The Key Numbers
50%
Weight the Personal Interview carries in IIM Ahmedabad's final selection, the highest single component, well ahead of CAT's 25%
25%
What CAT actually drops to at IIM Ahmedabad's final stage, after carrying roughly 65% weight at shortlisting, the exam that got you the call barely decides the seat
40%
Interview weight at IIM Bangalore's final selection, against CAT at 25%, Academics 15%, Work Experience 10% and WAT 10%
0
Work experience points scored at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta if your experience runs under 12 months, CAT and the panel then have to cover that gap
Before The Checklist
Why the Percentile Stops Mattering the Moment You Clear the Cutoff
CAT is a single, ruthlessly efficient filter: it separates roughly two lakh aspirants down to a shortlist. Once you're inside that shortlist, every IIM runs a second, completely different evaluation, and that second evaluation is what actually decides who gets the seat.
CAT is the gate, not the differentiatorTwo candidates can both clear a 99 percentile cutoff for the same IIM. From that point forward, their CAT scores explain almost none of the difference in who gets in. The panel, the written test and the profile do that work instead.
The panel scores things a percentile cannot showLeadership evidence, extracurricular depth, how you narrate your work experience, and whether you think clearly under pressure, these sit outside the CAT syllabus entirely. A percentile says nothing about any of them.
Coaching prepares you to beat the exam, not the panelA percentile is easy to put on an ad. A WAT score, a stress-interview answer, or a leadership narrative is not. That gap between what most coaching drills and what the panel actually tests is exactly where prepared 99 percentilers lose seats every single admission cycle.
Myth vs Reality
Tap Each Card to See the Actual Weightage
The two assumptions this checklist exists to correct. Tap or click a card to flip it.
Everyone's Guess
A 99 Percentile Locks the Seat
The assumption behind almost every coaching ad, and the reason so many toppers stop preparing the moment results are out.
Tap to see the real weight →
The Reality
CAT Falls to 25% at Final Stage
At IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad alike, CAT drops to 25% of the final score once you're shortlisted. The Personal Interview alone outweighs it at both.
Nobody's Guess
The Written Ability Test (WAT)
The round almost nobody prepares for on purpose, mentioned last if at all, in most CAT coaching timetables.
Tap to see the real weight →
The Reality
Up to 20% at IIM Kozhikode
IIM Kozhikode weighs WAT at 20% of final selection, higher than work experience and close to a full CAT sectional's worth of decision-making power.
The Two-Stage System
How Six IIMs Actually Score You, Stage by Stage
Every IIM runs the same basic shape: CAT does most of the work to get you shortlisted, then a second, very different scorecard decides the seat. See both stages below.
This is the stage where CAT genuinely dominates. It is also the only stage most coaching timetables are built to prepare you for.
| IIM | CAT Weight | What Else Counts |
|---|---|---|
| Ahmedabad | ~65% | Application Rating 35% (10th, 12th, graduation, work-ex, gender diversity, combined) |
| Bangalore | 55 pts | Academics 30 pts, Work Experience 10 pts, Gender Diversity 5 pts (100-point scale) |
| Calcutta | ~65% | Class XII 15%, Class X 10%, Gender Diversity 4%. Work experience carries no weight at this stage, graduation marks aren't counted either |
| Lucknow | ~60% | Academics (12th + graduation) ~10%, remainder diversity and gender factors for the interview call |
| Indore | 55% | Class XII 25%, Class X 10%, Diversity 7%, Work Experience 3% |
| Kozhikode | 50% | Class XII 20%, Class X 15%, Diversity 10%, Work Experience 5% |
Figures are drawn from each IIM's published shortlisting composite score policy for the 2026-28 admission cycle and are set independently, and can change, every year. Confirm the current cycle's exact figures on the IIM's own admission notification before finalising a strategy.
This is the stage that actually decides the seat, and the one most 99 percentilers under-prepare for.
IIM AhmedabadPI 50%
The "CAT-only" reputation IIM flips hardest at final stage
Final weightage: Personal Interview 50%, CAT 25%, Academic Writing Test 10%, Application Rating 15%.
