 5 |
| > 80 and <= 90 | 8 |
| > 90 | 10 |
Class 12 Board Score (Arts)
| Percentage in Class 12 Board Exams | Rating Score B |
| <= 45 | 1 |
| > 45 and <= 50 | 2 |
| > 50 and <= 60 | 3 |
| > 60 and <= 70 | 5 |
| > 70 and <= 85 | 8 |
| > 85 | 10 |
Bachelor’s Degree
| Percentage in Bachelor’s Degree (AC-1) | Rating Score C |
| <= 55 | 1 |
| > 55 and <= 60 | 2 |
| > 60 and <= 62 | 3 |
| > 62 and <= 65 | 5 |
| > 65 and <= 70 | 8 |
| > 70 | 10 |
| Percentage in Bachelor’s Degree (AC-2) | Rating Score C |
| <= 50 | 1 |
| > 50 and <= 53 | 2 |
| > 53 and <= 55 | 3 |
| > 55 and <= 57 | 5 |
| > 57 and <= 63 | 8 |
| > 63 | 10 |
| Percentage in Bachelor’s Degree (AC-3 & AC-5) | Rating Score C |
| <= 55 | 1 |
| > 55 and <= 60 | 2 |
| > 60 and <= 65 | 3 |
| > 65 and <= 70 | 5 |
| > 70 and <= 80 | 8 |
| > 80 | 10 |
| Percentage in Bachelor’s Degree (AC-4 & AC-7) | Rating Score C |
| <= 60 | 1 |
| > 60 and <= 65 | 2 |
| > 65 and <= 70 | 3 |
| > 70 and <= 77 | 5 |
| > 75 and <= 85 | 8 |
| > 85 | 10 |
| Percentage in Bachelor’s Degree (AC-6) | Rating Score C |
| <= 50 | 1 |
| > 50 and <= 55 | 2 |
| > 55 and <= 60 | 3 |
| > 60 and <= 65 | 5 |
| > 65 and <= 75 | 8 |
| > 75 | 1 |
Following are the list of disciplines according to CAT Application:
AC-1: Medicine, Surgery and other Professional courses
AC-2: Charted Accountants (CA), Company Secretaryship (CS) and Cost and Works Accountancy (ICWA)
AC-3: All commerce, finance, economics, hospitality and management degrees
AC-4: All Computer Application, Technology, Engineering, IT and Architecture related degrees
AC-5: All agriculture-related fields apart from agriculture engineering, medicine and surgery
AC-6: All Humanities/Arts, Design, Education, Fashion, Law and Rural studies related degrees
AC-7: Any other discipline other than the ones mentioned above
The AR score for class 10, class 12 and graduation are added together. However, a normalized AR score is the total AR score divided by top 50 AR scores among all the applicants.
Also Read: Do’s & Don’ts for Writing the CAT 2016 Exam
2. Screening for AWT and PI at IIM Ahmedabad:
The second screening is done in two stages
Stage 1: Candidates who have performed very well are shortlisted in this process. This is done by either selecting top 100 performers or by selecting 1% out of all the applicants of IIM Ahmedabad from all categories. These candidates appear for AWT and PI on the basis on their composite scores (CS) which is calculated as follows:
CS = 0.3 (Normalized AR Score) + 0.7 (Normalized Overall Score in CAT)
The Criteria are as follows:
Criteria C1-C3
C1: PT >= 80, PQA >= 70, PDILR >= 70, PVRC >= 70
C2: Percentage (10th and 12th standard exams) >= 80 (Science), 77 (Commerce), 75 (Arts/ Humanities)
C3: Percentage of Marks obtained in Bachelor’s Exam >= Minimum cut-off percentage set by the institute on the basis of the candidates in the ACRC pool among those who have applied for IIM Ahmedabad. This is evaluated on the basis of AC (check above tables for reference).
Criteria C4-C6
C4: PT >= 80, PQA >= 70, PDILR >= 70, PVRC >= 70
C5: Percentage (10th and 12th standard exams) >= 80 (Science), 77 (Commerce), 75 (Arts/Humanities)
C6: Percentage of Marks obtained in Bachelor’s Exam >= Minimum cut-off percentage set by the institute based on the candidates belonging to AC-1 to AC-6.
Stage 2: this is the category-wise selection of candidates. Once the students from all categories (General, NC-OBC, SC, ST, DA) have been evaluated basis stage 1, additional candidates are shortlisted for AWT & PI following a procedure similar to the process of stage 1. Only criteria C1 and C2 are followed in this stage.
3. Final Selection at IIM Ahmedabad
Finally, the ranks of students of each category are separately evaluated on the basis of their final composite scores (FCS). For this, the normalized PI and AWT scores of candidates will be calculated by dividing the actual scores with top 1% scores in PI and AWT respectively.
FCS = 0.50 (Normalized PI Score) + 0.10 (Normalized AWT Score) + 0.40 (CS)
