The IIM's today declared the results for the CAT examination which was conducted on the 16th of November, 2008. This exam was written by 246,546 students who were vying for one of the approximately 1900 seats available at the IIM's. The number of seats this year has increased as the OBC category is being implemented from academic year 2009 onwards. We estimate that close to 4,500 students will be called for the second stage of the selection process. The results have been available from today morning on the website http://results.catiim.in

Contrary to the past, the website has been functioning normally and students have been able to download their results.

T.I.M.E. students have performed exceedingly well in this examination. As of now, 5 T.I.M.E. students scored 100 percentile. The results are still being compiled and we are confident that this number will go up.

Prior to the CAT results this year T.I.M.E. used a proprietory software to predict the percentile of a student based on the marks he scored in the CAT. For the first time students had an idea of their expected percentile even before the actual CAT result was declared. Initial comparison of data available shows that our percentile predictor has been working quite accurately. Another thing which is clear from the analysis of the results is that there is no such thing as one common cut-off for every section. Each IIM analyses the result in an independent manner and different IIM's come up with different cut-offs.

The table below lists the cut-off percentiles in each section/total score that each IIM has used for the general merit category:

It is to be noted that the CAT score is only one of the many parameters which is looked at by the IIM's. Apart from this, the IIM's will give weightage to X Std, XII Std, degree marks, work experience etc. Different IIM's give different weightages to these criteria. Students are advised to visit the website of each IIM to get an idea of the exact procedure used by them to shortlist candidates.

The shortlisted candidates will now need to appear for the GD / Interview rounds conducted by the IIM's. These are expected to commence around the second week of February, 2009. Last year IIM-Ahmedabad did not conduct a GD, but instead asked students to write an essay on a topic. IIM-Lucknow conducts a 20-minute duration Written Ability Test apart from conducting a GD and PI. IIM-Bangalore usually give case studies to be discussed in the GD round. A student is also expected to write a summary of the discussion.