What a 99 percentiler still needs: A structured answer for "walk me through your CV," a defensible reason for every career or academic choice on it, and the composure to be cross-questioned on weak points rather than just praised on strong ones.
Where the gap usually shows: Candidates who prepared only for quant and verbal walk in with no rehearsed narrative for their own profile, and freeze the moment a panelist asks "why this, and not that" about their own choices.
Anshul's reasoning: this is the IIM most associated with "just get the CAT score right." Its own final weightage says the opposite, the interview alone outweighs CAT two to one.
IIM CalcuttaPI ~48%
Zero work-ex points below 12 months
Final weightage: Personal Interview 48%, CAT 30%, Written Ability Test 8%, Academic Diversity 6%, Work Experience 8%.
What a 99 percentiler still needs: A work-experience story that survives deep questioning, since work-ex below 12 months typically scores zero here.
Where the gap usually shows: Freshers who assume a strong CAT score offsets a thin or unrehearsed work-ex narrative, when the panel weight for the interview alone is nearly half the final score.
Anshul's reasoning: when a single round is worth almost half your final score, "I'll just wing the interview" is the single most expensive assumption a 99 percentiler can make.
IIM LucknowWAT+PI 50%
CAT ~30 to 35%, panel round tied and combined
Final weightage: WAT and PI combined carry roughly 50% of the final score, CAT carries roughly 30 to 35%, with academics and diversity factors making up the balance.
What a 99 percentiler still needs: A written argument that holds together under a strict word and time limit, since the WAT is graded as rigorously as the interview here.
Where the gap usually shows: Strong verbal-round candidates who never practised timed, structured writing under pressure, and lose marks on WAT alone despite a strong PI.
Anshul's reasoning: WAT is the most neglected round in most CAT prep, and it is worth as much as the interview here. Ignoring it is not a small gap, it is half the final score.
IIM IndorePI 45%
CAT 40%, the most CAT-weighted of the six here
Final weightage: Personal Interview 45%, CAT 40%, Academics 10%, Diversity 5%.
What a 99 percentiler still needs: Even here, where CAT carries its highest weight of the six IIMs on this page, the interview is still the single largest component.
Where the gap usually shows: Candidates treat Indore as "the safe CAT-score IIM" and under-invest in interview prep relative to Ahmedabad or Calcutta, missing that PI still outweighs CAT here too.
Anshul's reasoning: Indore is the closest of these six to a CAT-driven decision, and even here the panel round wins by five points. There is no IIM on this list where the interview does not matter most.
IIM BangalorePI 40%
The most evenly split scorecard of the six
Final weightage: Personal Interview 40%, CAT 25%, Academics 15%, Work Experience 10%, WAT 10%.
What a 99 percentiler still needs: A consistent academic record across Class 10, Class 12 and graduation, since academics alone outweighs both work experience and WAT here.
Where the gap usually shows: Candidates with a strong CAT score but an inconsistent academic transcript underestimate how much that 15% costs them against a similarly-scored peer with cleaner academics.
Anshul's reasoning: this is the most balanced scorecard here, which paradoxically makes it the hardest to game with one strong area. Every component needs to hold up.
IIM KozhikodePI 35%, CAT 35%
Highest WAT weight of the six, at 20%
Final weightage: CAT 35%, Personal Interview 35%, WAT 20%, Resume Score 10%.
What a 99 percentiler still needs: A resume that reads as a coherent story, not a list, since it carries its own separate 10% score here, distinct from both CAT and the interview.
Where the gap usually shows: Candidates treat the resume as a formality rather than a scored document, and lose marks on a component most other IIMs fold into "academics" instead of scoring on its own.
Anshul's reasoning: CAT and PI are literally tied here, thirty-five each. A great interview fully offsets a merely good CAT score, and a weak one does the opposite just as fast.
