IIM CAT criterian..

 The CAT 2008 brought a new initiative from IIM’s. Till now, the GD/PI calls and eventual admission calls from various IIM’s used to be considered a black box. People used to get 3 calls, 2 calls, all 6 calls or sometimes even with 98 percentile not even a single call.  Even 

the sharing of percentile scores was introduced recently in this decade only (since CAT 2003 onwards). Can you imagine the kind of confusion your seniors who took CAT before 2002 used to have about their performance? Well keeping the trend of making the admission process more transparent, various IIM’s have publicly displayed their criteria for shortlisiting candidates for Personal Interview/GD rounds.

Till Now, five out of seven IIMs have done so and it shows an interesting pattern. No IIM have same criteria and actually, they differ a lot vis a vis each other. All of them have used one or more criteria form a list of five criterias. Their choice of criteria also signifies the kind of student they are looking at. This also explains why a student do not get all the calls or a few specific calls. 

Please look below to see a snapshot of criterias used by various IIMs.

Factors/Institute	IIMA	IIMC	IIML	IIMK	IIMS
CAT Score	High	High (100%)	Medium	High (90%)	Medium
Work Experience	Ni	Ni	Low	Medium	Nil
Class Xth marks	High	Nil	Low	Nil	Low
Class X11th marks	High	Nil	Low	Nil	Low
Bachelors marks	Nil	Nil	Low	Nil	Almost (100%)
Looking for	A student with consistent academic background in schooling with common aptitude. Candidates with zero work ex have equal chance vis a vis students with work ex.	A student with common aptitude. Candidates with zero work ex have equal chance vis a vis students with work ex. Also, no focus on prior academic scores ensures that a last match performance can still make you the best batsman.	A student with consistent academic background with some work experience. Candidates with more work ex have an advantage chance vis a vis students with lesser work ex.	A student with common aptitude having work  experience. Candidates with more work ex have an advantage chance vis a vis students with lesser work ex.	A student with exceptional academic performance in Bachelors with decent consistency throughout academics. Candidates with zero work ex have equal chance vis a vis students with work ex.

For detail information and analysis of the different selection criteria for various IIMs, check the related articles. But with this summarized information, most of your doubts can be clarified. So , from now on
1.   If you meet a fresher with zero work ex but very high CAT score and still not getting calls from IIML and IIMK, you know the reason.
2.   Many students shall be getting all 6 calls except IIM Shillong because of their stress on performance in Bachelor’s. So 7 years back, when Vivek Gupta ( DI expert with Topcatcoaching) cracked the CAT ( CAT 2001) getting GD/PI calls from all 6  IIM’s , he would missed the IIM Shillong call by a decent margin because of his average performance in bachelor’s.
3.   Few one day wonders might have got IIM Kolkata call. 
4.   Looking at the table also should tell a student that why the preparation of CAT starts in school only. So if you are reading this article, do let your/your’s friends younger brothers/sisters know this. Their performance in school exams also matters for most of the IIM;s.