CAT Eligibility Criteria & CAT Exam Fee

MBA is a dream which many of you would have been nurturing from your graduation days or maybe even earlier. When I speak of MBA, CAT is almost synonymous. CAT as most of you must be aware is the abbreviation for 'Common Admission Test' which is a computer based aptitude test conducted by Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) for their various business management courses. As per their policy of rotation every year the exam is conducted by some different IIM.


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CAT Eligibility

Although the eligibility criterion for CAT (Common Admission Test) is announced every year officially in July, CAT eligibility criterion has continued to be same over the years. As per the CAT eligibility criteria any candidate applying for CAT must have completed or have appeared for Bachelor's degree final year examination with minimum of 50% aggregate (now that's not very tough). Assessing our CAT eligibility is the first step we take towards our dream called IIM and so there is no place for confusion or ambiguity of any sorts. Let us now outline what exactly does this CAT eligibility criterion is in detail:

  • A candidate must hold a Bachelor's degree with minimum 50% or equivalent CGPA. However, there is a relaxation of 5% for SC (Scheduled Caste), ST (Scheduled Tribe), PWD (Person with disability), DA (Differently able); i.e.; for them the eligibility is of minimum 45% or equivalent CGPA.
  • The degree should be granted by any university incorporated or declared to be deemed under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956 or an equivalent qualification recognized by Ministry of HRD, Government of India.
  • Candidates appearing for final year examination of the bachelor's degree/equivalent qualification and candidates who have finished their degree prerequisites and are waiting for the results can also apply. If selected such candidates get a provisional admission on submitting a certificate from the Principal/Registrar of their university/institution (on or before the date mentioned by the respective IIM) stating that the candidate has completed all the requirements for obtaining bachelor's degree/equivalent qualification as of the date of issue of the certificate.

CAT Eligibility for Reserved Categories as decided by IIMs

  • 15% of seats are kept reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC);
  • 7.5% of seats are kept reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST);
  • 27% of seats are kept reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC);
  • 3% of seats are kept reserved for Persons with Disability (PWD). The categories of disability includ:
    a) low vision blindness,
    b) hearing impairment,
    c) loco motor disability/cerebral palsy.
    Any candidate who wishes to apply for this category will be eligible if only he/she suffers from any listed disabilities to the extent of less than 40%, as certified by a medical authority.
  • Candidates applying for reserved categories are required to score a minimum cut off score as would be decided by the IIMs.

CAT Fee

From past 3 years CAT exam fee for general category is 1700Rs and that for reserved categories is 850Rs. The CAT application procedure is online. During the application procedure, candidates are required to select the IIMs to which they wish to apply. An aspirant will not be considered for further stages of selection at an IIM if he/she does not select that IIM at the application stage. Candidates can log into www.iimcat.ac.in for the registration procedure.