Every IIM, Not Just Six
Final Selection Weightage Across All 21 IIMs
The six above get the full deep-dive because they're where most of Anshul's students actually target. Nothing gets left out of the reference below though, every IIM's published final-stage weightage, and an honest flag wherever an IIM hasn't published a detailed breakdown.
| IIM | CAT | PI / WAT+PI | Everything Else |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmedabad | 25% | PI 50% | Academic Writing Test 10%, Application Rating 15% |
| Bangalore | 25% | PI 40% | Academics 15%, Work Experience 10%, WAT 10% |
| Calcutta | 30% | PI 48% | WAT 8%, Academic Diversity 6%, Work Experience 8% |
| Lucknow | ~30–35% | WAT+PI ~50% combined | Academics and diversity make up the remainder, exact split not separately published |
| Indore | 40% | PI 45% | Academics 10%, Diversity 5% |
| Kozhikode | 35% | PI 35% | WAT 20%, Resume Score 10% |
| Shillong | 30% | PI 40% (PI only, no WAT or GD) | Academics 20% (10th, 12th, graduation combined), Work Experience 5%, Gender Diversity 5% |
| Rohtak | 60% | PI 20% | Academic + Gender Diversity 20% combined. No WAT, no separate work-ex weight |
| Amritsar | Not in final formula | PI 70% | Academic Diversity 10%, Gender Diversity 10%, Work Experience 10%. See note below, this one works differently |
| Kashipur | 41% | PI 25% | Work Experience 15%, Graduation 5%, Gender Diversity 6%, 10th 2%, 12th 2%, Academic Diversity 2%, Professional Qualifications 2% |
| Trichy | 52% | PI 20% | Work Experience 10%, Graduation 5%, Gender Diversity 6%, 12th 3%, 10th 2%, Academic Diversity 2% |
| Udaipur | 55% | PI 25% | Academic Profile 6%, Work Experience 6%, Diversity 8% |
| Bodh Gaya | 50% | PI 25% | Candidate Profile 25% (Academic 15%, Work Experience 10%). Interview calls run on CAT score alone, academics only start counting from this final stage |
| Sirmaur | 50% | PI 25% | Remaining ~25% profile-based. Shares IIM CAP with Bodh Gaya and Jammu, so the structure likely mirrors Bodh Gaya's, not independently confirmed for Sirmaur alone |
| Jammu | Not independently confirmed | Not independently confirmed | Shares IIM CAP with Bodh Gaya and Sirmaur, likely a similar CAT 50% / PI 25% / Candidate Profile 25% structure, confirm on IIM Jammu's own notification |
| Ranchi | 65% | Not independently confirmed | Remaining ~35% split across PI, academics, work experience and diversity, exact breakdown not published in detail |
| Raipur | ~40–50% (varies by source) | Not independently confirmed | Remaining weight profile-based, exact breakdown not published in detail |
| Nagpur | Not independently confirmed | Not independently confirmed | Publicly described as CAT, academics, work experience, diversity and PI across three stages, exact percentages not published in detail |
| Sambalpur | Not independently confirmed | Not independently confirmed | Final list uses CAT score, Profile Assessment (including work experience) and Past Academic Performance, exact split not published in detail |
| Visakhapatnam | Shortlist stage only, 50% | PI 48% (final stage) | Shortlist stage: 10th 10%, 12th 10%, Bachelor's 10%, Work Experience 10%, Diversity 10%. Full final-stage breakdown beyond PI not published in detail |
| Mumbai | Not independently confirmed | Not independently confirmed | Uses CAT, academic records (10th and 12th) and work experience. Newly converted from NITIE, a detailed public composite formula isn't yet as widely published as older IIMs |
On IIM Amritsar specifically: its shortlisting stage runs on CAT 50%, 10th 20%, 12th 20%, Work Experience 5% and Gender Diversity 5%, but its final selection score is a completely separate formula that doesn't re-include CAT at all, Personal Interview 70%, Academic Diversity 10%, Gender Diversity 10%, Work Experience 10%. Once you clear the shortlist, the CAT number itself does not re-enter the room.
Every figure above is drawn from each IIM's own published admission policy or composite score notification for the 2026-28 cycle, cited in the Sources box below. Weightage is reset independently by each IIM every year, always confirm the current cycle's figures before finalising a strategy.
