Candidates with a Bachelor's degree (or in the final year of a Bachelor's degree) with at least 50% scores or equivalent CGPA (45% for SC, ST or PWD candidates) are eligible to apply and take CAT. In light of the pandemic, many colleges have been awarding students with only “Pass”, “Promoted” or similar certificates instead of holding exams for the current and previous years (2020 and 2021). This has created an issue as students are not able to calculate their average marks/CGPA.

The CAT Centre has made the following changes to accommodate this concern:

1. Candidates in the final year: candidates with “promotion/pass” instead of “award of marks” certificates in any of the last two years of the bachelor’s program can enter the “Promotion or Pass” option in the application form. This will allow the candidates to complete & submit the CAT2021 application form despite the requirements of minimum eligibility criteria (45% and 50% [or equivalent CGPA] respectively). This eligibility relaxation is also applicable to those final year students with “award” of marks. This exception is available only to candidates who are completing the bachelor’s degree this year or are in the final year bachelor’s program (graduation years – 2021 and 2022)

2. Candidates who graduated in 2020 or 2021: due to point 1, and considering that there could be different evaluation patterns adopted by different universities across the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CAT Committee has decided to remove the minimum percentage of marks (45% and 50% [or equivalent CGPA] respectively) for appearing for the CAT2021 exam. This exception is made to ensure parity to candidates who have completed the bachelor’s degree in 2020 and 2021.

This is only for eligibility to write the CAT exam, not for college applications or shortlist/selection criteria. Visit iimcat.ac.in for more details.