CAT Eligibility Criteria 2022: Educational Qualification

Here is the minimum Educational Qualifications for CAT:

• The candidate should have completed his/her Bachelor’s degree program in any stream from a recognized university or have an equivalent qualification that is recognized by the Ministry of HRD, India.
• For general and NC-OBC category candidates, the minimum percentage required in the bachelor’s degree is 50%.
• Candidates from the reserved categories must attain a minimum aggregate percentage of 45% in the bachelor's program.
• For candidates who are awarded grades or CGPA, the conversion of grades or CGPA will be according to the process certified by the university/ institute.
• Candidates in the final year of the program or awaiting their results can also apply. In such cases, a candidate will have to submit a certificate issued by the Principal/Registrar of the College/Institution latest by the specified date. The certificate should state that the candidate has completed the requirements of the course.

The academic qualification details of CAT Eligibility are tabulated below:

CAT Eligible Degrees

There are certain degrees that are considered equivalent to a bachelor's degree. Candidates who possess or are pursuing any of these degrees are also eligible to appear for CAT 2022. The equivalent qualifications valid for appearing in CAT are listed below:

1. Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Technology of 4-years duration completed after 10+2 or Post B.Sc. or Post Diploma.
2. A degree equivalent to a bachelor's degree in Engineering and Technology of Professional Societies recognized by MHRD/UPSC/AICTE such as AMIE by Institution of Engineers, India or AMICE by Institute of Civil Engineers of India.
3. Qualification is equivalent to a bachelor’s degree recognized by the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi.
4. Candidates with CA/CS/ICWA degree (Gen: 50% & SC/ST/ PWD: 45%) can also apply.
5. A candidate with any other qualification not listed here can also apply, but they will have to produce an equivalency certificate issued by the Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi.

CAT Eligibility: Marks Calculation

As the respective Institutes or universities from which candidates have passed their graduation follow their own practice to calculate aggregate marks, percentage calculation in CAT will be based on that.

• Note 1: A recognized university is one that is constituted by an Act of the Central or State Legislature. It also includes any university or institute which is established by an act of Parliament or is declared as deemed to be a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act of 1956.
• Note 2: In the case of Universities that award grades or CGPA, but do not have a procedure for conversion of grades to the percentage, the equivalent percentage will be calculated by the given process:
  • Candidate’s CGPA/Maximum CGPA) X 100 = Equivalent Percentage

CAT Eligibility 2022 for Final Year Students

The eligibility criteria for CAT is graduation, although final year students of various bachelor's degree courses can also take the test. However, a candidate will be admitted into a course only if he clears graduation with at least 50% marks. IIMs and other management institutes verify CAT eligibility at various stages of the selection process. After taking CAT 2022, shortlisted candidates must follow the following instructions-

• They must show an original certificate from the Principal/Head of the Department/Registrar/Director of the University/Institution certifying that they have obtained 50% marks or equivalent (45% in case of reserved category) based on latest available grades/marks.
• They must also submit a set of photocopy of the original certificates at the time of the interview.

For the PGP in IIMs, selected candidates will be allowed to join the program provisionally only if they submit a certificate, stating-

• They have completed all the requirements (the results may, however, be awaited) for obtaining the bachelor’s degree/ equivalent qualification on the date of issue of the certificate.
• Their admission will be confirmed only when they submit the original mark sheet and degree certificate of having passed the bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification referred to in the certificate issued by the Principal/Registrar of their college/institute.
• They must obtain at least 50% marks or equivalent. They must submit a photocopy of the mark sheets and degree certificate.
• Non-fulfillment of this condition will automatically result in the cancellation of the provisional admission.
• IIMs would not allow any candidate to join their program in case the candidate is unable to complete all the requirements for a bachelor degree.

CAT Eligibility vs IIM Eligibility: What is the Difference?

There are certain differences between eligibility norms of IIMs and CAT eligibility and candidates due to appear for the exam must be aware of those differences. 

• There is no age limit defined in the eligibility norms of IIMs or CAT.
• Though 2 Years Bachelors's degree is not accepted by IIMs though acceptable to appear for CAT as per the old educational system.
• Apart from this, there are no particular differences unless defined by IIMs in particular.
• Work experience is preferential in IIMs along with the diversity of academic and co-curricular activities which are not mandatory to appear for CAT.

Who isn’t eligible for CAT?

The following aspirants are not eligible to sit for CAT:

• If the score of the candidate is less than 50% in graduation (45% for SC/ST/PwD candidates), he or she is not eligible to apply for CAT.
• The candidates pursue both their bachelor's degree and professional degree but have yet to complete both of them.
• The candidate will be considered ineligible to appear for the exam if his/her graduation is not recognized by the UGC/AICTE/MHRD. 

Work Experience Requirement for IIM

• It is not mandatory for candidates to hold any prior work experience.
• Although the CAT Application Form does ask for it, it is not a necessary condition to fulfil.
• It must be noted that at the time of final selection, this work experience may be given some weightage by the IIMs. However, the exact weightage is never revealed and it varies from one IIM to another.
• The bottom line is that work experience does not come into play till the last stage of final selection, and even then it does not play a deciding factor.
• IIMs have been known to have a mixed batch comprising both fresh graduates and students with work experience. 

CAT Reservation Criteria 2022

• IIMs follow the reservation guideline of the central government for admission to their MBA programs.
• Consequently, the reservation norms are also applicable to CAT 2022.
• There are two types of reservations of seats at IIMs – Caste based reservation and Reservation for Differently abled individuals.
• Following the 124th Amendment Bill in the Constitution of India, IIMs have also introduced the EWS quota this year.
• Persons who are not covered under the scheme of reservation for SCs, STs, and OBCs and whose family has a gross annual income below Rs 8 lakh are only identified as EWS for the benefit of reservation. 

Caste Based Reservation Policy

The candidates falling in the SC, ST, or NC-OBC category fall under the aegis of Caste-based reservation policy. The rules which apply to these categories are as follows:

1. Candidates who belong to the SC or ST categories must have scored an aggregate of 45% in their Bachelor’s degree program.
2. Candidates who belong to the NC-OBC category must have scored an aggregate of 50% in their Bachelor’s degree program.

The distribution of seat reservation based on caste is given below:

CAT Essential Certificates

Those applying under the Differently Abled category must upload a PwD/DA certificate at the time of applying. They also need to produce the original certificate at the time of interview in the desired format:

1. NC-OBC Certificate
2. SC-ST Certificate
3. DA/PwD Certificate
4. Format for Final Year Certificate
5. Format for Candidate Identification Affidavit