The Indian Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) has increased the minimum percentile requirements for Common Aptitude Test (CAT) aspirants, thus raising the entry bar for their Post Graduate Programme (PGP). 

These new percentiles of the CAT score would apply to the aspirants of the 2026-28 cohort, the Indian Express reports. 

Now, candidates from the General and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) categories must score at least 85 percentile in each sectional paper, ie Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA).

Overall, they must score 95 percentile in CAT.

This hike marks a substantial jump from the earlier cutoff of 70 per section and 80 overall for General category aspirants. 

IIM Ahmedabad will continue with its two-tier admission process, with both stages comprising the Analytical Writing Test (AWT) and the Personal Interview, as per India Today.

In the first stage, interview shortlisting still gives 65 per cent weight to the CAT score and 35 per cent to the Application Rating (AR), which is calculated using Class 10, Class 12 (stream-wise), Graduation, work experience, and a gender diversity score (E = 3 for non-male).

Under the updated cut-offs, only top scorers will be shortlisted for IIM Ahmedabad's Analytical Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI) stages. This screening accounts for 65 per cent of the selection process, with the remaining 35 per cent derived from the candidate's academic and profile-based Application Rating (AR).