CAT 2022: How Scaled Score will be Calculated for Three Shifts?

Every management aspirant aims to attempt the Common Admission Test or CAT. With such wide acceptance for MBA admissions across India, CAT is by far one of the most popular MBA entrance exams in the country. More than 2 lakh aspirants apply for CAT every year. Thus, it is not possible to conduct the exam for every applicant simultaneously.

The CAT exam is typically conducted in multiple sessions to accommodate all the applicants. Following the previous year’s trend, CAT 2022 was also conducted in three different sessions.

Since the CAT exam is conducted across multiple sessions, a common question that arises is how the exam conducting authority accounts for the differences in each session of the exam. To ensure that every CAT 2022 candidate is marked fairly, the CAT Normalization Process is used to determine the scaled scores of every candidate. In this article, we have provided all the necessary information regarding this process for CAT 2022 aspirants.

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CAT 2022 Exam Slots

CAT 2022 was conducted on November 27, 2022, across 150 cities spread throughout India at multiple exam centers in each city. Each shift was conducted simultaneously at every CAT exam centre. The shift timings for CAT 2022 were as follows:

Since the score for each shift is considered when calculating scaled scores in CAT 2022, this will have an impact on the CAT 2022 Normalization Process as well.

Also Read: CAT 2022 Cutoff for Top Private MBA Colleges for General, SC/ST, OBC

What is CAT Score 2022?

The CAT score is the final grade a student receives in the exam using its marking criteria. In plain English, a candidate's CAT score will be determined by how well he or she does in each of the three components (Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Ability). Each student's CAT 2022 composite score will be determined based on their scaled CAT score, their grades in the 10th & 12th and graduation, their academic diversity and gender diversity, and their professional experience or employment history.

IIM Bangalore released the CAT 2022 result on December 21, 2022, at 5:00 PM. The CAT 2022 result includes the candidates' personal information, sectional scores earned by the candidate, percentile, scaled score, and total score, among other details.

Candidates who meet the requirements will be invited to participate in the next round of admission. A number of prominent business schools in addition to the Indian Institute of Management also accept CAT scores.

How to Calculate CAT 2022 Score?

Candidates can follow the steps mentioned below to calculate their CAT score:

• Determine how many of the CAT exam's right answers you marked, then increase each by three (Three marks are awarded for each correct answer).

• Next, multiply the total number of correct answers by three to get the number of erroneous answers, and subtract the total from that.

• The obtained result will be your CAT score.

What is CAT Percentile 2022?

The CAT percentile, along with a few other factors, shows a student's position in the exam in comparison to the other students who took it at the same time. The position of a candidate among all CAT applications, which is used to determine the candidate's ranking, is indicated by the CAT percentile, to put it simply. It is a unit used to determine or assess the proportion of students on the merit list that are above or below you.

How to Calculate CAT Percentile 2022?

The percentiles for the CAT exam are the same as those for other exams. The percentiles just serve as a visual depiction of how many students are performing worse than you on the exam. Below is a general formula for calculating the percentile:

A candidate's overall rank is referred to as his/her CAT 2022 percentile. The percentile for CAT 2022 will be determined on the basis of the scaled score. Candidates that earn more marks throughout all sections will receive a higher rank. In the event that two applicants receive identical scores on the VARC section, both will be assigned Rank 1.  In accordance with a defined formula, the percentile score for CAT 2022 will be determined. After the implementation of the formula, it will be necessary to round a candidate's calculated percentile score (P) up to two decimal points. 

Both the percentile scores for all sections of the CAT and the overall percentile scores for the CAT are calculated using the procedure mentioned below. In order to understand how the CAT percentile is determined, the QA component was chosen as an example, and subsequent sections will follow a similar procedure.

Step 1: Determine the total number of applicants (N) who appeared for the CAT 2022 exam (i.e. including morning, afternoon, and evening sessions).

Step 2: Assign each candidate who took the CAT 2022 exam a rank (r), based on the scaled scores earned in the QA section. The same rank will be given to all applicants who receive identical scaled scores in the QA portion, whether it be two or more candidates.

Consider, two applicants have received the highest scaled score possible on the QA portion each. In that case, both of them would be given a rank of 1. Additionally, the candidate(s) with the second-highest scaled score in the QA section is given a rank of 3, and so on. 

Step 3: Determine the percentile score (P) for a candidate with a given rank (r) in the QA section using the following formula: 

Step 4: A candidate's estimated percentile score (P) should be rounded off to the nearest two decimal points.

For instance, all percentile scores that are larger than or equal to 99.995 are rounded off to 100, and all percentile scores that are greater than or equal to 99.985 but strictly less than 99.995 are rounded off to 99.99, and so on.

What is Scaled Score in CAT 2022?

The CAT exam is administered across multiple sessions (two or three). Since the question papers for each session are slightly different from one another, a scaled score is produced through the normalization process to ensure fairness and equality in performance comparison. This scaled score could vary in different ways from the raw score.

Calculation of CAT Composite Score

The final score determined by IIMs for admission to their programs is the composite score. A candidate's composite score is determined by taking into account a variety of factors in addition to their CAT score.

Two candidates who scored the same on paper may have different composite scores based on a variety of factors. The additional criteria taken into account when calculating a composite score are as follows:

• Class 10th Marks
• Class 12th Marks
• Graduation Percentage/ Grade
• Work Experience
• Academic Background
• Gender Diversity

The formula for calculating CAT Composite Score used by the IIMs is as follows:

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Scaling and Normalization Process for IIMs

Different shifts were used to administer the CAT 2022 exam. IIMs use a clever scaling and normalizing procedure to convert CAT results to percentile in order to assess the qualifications of applicants taking the exam in various sessions in 2022. The CAT was changed to a computer-based test after that, which gave rise to the scaling and normalizing procedure.

When it comes to evaluating equity and fairness in performance across several sessions, the normalization procedure used by IIMs for the CAT exam assures perfect justice. The CAT normalization process, which is similar to other well-known admission tests in India like the GATE, is a clear technique of comparing candidates' CAT scores across different forms. IIMs employ percentile equivalence to normalize data across sections.

To put it simply, the CAT normalization process is based on the primary guesswork that in all sessions of the CAT exam, the ability of the candidates remains the same without any changes.

Let us try to interpret the CAT scoring system to get a fair idea of the percentile more clearly. The CAT paper comprises 100 questions and three marks are awarded to each correct answer while one mark is deducted for a negative answer. The original score secured by the candidates in CAT is not based on this typical marking system due to the prevalence of the normalization process.

Due to the CAT exam being offered in two slots on a single day in recent years, the normalization process has not been as aggressive. Because of this, the scaled score listed on the CAT scorecard still corresponds too closely to the actual marks earned by candidates.

CAT 2022 Percentile Calculation Process: Key Changes

Candidates should be aware of every major and minor change regarding the CAT 2022 exam to avoid confusion during the selection process. IIM Bangalore is expected to keep the CAT percentile calculation process the same as last year with the following criteria:

• All percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.995 to be rounded off to 100
• All percentile scores greater than or equal to 99.985 but strictly less than 99.995 to be rounded off to 99.99 and so on.

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