Which IIM Takes What Score
The Qualifying CAT Cutoff, All 21 IIMs
The qualifying cutoff is the minimum percentile that makes you eligible to be considered at all, not the percentile that actually gets you a call. For the six IIMs Anshul's students target most, the realistic call percentile is noted too, since that gap is often 10 to 15 percentile points.
| IIM | Qualifying Cutoff (Gen) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ahmedabad | 95 overall, 85+ each section | Realistic call percentile ~99.5 and above |
| Bangalore | 85 overall, 75–80 each section | Realistic call percentile ~99.7 and above |
| Calcutta | 85 overall, 75–80 each section | Realistic call percentile ~98–100 |
| Lucknow | 90 overall, 85 each section | Realistic call percentile ~97–99+ |
| Indore | 90 overall, 80 each section | Realistic call ~97+ with strong sectionals |
| Kozhikode | 85 overall | Realistic call ~97+ with strong sectionals |
| Shillong | ~90 overall, 75 each section | – |
| Rohtak | 95 overall | Highest published qualifying cutoff among the newer IIMs |
| Nagpur | 95 overall | – |
| Kashipur | 94 overall | – |
| Amritsar | 90 Gen, 80 EWS/OBC, 65 SC, 40 ST/PwD | – |
| Bodh Gaya | 95 Gen, 81 EWS/OBC, 66 SC, 42 ST/PwD | Shares IIM CAP cutoffs with Sirmaur and Jammu |
| Sirmaur | 95 Gen, 81 EWS/OBC, 66 SC, 42 ST/PwD | Shares IIM CAP cutoffs with Bodh Gaya and Jammu |
| Jammu | 95 Gen, 81 EWS/OBC, 66 SC, 42 ST/PwD | Shares IIM CAP cutoffs with Bodh Gaya and Sirmaur |
| Visakhapatnam | 82 overall | – |
| Mumbai | 85 overall | – |
| Sambalpur | 90 overall (85 for candidates with 1+ year work-ex, and for all female candidates) | Sectional cutoff 65 |
| Trichy, Raipur, Udaipur, Ranchi | ~91–94 overall, ~70–73 each section | Grouped, individual per-institute cutoffs not independently confirmed |
Qualifying cutoffs are set fresh every admission cycle based on that year's applicant pool and shift by category (General, EWS, OBC, SC, ST, PwD). These reflect the CAT 2025 cycle for 2026-28 admissions. A candidate above the qualifying cutoff is eligible, not guaranteed a call, the weightage tables above decide the rest.
Before The Interview Even Starts
The Personal Interview Form Every Top IIM Sends You to Fill First
Before a panelist ever sees your face, IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Shillong each send a Personal Interview form to shortlisted candidates. Whatever you write on it becomes the script the panel actually interviews you from, which makes it part of profile-building, not paperwork.
Academic transcript, entered in full, not summarisedEvery 10th, 12th and graduation mark goes in exactly as it appears on your certificates. If there's a dip, this form is the first place it becomes visible to the panel, so the honest one-line explanation from the self-check above needs to already exist before you submit it.
Career goals, inside a strict word limitIIM Calcutta's form caps this section at roughly 100 words. A vague line about wanting "a good role at a top firm" wastes the space. A specific, two-step goal, the immediate role, then a five-year direction, reads as someone who has actually thought about it rather than typed the first sentence that came to mind.
Top achievements, ranked, not just listedMost forms ask for your top five, in order. Panels notice when the achievement listed first is trivial compared to something buried further down. Rank by what actually took the most effort or judgement, not by what sounds most impressive on paper.
Extracurriculars, inter-college level and aboveInstitute-only participation counts for less than something that required competing outside your own college. If you don't have one yet and still have weeks before your interview, this is exactly the gap the "closing the gap" checklist above tells you how to close.
Hobbies, ones you can actually discuss for two minutesListing only "watching movies" and "listening to music" is a well-known way to invite an easy but awkward follow-up question you're not ready for. List what you genuinely do, and be ready to go two layers deep on it.
Family background, factual and completeParents', siblings' and, if married, spouse's occupation and income, entered accurately. This section is rarely questioned directly, but panels do cross-reference it against your stated reasons for pursuing an MBA, so it needs to stay consistent with the rest of your story, not just accurate on its own.
