The criteria for admissions to the PGP course of IIM Ahmedabad through CAT 2015 are out and it seems that the institute is sticking to its stand of gathering a diverse batch quite strongly. The shortlisting criteria has ensured that aspirants who have an exceptional track record when it comes to academic performance are given preference during selection. The criteria are pretty straightforward and easy to understand but the hotly debated point is regarding the graduation cut-offs that have been set. Let’s see the entire structure in a simpler manner. You can view/download the official document here.
There will be two steps to the process:
Step I: Preliminary screening
This will be on the basis of your CAT score. The cut-offs are quite achievable for a serious candidate and are predefined across categories and are for both sectional and overall scores.
Step II: Normalized AR Score
The second part is the interesting one. You would have an Application Rating score (AR). This has been there for the past few years as well so no surprises. There are simple charts for 10th (A), 12th (B) and Graduation (C) scores. You can check your AR score from here. Addition of these 3 gives you an AR (A+B+C). This will again be normalized by dividing it by the average of the top 50 AR scores from the same pool.
Shortlisting criteria:
The first list would involve all the high academic performers. This is not category-based and would automatically invite either the top 100 or 1% of candidates (whichever is lower) on the basis of the Composite Score (CS), who fulfill these criteria:
- I) Overall CAT percentile > 90, Sectional percentiles > 80 for all the sections
- II) Average of the score in 10th and 12th standard if > 80% for Science stream, > 77% for Commerce stream, > 75% for Arts streams
III) Percentage in bachelor’s exams should be greater than that in the table:
The CS would give 30% weight to the normalized AR score and 70% weight to the Normalized CAT score.
For the rest of the AWT-PI slots, there will again be a Composite Score (CS) that will be used to arrive at the shortlist. CS will constitute of C1, C2, C3.
- I) C1 essentially says that your CAT score (overall as well as sectionals) should be above the given cutoffs
- II) C2 says that you need to take average percentage of your 10th and 12th scores and it should be greater than or equal to the category-wise cutoffs provided
III) C3 is probably the most hotly discussed point in the notification. The cut-offs have been specified for each bachelor’s degree, category-wise
The official pdf mentions the courses under each of the disciplines.
The CS would give 30% weight to the normalized AR score and 70% weight to the Normalized CAT score.
The Final Composite Score (FCS) will give 50% weight to the CS and another 50% split in to the ratio of 4:1 for the PI and the AWT.
You can read the entire official document here.
