Hello folks! Good afternoon. The CAT 2020 Response Sheets are officially out. These are tricky times for sure. We thought the CAT 2020 Scores would make us less anxious but the opposite has ended up happening to quite a few of us. Naturally, questions about respective percentiles for respective CAT 2020 Scores, sectional cutoffs and the like, start to arise. These are just a few first thoughts about the CAT 2020 Scores and what comes next after them. Read on!
CAT 2020 Scores – First Thoughts
My gut feeling is that all the scores are a little lower than what most CAT Aspirants expected 10 days ago. Among all the percentile predictions you have seen based on the CAT day, the most conservative ones will most likely turn out to be closer to the truth: The ubiquitously unexpected lower marks translate to higher percentiles as in…the scores we expected for 90, 99 percentiles will turn to be lower than we expected.
Plenty have done well, but quite a few of them are quite surprised by the number of errors they have seen.
For DILR, my intuition is that for crossing the 80th percentile, if you’re upwards of 7-8 marks, you should have a decent shot in all the slots but if it is downwards of 5-6 marks, then it will be dicey.
Likewise for Quant, I think 12-15 marks should allow you to cross the sectional cutoff, but with 9-10 marks…we begin to enter dicey territories.
VARC has erratic error rates. Accuracy has played a crucial role, so 18-20 marks should enable you to cross the sectional cutoff while anything downwards of 16 should be within dicey territories.
So the first takeaway is that sectional cutoffs will be lower than expected. The other takeaway is that overall, these lower than expected scores could mean higher percentiles due to the ubiquity of the scores among all CAT Aspirants, across all 3 Slots.
As far as percentile predictors are concerned, you should definitely check out this article about CAT 2020 Percentile Predictors and the Ethical Dilemmas they elicit. 2IIM has decided not to put out a percentile predictor, the reasons for which are lucidly expressed in the aforementioned article. 🙂
We have come up with a Score Calculator to help you arrive at your CAT 2020 Scores faster, so do check it out here! : https://online.2iim.com/CAT-score-calculator.shtml
Tentatively, a score of 65-70 should be in the ballpark for the 90th percentile, with 80-85 allowing you to reach the 95th percentile. These are my gut feelings, so definitely take them with a pinch of salt.
On what the CAT 2020 Scores can do, please keep in mind that what you’re capable of doing and who you are is NOT determined by your score.
This wonderful live session we held a few hours ago answers a bunch of questions that students asked me after the release of the CAT 2020 Scores.
- What is your score (and the nature of this question)?
- How does one put this behind and strengthen their mindset for CAT 2021?
- Does the CAT 2020 Answer Key have any corrections usually?
- What is your take on scaling between slots and do you have any ideas on normalization?
- This is my last try and I already have 3 years of work experience. What next?
- Is it already Game Over with respect to CAT 2020?
- Will 2IIM provide a percentile predictor?
- Will Slot 1 students face a disadvantage because of normalization?
Stay Safe and Best Wishes!
Rajesh Balasubramanian takes the CAT every year and is a 4-time CAT 100 percentiler. He likes few things more than teaching Math and insists to this day that he is a better teacher than exam-taker.
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