Minimum CAT Percentiles IIMs Actually Publish, by Category

Search for “IIM cut-off” and you will mostly find one number, usually 99 or higher, sometimes with a category column that shaves a few points off for each reserved group. None of it is in the current IIM admission policies we checked. What the IIMs actually publish are minimum percentiles — floors below which an application is not considered — separately for each category and usually for each section. They are much lower than the folklore, and the real competition happens above them, on each IIM’s own composite score. This guide collects the floors that are officially published for this cycle, shows them side by side, and explains what they do and do not mean.

IIMA PGP 2027-29 Table 4; IIMC MBA 2026-28 Table 1.

The overall floor gets the attention, but the sectional floors are where applications quietly fail. Both institutes require a minimum in each of VARC, DILR and QA, and a strong overall percentile does not make up for one weak section. The table puts the non-PwD sectional minimums next to each other for the three largest categories.

Two differences are worth noting. IIMA uses a single sectional floor for all three sections, while IIMC sets VARC higher than DILR and QA for most categories. And IIMC adds a condition IIMA does not print: a raw score of zero or more in every section. A candidate who guesses heavily in one section and ends up negative there fails IIMC’s Stage I even if every percentile clears the table.

CAP 2026 is the joint interview process of exactly three IIMs — Bodh Gaya, Jammu and Sirmaur — for the MBA 2026-28 batch, which used CAT 2025; it was coordinated by IIM Bodh Gaya. IIM Bodh Gaya’s admission policy prints a cut-off table “for reference only” and says the CAP cut-off “will be finalized after the CAT 2025 result”. The finalised figures that circulated afterwards are lower for General candidates. We print both, because we could not open the final CAP document to confirm the second.

The chart shows the one pattern that holds across both institutes: the floors step down by category, and IIMA’s are set higher than IIMC’s at every level. What it does not show is where each shortlist actually ended. Neither IIM publishes that.

A point that often confuses: every percentile, including the SC or ST floor, is computed over everyone who appeared, not within your category. The category only decides which floor applies. So the ST floor of 75 at IIMA still means being ahead of about three-quarters of the entire field. The table turns each floor into an approximate rank, using the CAT 2025 field.

For comparison, the reservation rules printed in the CAT bulletin are 27% NC-OBC, 15% SC, 7.5% ST, up to 10% EWS and 5% PwBD. Each reserved category’s share of candidates is smaller than its share of seats — a descriptive comparison only: the two percentages have different denominators, and neither tells you how many candidates in a category clear a given floor. What the floor does tell you is the hard eligibility line to clear. It is not a target or a prediction of an interview call: plan for a margin above every sectional floor, because the shortlist is decided by each IIM’s scoring after that.

Clearing IIMA’s floor makes your composite eligible for shortlisting; the shortlist then depends on your composite against others in your discipline. Clearing IIMC’s floor moves you to its 85-point Stage II; the Stage II cut-off is then set by how many interviews the institute wants to hold. In both cases your sectional percentiles matter as much as the overall: a 99 overall with 84 in QA fails IIMA’s General floor of 85 in each section. Plan your mocks so no section is your weak link, and read each IIM’s policy for this cycle as it is posted.

The other IIMs publish their own policies on their own websites, at their own times. The bulletin is explicit that each IIM “is independent to mandate their own eligibility criteria (including academic cut-offs and relative weights)”. Where a policy for CAT 2026 is not yet out, last year’s is a guide, not a rule.