AptiGuide compiles this pattern from IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Shillong's published PI form guidance and repeated candidate-reported experiences (InsideIIM, CollegeDekho, CatKing, see Sources below). Exact fields and word limits shift slightly by IIM and by year, always fill in the live form on your own portal as it appears, this is the pattern behind it, not a copy of any single IIM's current form.
Final Selection, Visualised
Interview Weight vs CAT Weight, Side by Side
Same six IIMs, one comparison. In every single case, the panel and written round together outweigh the CAT score at final selection.
Interview / WAT+PI weightCAT weight
The Checklist You Were Promised
The AptiGuide Panel-Readiness Self-Check
Tap each area as you honestly assess it. This is the same six-area frame Anshul uses inside AptiGuide's GD/PI mentorship and its Persona Profiling System, built specifically to find gaps a percentile cannot show. Every area you leave unmarked is covered below, with exactly what to do about it.
0 of 6 areas marked ready
Tap an item once you can genuinely defend it in front of a panel
✓
Leadership evidence, with a specific story
Not "I led a team," a specific situation, your specific decision, and the specific outcome, good or bad.
✓
Extracurricular depth beyond a listed line item
You can explain what you actually did in it, what you learned, and why you stayed with it, not just that it appears on your form.
✓
A rehearsed, honest work-experience narrative
A clear answer for what you did, what you'd have done differently, and why an MBA is the right next step from here, not a generic one.
✓
Clarity under pressure, tested, not assumed
You've actually been cross-questioned or stress-tested on a weak point in your profile, and stayed structured through it.
✓
A timed, structured WAT under real constraints
You've written at least a few essays under the actual word and time limit, not just read about WAT format.
✓
A defensible answer for every academic dip
Any drop in your 10th, 12th or graduation marks has a specific, honest explanation ready, not a vague deflection.
Closing The Gap, Not Just Naming It
How to Actually Build Each of These, By How Much Time You Have Left
A gap you can name but can't close doesn't help you. Tap each area you didn't mark ready above for exactly what to do, split by whether your interview is 6-plus weeks away or 2 to 3 weeks away.
1. No leadership story yet? Build one, don't invent one.
6+ weeks left: Take on an actual ownership role now, coordinate a fest committee, run a small project at work, organise a peer group for CAT or WAT prep. Anything where you made a call and owned the outcome, good or bad. 2–3 weeks left: Stop hunting for a new title and mine what already happened. A group project where you pushed the team past a deadline, a family responsibility you managed end to end, a peer you mentored through CAT prep, all count as leadership evidence if you can name the specific decision and the specific outcome. Panels score judgment under ownership, not the word "leader" on a certificate.
2. Thin extracurriculars? Go deep on one, don't chase five new ones.
6+ weeks left: Pick the one activity you already have the most access to, a college society, a sport, a hobby you've stuck with, and take a visible next step in it this month: run an event, publish something, teach it to someone else. 2–3 weeks left: Don't add anything new. An activity started two weeks before your interview reads as exactly that. Instead, go back through what you already have and pull out the one specific problem you solved inside it, not just your role title.
3. Never explained your work-ex out loud? Do it three times before the panel does.
Write a one-page version of what you did, what you'd change, and why an MBA is the right next step now, and read it aloud, not silently. Then get someone, a mentor, a colleague, or Anshul in a mock session, to interrupt you mid-answer and push on the weakest line. The narrative that survives being interrupted is the one that survives a panel. This applies whether you have 6 weeks or 2, it's rehearsal that's missing, not new experience.
4. Never been cross-questioned on a weak point? That's the one gap you can't self-check alone.
This is the only item on this checklist you cannot tick off by yourself, clarity under pressure only shows up once someone actually applies pressure. Book at least one real mock interview, structured, with cross-questioning on your specific weak points, not a friend running through generic questions. 6+ weeks left: Do two or three, spaced a week apart, so you can fix what breaks each time. 2–3 weeks left: One is still worth more than zero, prioritise it over polishing what you already handle well.
5. Never written a timed WAT? Five essays under the clock beats twenty read casually.
Set a 15 to 20 minute timer, pick a current-affairs or opinion topic, and write a structured essay with an opening stance, two or three developed points, and a close, on paper or a plain document, not with editing tools running. 6+ weeks left: Do this at least five times before your interview. 2–3 weeks left: At least twice. Either way, get each one read by someone else for structure, not grammar, structure is what WAT actually scores.
