IIM Ahmedabad has released their selection criteria for their flagship PGP program, for the batch of 2022 – 2024. What are the key requirements for getting shortlisted at IIM Ahmedabad for the AWT – PI process. In this blog, we will decode the formula and the logic used by IIM A to shortlist candidates.
There are 3 criteria that IIM Ahmedabad look at, before looking at your CAT scores. Let us look at those criteria one by one.
#1 You have to clear the cut-offs
| Category | VARC | DILR | QA | Total |
| GEN/EWS | 70 | 70 | 70 | 80 |
| NC – OBC | 65 | 65 | 65 | 75 |
| SC | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 |
| ST | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 |
| PWD(General, EWS, NC, OBC, SC) | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 |
| PWD(ST) | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 |
#2 You have to have the following average percentage in 10th and 12th
| Stream in 12th std. | General-cum-EWS | NC-OBC | SC | ST | PWD(Genaral, NC, OBC, SC) | PWD(ST) |
| Science | 80 | 75 | 70 | 65 | 70 | 65 |
| Commerce | 77 | 72 | 67 | 62 | 67 | 62 |
| Arts & Humanities | 75 | 70 | 64 | 59 | 64 | 59 |
This is killer for some students, who have not done well in 10th and 12th. But what is important to understand here is, they look at the average of 10th and 12th performance, not individual performances. What this tells us is that, if somebody for example gets 74% in class 12 and 86% in class 10 then this candidate has a good chance of getting an interview call because his average is coming out to be 80.
#3 Percentage of marks in the bachelor’s examination
(Percentage of marks in the bachelor’s examination) ≥ Minimum cut-off percentage,
The minimum cut-off percentage is set to be at the 80th percentile of the percentage of marks of the respective ACRC group of the applicants’ pool, (the applicants’ pool in this case being defined as the group of candidates who appear for CAT-2021, apply to IIM Ahmedabad and belong to the respective ACRC.)
What is ACRC?
All the candidates who have applied to IIM Ahmedabad are grouped into various categories, which are called the ACRC groups. Where AC means your Acedemic Category and RC means your Reservation Category – these two are mixed into to get ACRC category.
So for example your Academic category is Engineering and your reservation category is ST, so all the students those who come under these two categories are taken together, and considered as one ACRC group. So, within your group of students the percentage of marks is spread out from the top to the bottom, and you have to be in the top 20 % in the percentage of marks. Let us take a simple example to understand this. Let say you belong to Engineering + ST category, and then your category there are 100 students, and the topper in the category has a 91% in the graduation, the 2nd topper has a 90.8%, and going this way the 20th percent has a 79.2% marks in his/her graduation. Then your graduation score is have to be above 79.2%. If your graduation score is 79.1% you don’t meet the criteria #3.
So you have to satisfy each of these 3 criteria before you have a chance of selection for WAT-PI
Now if you’re qualifying these 3 criteria listed above, then you should have a look at what IIM Ahmedabad calls as Application Rating Score.
What is the Application Rating(AR) Score?
- STEP 1 Calculate AR= A+B+C+D
A represents your marks in 10th standard
| 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 |
B represents your marks in 12th standard
| Rating score | Science Stream | Commerce Stream | Arts/Humanities Stream |
| 1 | <= 55 | <= 50 | <= 45 |
| 2 | > 55 and <= 60 | > 50 and <= 55 | > 45 and <= 50 |
| 3 | > 60 and <= 70 | > 55 and <= 65 | > 50 and <= 60 |
| 5 | > 70 and <= 80 | > 65 and <= 75 | > 60 and <= 70 |
| 8 | > 80 and <= 90 | > 75 and <= 90 | > 70 and <= 85 |
| 10 | > 90 | > 90 | > 85 |
C represents the scores for your Bachelor’s degree examination
| Rating score | AC 1 | AC 2 | Ac 3 | AC 4 & AC 6 | AC 5 |
| 1 | <= 55 | <= 50 | <= 55 | <= 60 | <= 50 |
| 2 | > 55 and <= 60 | > 50 and <= 53 | > 55 and <= 60 | > 60 and <= 65 | > 50 and <= 55 |
| 3 | > 60 and <= 62 | > 53 and <= 55 | > 60 and <= 65 | > 65 and <= 70 | > 55 and <= 60 |
| 5 | > 62 and <= 65 | > 55 and <= 57 | > 65 and <= 70 | > 70 and <= 75 | > 60 and <= 65 |
| 8 | > 65 and <= 70 | > 57 and <= 63 | > 70 and <= 80 | > 75 and <= 85 | > 65 and <= 75 |
| 10 | > 70 | > 63 | > 80 | > 85 | > 75 |
- AC 1 – Medicine
- AC 2 – Professional Degrees
- AC 3 – Commerce and Economics
- AC 4 – Engineering
- AC 5 – Arts and Humanities
- AC 6 – Any other discipline not mentioned in AC 1 TO AC 5
D represents your work experience
| 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) = 0.20
Normalised AR score = AR score/(Avg AR of top 50)
Calculation of Composite Score(CS)
CS = 0.35*Normalised AR + 0.65* Normalised overall CAT score
Most important takeaway
If you’re qualifying the 3 criteria C1, C2, C3, but you’re AR score is not good. If this is the case, then if you have a kick-ass CAT score, then you till have a shot at Ahmedabad, as there is 65% weightage given to CAT.
Final step – Shortlist based on overall CS score + top 5% from each ACRC
The top few candidates based on their CS score are shortlisted for the interviewing process.
• Beyond this, IIMA also has a mechanism to ensure diversity. From each ACRC, a certain minimum number of candidates are definitely called for the interview.
• This minimum number is based on the top 5% of each ACRC pool, subject to an overall maximum. This appears confusing but is made simpler with this beautiful table here.
• But subject to upper limits as follows
| Category | Upper Limit (UL) Per ACRC(1-5) | Upper Limit (UL) Per ACRC AC-4 |
| General | 100 | 150 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 57 | 85 |
| SC | 32 | 48 |
| ST | 16 | 24 |
| PWD | 6 | 9 |
Long story short, if IIMA decides to call 800 applicants from general category for interviews, it is based on two criteria. The top few CS scores + maximum of 100 from AR 1, AR2, AR3 and AR5 , maximum of 150 from AR4. In essence, this mix of 550 is guaranteed to be present. The remaining 250 could be based on pure descending order or CS scores. So, if, say, Engineers are absolutely dominant and get the best possible scores – the AR pools would be as follows
| Academic Groups | Based on ACRC | Based on CS Scores( Scenario 1) | Based on CS Scores( Scenario 2) |
| AR 1 | 100 | 180 | 200 |
| AR 2 | 100 | 30 | 50 |
| AR 3 | 100 | 20 | 0 |
| AR 4 | 150 | 10 | 0 |
| AR 5 | 100 | 10 | 0 |
So what this essentially means is, after calling these 550 students based on the ACRC score, let say if the CS score of 551th rank engineer is greater than the 101th rank Chartered Accountant then in that case the 551th rank engineer will be called. But this should not stop you to give your cent percent, while you’re preparing for CAT. So forget the rest, and give your best. Always remember you can, you will, and you must.
Best wishes for CAT 2021!
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