IIM Ahmedabad Admission Criteria – How to get into IIM Ahmedabad
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad is the top B-school in India and also the most desirable college for many MBA aspirants. The first step towards getting admission into the IIM Ahmedabad is taking the Common Admission Test (CAT) exam. Every year over two lakh candidates appear for the CAT exam. The selection criteria at the IIMA are based on the CAT score, Overall academic record, Work experience, Gender diversity, and the performance of the candidate in the Written Ability Test (WAT) and the Personal Interview (PI). In this article, we will look at the admission criteria of IIM Ahmedabad and how to get into it.
IIM’s select candidates based on a wide variety of factors. So, if we look at these factors, one can understand the selection criteria better and try to achieve the required CAT score accordingly.
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The Common Selection process at the Top IIMs
The selection process at the top IIMs is broadly divided into two stages. Let us check out the stages in the selection process at the Top IIMs in detail.
Stage 1: Candidates are shortlisted for the interviews on the basis of their CAT score, and other factors like the academic record, work experience, etc, and interview letters are sent to the shortlisted candidate.
Parameters for selection in stage 1:
1. CAT Percentile
2. Academics (10th, 12th, and Graduation scores)
3. Work experience
4. Gender Diversity
Stage 2: The second stage is where the colleges select based on WAT-PI. A Composite Score is calculated for the Final Selection. The composite score of each candidate is calculated (usually out of 100) based on certain parameters, and the final selection list will be made.
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Admission criteria of IIM Ahmedabad
Considering that IIM Ahmedabad is the top B-school in India, the selection process is a little complex compared to the other IIMs. The first step towards getting admission into the IIM Ahmedabad is taking the Common Admission Test (CAT) exam. The below table refers to the basic CAT score requirement for all categories.
Basic CAT score requirement
| Category | Verbal and Reading Comprehension percentile rank
(PVRC) |
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning percentile rank
(PDILR) |
Quantitative Aptitude percentile rank
(PQA) |
Overall percentile rank
(PT) |
| General, EWS | 70 | 70 | 70 | 80 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 65 | 65 | 65 | 75 |
| SC | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 |
| ST | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 |
| PwD (General, EWS, NC-OBC-cum-transgender, SC) | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 |
| PwD (ST) | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 |
(Please note that these are cut-offs used for preparing the first short-list. The scores of those called for interviews were higher. )
During the selection process in IIM Ahmedabad ‘Application Rating’ (AR) score of an applicant will be used.
Rating Scores for the 10th Std. Examination (Rating Score A)
| Percent score in 10th Std. Exam | Rating Score
A |
| <= 55 | 1 |
| > 55 and <= 60 | 2 |
| > 60 and <= 70 | 3 |
| > 70 and <= 80 | 5 |
| > 80 and <= 90 | 8 |
| > 90 | 10 |
Rating Scores for the 12th Std. Examination (Rating Score B)
| Science Stream | |
| Percent score in 12th Std. Exam | Rating Score B |
| Â <= 55 | 1 |
| Â > 55 and <= 60 | 2 |
| Â > 60 and <= 70 | 3 |
| Â > 70 and <= 80 | 5 |
| Â > 80 and <= 90 | 8 |
| Â > 90 | 10 |
| Commerce Stream | |
| Percent score in 12th Std. Exam | Rating Score B |
| Â <= 50 | 1 |
| Â > 50 and <= 55 | 2 |
| Â > 55 and <= 65 | 3 |
| Â > 65 and <= 75 | 5 |
| Â > 75 and <= 90 | 8 |
| Â > 90 | 10 |
| Arts/Humanities Stream | |
| Percent score in 12th Std. Exam | Rating Score B |