6. Have a dip in your marks? Name it before the panel finds it.
Pull your own transcript and mark every dip yourself first. For each one, write one honest sentence explaining it, a health issue, a family event, a subject you genuinely struggled with, and one sentence on what you did differently afterward if the marks recovered. A dip you've already named and explained reads as self-awareness. A dip the panel has to point out to you reads as something you were hoping they'd miss.
What This Looks Like In Practice
Composite Counselling Observations
Not named case studies, real students share private details Anshul does not publish, but honest, anonymised patterns seen repeatedly across CAT and GD/PI mentorship sessions.
Pattern 1 · Stopped preparing the day the CAT result came out
A recurring pattern: a 99-plus percentiler treats results day as the finish line, tells friends and family the hard part is over, and only starts panel preparation once the shortlist email arrives, often two to three weeks before the interview. Compressed into that window, leadership stories get invented rather than genuinely reflected on, and it shows to an experienced panel almost immediately.
Pattern 2 · A strong quant-verbal profile with an unrehearsed work-ex narrative
Another recurring pattern: a working professional with a strong CAT score has never actually had to explain, out loud, why they want to leave a stable job for an MBA, or what specifically they'd change about a past project. When asked to walk through it plainly for the first time, the story is disorganised, not because the experience is thin, but because it was never rehearsed as a narrative someone else has to follow.
Honest Guidance
Where to Focus, Based on Your Target IIM
The checklist above applies everywhere. Where you put the extra hours should shift by IIM.
- ✓Targeting Ahmedabad or Calcutta, where the interview alone carries close to half the final score. Put your heaviest hours into rehearsed, cross-questioned answers about your own profile, not into squeezing another percentile point out of CAT.
- ✓Targeting Lucknow or Kozhikode, where WAT carries a genuinely unusual amount of weight, 20% or close to it. Practise timed, structured writing as seriously as you practise verbal ability.
- ✓Under 12 months of work experience and targeting Ahmedabad or Calcutta. Assume zero points there and make sure your CAT score and panel performance are strong enough to stand alone.
- ⚠Don't let "I'll figure out the interview after results" become your actual plan. By the time the shortlist is out, the honest preparation window is two to three weeks, not enough time to build genuine leadership narratives or WAT fluency from zero.
Frequently Asked
Questions Candidates and Parents Actually Ask
Does a 99 percentile in CAT guarantee an IIM seat?
No. A 99 percentile clears the shortlisting cutoff at almost every IIM, which is the stage where CAT does most of the work. At the final selection stage, CAT is only one input among several. At IIM Bangalore, for example, the final weightage is Personal Interview 40%, CAT 25%, Academics 15%, Work Experience 10% and WAT 10%. Once the cutoff is cleared, the interview panel, the written test and the profile carry most of the remaining decision.
How much does the personal interview actually weigh at IIM Bangalore?
At final selection, IIM Bangalore weighs the Personal Interview at 40%, CAT at 25%, academics at 15%, work experience at 10% and the Written Ability Test at 10%. This is the highest single component in the final score, ahead of the CAT percentile itself.
Does IIM Ahmedabad only care about CAT score?
At the shortlisting stage, yes, CAT carries roughly 65% weight and the Application Rating carries 35%. But at final selection, once shortlisted, IIM Ahmedabad's weightage flips: Personal Interview 50%, CAT 25%, Academic Writing Test 10% and Application Rating 15%. The IIM most associated with a pure CAT-score reputation gives the interview panel the single largest share of the final score.
What happens if I have less than 12 months of work experience?
At IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta, candidates with under 12 months of work experience typically score zero on the work experience component. This does not disqualify a candidate, most IIMs admit a meaningful share of freshers every batch, but it does mean the CAT score and the panel round have to carry more of the weight that work experience would otherwise have covered.
Which IIMs weigh the interview panel the heaviest?
Based on published final selection weightage, IIM Ahmedabad weighs the Personal Interview at 50%, IIM Calcutta at roughly 48%, IIM Indore at 45%, and IIM Bangalore and IIM Kozhikode both around 35 to 40%. Across every IIM checked, the interview and written test combined outweigh the CAT score at final selection.
What CAT percentile do I actually need for a call from a top IIM?
The published qualifying cutoff and the percentile that realistically gets you a call are two different numbers. IIM Ahmedabad's qualifying cutoff is 95 overall, but realistic call percentiles run 99.5 and above. IIM Bangalore and Calcutta qualify at 85 overall, but realistic calls run 98 to 99.7 and above. Newer IIMs such as Trichy, Raipur, Udaipur and Ranchi qualify candidates around 91 to 94 percentile overall. Clearing the qualifying cutoff makes you eligible, it does not guarantee a call, academics, work experience and diversity weightage decide the rest.
Do all IIMs send a form before the interview?
IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Shillong each send shortlisted candidates an online Personal Interview form to fill before the interview. It typically asks for your full academic transcript, career goals within a strict word limit, your top ranked achievements, extracurricular activities, hobbies, and family background details. Whatever is written on this form becomes the basis for many of the panel's questions, so it should be treated as part of interview preparation, not paperwork.
Your Next Step
Prepare for the Panel, Not Just the Exam
Anshul is a 10-time 99-plus CAT percentiler, highest 99.92, and personally mentors students through both CAT preparation and IIM panel readiness under AptiGuide's Persona Profiling System. Most CAT courses stop at the percentile. This is built to cover what comes after it too. Join the community to discuss your profile, or book a session to run your own panel-readiness check with Anshul directly.
💬 Join the Free Career Community 📋 Put Your Career Queries Here 🗓️ Book a 1:1 Session with AnshulConnect with Anshul Wadhwa
Resources & Next Steps
Put your career queries here, join the community, book a session, or explore more.
Put Your Career Queries HereAnshul personally reviews every submission
Join WhatsApp CommunityCareer Q&A, live updates & peer support, free
Book a 1:1 SessionCAT and IIM panel mentorship on TopMate
AptiGuide WebsiteCAT coaching, career roadmaps & resources
Follow on LinkedInDaily career insights from Anshul Wadhwa
Sources: tarkashastra.co.in, careers360.com and quantifiers.in for IIM Bangalore shortlist and final composite score weightage; insideiim.com, shiksha.com and tarkashastra.co.in for IIM Ahmedabad shortlist and final weightage; careers360.com, shiksha.com and cracku.in for IIM Calcutta shortlist and final weightage; careers360.com, quantifiers.in and cracku.in for IIM Indore shortlist and final weightage; careers360.com and iiml.ac.in (IIM Lucknow's own published admission policy) for IIM Lucknow shortlist and final weightage; cracku.in for IIM Kozhikode's final and shortlist stage breakdown; cracku.in and collegedunia.com for the under-12-months work experience scoring rule at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta; tarkashastra.co.in, shiksha.com and quantifiers.in for IIM Shillong and IIM Rohtak; cracku.in and mycollegeroute.com for IIM Ranchi, IIM Raipur and IIM Trichy; shiksha.com, cracku.in and bschool.careers360.com for IIM Udaipur and IIM Kashipur; shiksha.com, collegedekho.com, quantifiers.in, bschool.careers360.com and iimbg.ac.in (IIM Bodh Gaya's own published admission policy) for IIM Bodh Gaya, IIM Sirmaur and IIM Amritsar; shiksha.com, mbagate.in and collegedekho.com for IIM Jammu, IIM Sambalpur, IIM Visakhapatnam and IIM Mumbai; bschool.careers360.com, collegedekho.com, careerlauncher.com, collegedunia.com and iquanta.in for qualifying CAT cutoffs across all 21 IIMs; collegedekho.com, insideiim.com and catking.in for the Personal Interview form pattern across IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Shillong. Figures reflect the 2026-28 batch admission cycle as published at the time of writing and are set independently by each IIM every year, always confirm against the current cycle's official notification before finalising an interview strategy. Several newer IIMs (Jammu, Ranchi, Raipur, Nagpur, Sambalpur, Mumbai) have not published a fully detailed final-weightage breakdown at the time of writing, flagged as such in the tables above rather than estimated.