| Â <= 45 | 1 |
| Â > 45 and <= 50 | 2 |
| Â > 50Â and <= 60 | 3 |
| Â > 60 and <= 70 | 5 |
| Â > 70 and <= 85 | 8 |
| Â > 85 | 10 |
Rating Scores for the Bachelor’s Degree Examination (Rating Score C)
| AC-1 | |
| Percent score in Bachelor’s Degree | Rating Score C |
| Â <= 55 | 1 |
| Â > 55 and <= 60 | 2 |
| Â > 60Â and <= 62 | 3 |
| Â > 62 and <= 65 | 5 |
| Â > 65 and <= 70 | 8 |
| Â > 70 | 10 |
| AC-2 | |
| Percent score in Professional courses | Rating Score C |
| Â <= 50 | 1 |
| Â > 50 and <= 53 | 2 |
| Â > 53 and <= 55 | 3 |
| Â > 55 and <= 57 | 5 |
| Â > 57 and <= 63 | 8 |
| Â > 63 | 10 |
| AC-3 | |
| Percent score in Bachelor’s Degree | Rating Score C |
| Â <= 55 | 1 |
| Â > 55 and <= 60 | 2 |
| Â > 60 and <= 65 | 3 |
| Â > 65 and <= 70 | 5 |
| Â > 70 and <= 80 | 8 |
| Â > 80 | 10 |
| AC-4 & AC-6 | |
| Percent score in Bachelor’s Degree | Rating Score C |
| Â <= 60 | 1 |
| Â > 60 and <= 65 | 2 |
| Â > 65Â and <= 70 | 3 |
| Â > 70 and <= 75 | 5 |
| Â > 75 and <= 85 | 8 |
| Â > 85 | 10 |
| AC-5 | |
| Percent score in Professional courses | Rating Score C |
| Â <= 50 | 1 |
| Â > 50 and <= 55 | 2 |
| Â > 55 and <= 60 | 3 |
| Â > 60 and <= 65 | 5 |
| Â > 65 and <= 75 | 8 |
| Â > 75 | 10 |
Rating Scores for Work Experience (Rating Score D)
| Work Experience in Month (as filled in the CAT Application Form) | Rating Score D |
| < 12 months | 0 |
|  >= 12 and <= 36 months | MF * (number of months of work experience – 11) |
| > 36 months | 5 |
| Work-experience Multiplication Factor (MF)Â =Â 0.20 | |
Application Rating Score: AR= (A+B+C+D). The normalized AR score of an applicant is equal to their AR score divided by the average of the top 50 AR scores from the applicants’ pool.Â
Shortlisting for Analytical Writing Test (AWT) & Personal Interview (PI)
Shortlisting will be carried out in two stages.
Stage 1
In this stage, a certain number of top candidates from each of the academic disciplines will be shortlisted for AWT & PI on the basis of their composite score ‘CS’ (given below) subject to their fulfilling certain criteria.
The top 5% in the respective AC limited to the respective categories (General/SC/ST/NC-OBC/PwD) among the applicants to IIMA (referred to as ACRC groups), will be shortlisted for AWT & PI on the basis of the composite score ‘CS’ (given below) subject to their fulfilling criteria C1-C3.
| CS (Composite Score) = ARF_CS * Normalised AR score + CATF_CS * Normalised overall score in CAT-2021 |
| Application Rating Multiplication Factor for Composite Score (ARF_CS) = 0.35;
CAT Multiplication Factor for Composite Score (CATF_CS) = 0.65 |
Stage 2
After removing the candidates selected in Stage 1 from each category (General, NC-OBC, SC, ST, and PWD) the additional number of candidates to be shortlisted for AWT & PI will be selected on the basis of the composite score ‘CS’ (as shown in the above table) subject to their fulfilling criteria C1-C2.
Final Selection
The selection at this stage will strictly be based on the shortlisting of the candidates done separately for each category (General/SC/ST/NC-OBC/PwD) on the basis of their ‘Final Composite Score’s (FCS).
|
FCS = PIF * Normalised PI Score + AWTF * Normalised AWT Score + CATF_FCS * Normalised CAT Score + ARF_FCS * AR |
| Personal Interview Multiplication Factor (PIF) = 0.50
AWT Multiplication Factor (AWTF) = 0.10 CAT Score Multiplication Factor for Final Composite Score (CATF_FCS) = 0.25 Application Rating Multiplication Factor for Final Composite Score (ARF_FCS) = 0.15 |
The normalized PI and AWT scores of a candidate are their scores in the respective field divided by the average of the top 1% scores in the same field respectively.
For more details on the selection procedure of IIMA and for a detailed understanding, candidates can refer to the official website.
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