CMAT Score Vs Percentile 2024

CMAT raw score obtained out of maximum 400 marks in CMAT exam is converted to CMAT percentile with the formula based on slot wise exam difficulty level, number of candidates appeared in exam, sectional and overall exam difficulty level among others. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has devised the process to obtain CMAT percentile score with raw score in CMAT exam. For example, a raw score of 170 in CMAT can be awarded 65 percentile and with a score of 251 to 342 you are awarded a percentile of 95 to 99.99. The score Vs Percentile calculation process in CMAT exam goes through various stages. Let us know the CMAT score Vs Percentile as calculated by NTA for MBA admission

• CMAT 2024 Percentile is calculated based on CMAT Total Marks
• Your Raw sectional and overall score obtained in CMAT exam
• Before calculating percentile, CMAT score is equated and normalized for the difficulty level for all the shifts
• This raw CMAT score is converted to Scaled score
• The scaled CMAT score is converted to percentile score.

• National Merit List: A National Merit Ranking (All India Rank) with CMAT score vs Percentile will be prepared based on the Marks secured against Total Marks.
• Opportunity to get Higher Percentile at Low Score: In the 2024 score card, the CMAT score Vs percentile is expected to go up. The candidate with 345 – 350 marks is expected to score 100 percentile in 2024. Similarly, the CMAT score for 99 to 99.99 percentile in 2024 is expected in the range of 285 to 340 marks.
• All Candidates in Merit List: CMAT National Merit list includes all the candidates who appear in the CMAT exam. The range of CMAT score vs percentile awarded to the test takers is from 0.005 percentile to perfect 100 percentile. No candidate is disqualified in the exam.  
• Percentile Ranking Calculation: In case total marks are same for more than one candidate, the percentile ranking is done on sectional score considered in the order of :- Quantitative Techniques & Data Interpretation (QTDI), Logical Reasoning (LR), Language Comprehension (LC), General Awareness(GA), Candidates having less negative responses and Candidate older in age.

NTA awards higher percentile at lower CMAT score as compared to other exams. The expected CMAT Marks Vs Percentile 2024 range from 50 to 100 for MBA admission is as below:

CMAT Marks vs Percentile Range: 51 to 100

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis based on previous CMAT Score Vs Percentile Trends

Top MBA Colleges accepting CMAT 2024 Scores for admission 2024 are given in the list below. The list contains CMAT 2024 Cut Off for Popular Institutions with expected CMAT Cut Off 2024 from 80 and above percentile with their fees, placements and admission status. Read below the complete list of CMAT colleges rank wise

Top MBA Colleges accepting CMAT 2024 Scores include IMT Hyderabad, Jaipuria Noida, NDIM Delhi among others. Read below the list of CMAT colleges with cut off and admission status

On behalf of AICTE, National Testing Agency has introduced many changes in CMAT 2024 exam and scoring pattern and test duration. Key changes are:

• CMAT 2024 test paper has time duration of 3 hours and consists of compulsory 5 sections
• The Exam is divided in 5 sections with 20 questions in each section. The sections are Quantitative Technique, Logical Reasoning, Language Comprehension, General Awareness and Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• There will be 100 questions for 3 hours exam
• All are of objective type questions in MCQs form.
• Question difficulty level is easy to moderate
• Each correct answer is awarded +4 Mark
• Each wrong answer is penalized with negative marking of -1 mark
• No Individual Time limit to attempt question paper. Candidates can attempt any question from any section within the overall CMAT exam time limit
• Merit Score and percentile is calculated on the basis of all the sections.
• CMAT score card displays Actual score obtained out of 400 Marks, Sectional score obtained and the sectional and overall percentile obtained in the Exam. Last year CMAT score card had only rank and score and did not have percentile score

Also Read: CMAT 2024 Exam Pattern

A few key points to note about CMAT Score Vs percentile ranking process for MBA admission 2024 are as under:

• The merit list indicates Roll number, Rank, section wise Marks obtained and NTA Score of all the candidates. CMAT-2024 score is valid for the admissions of academic session 2024-26.
• The CMAT Score indicates the percentage of candidates that have scored EQUAL TO OR BELOW (same or lower raw marks) candidates
• The CMAT scores of a Candidate are calculated as follows: 100 X Number of candidates appeared in the examination with raw marks EQUAL TO OR LESS than the candidate Total number of the candidates appeared.
• The NTA CMAT exam 2024 Score of the Total is NOT an aggregate or average of the NTA Score of individual subject
• The CMAT Percentile score is not the same as percentage of marks obtained
• Admission authorities and institutions are free to take their own decision at the time of admission as to what weightage they wish to give to a particular section

7.1 CMAT 2024 scoring pattern
Following is the scoring pattern in CMAT 2024:

• Maximum marks 400
• Total questions are 100
• 4 marks awarded for each correct answer
• -1 mark for every wrong answer
• CMAT Score card contains Raw as well as Percentile score

After release of CMAT 2024 final answer key on June 3, 2024 for shift-1 and shift-2 question papers, NTA has released the CMAT result. Before release of result, NTA verified the objections raised by the test takers against the CMAT provisional answer keys which were released by NTA on May 23, 2024. Two objections are found valid by experts. NTA has dropped both the questions. This has had impact on CMAT Percentile Calculator, Candidate’s CMAT Score Vs Rank and the CMAT score Vs percentile calculation as below:

• Shift-1: Two objections on Provisional Answer key have been accepted. Out of 100 questions, 2 questions have been dropped from the question paper. It implies that all the test takers will get benefit of 8 marks. NTA will now calculate the CMAT score without taking into account the marks of dropped 2 questions
• Shift-2: No Objection against shift 2 answer key found valid by NTA. As such provisional answer key for all the 100 questions are found correct.

8.1 Impact on CMAT Score Vs Percentile Calculation
With the release of CMAT final answer key the picture of CMAT score normalization and percentile calculation is clear to a large extent. The score normalization process for CMAT 2024 shift one will be based on 392 marks and for shift two it will take into account marks for all the 100 questions.  The candidates in shift-1 are likely to get higher percentile at lower marks as against the candidates who appeared in shift-2. 

The process of Normalization is an established practice for comparing candidate scores across multiple Forms and is similar to those being adopted in other large educational selection tests conducted in India such as Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).

To understand the conversion of raw score to percentile score and to know about the score normalization process in CMAT 2024, understand first the GATE process which stands a bit changed.

Those appearing in GATE or have understood the process can understand it better but for those who are unaware about the process have to understand the GATE process first. In fact the commerce, science, medical, paramedical and graduates in Humanities who are appearing in CMAT 2024 still remain oblivious of the percentile VS Score calculation formula in CMAT 2024.

9.1 Normalization depends on LoD
The Scaling & Normalization process of CMAT scores have also brought about certain changes as both the components take into account the level of difficulty of CMAT exam. While the Normalization process, as announced for CMAT 2024 scores, adjusts for location and scale differences of score distributions across different forms, the scaled scores obtained by this process are converted into percentiles for purposes of shortlisting.

CMAT claims to have the most transparent process on score normalization and calculation of percentile. The process claims to focus on Fairness, Equity and comparison of performances across the test in CMAT 2024.

The process of Normalization is an established practice for comparing candidate scores across multiple Forms and is similar to those being adopted in other large educational selection tests conducted in India such as Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).

To understand the conversion of raw score to percentile score and to know about the score normalization process in CMAT 2023, understand first the GATE process which stands a bit changed.

Those appearing in GATE or have understood the process can understand it better but for those who are unaware about the process have to understand the GATE process first. In fact the commerce, science, medical, paramedical and graduates in Humanities who are appearing in CMAT 2023 still remain oblivious of the percentile VS Score calculation formula in CMAT 2023.

10.1 GATE normalization process 
During 2018, the CE, CS, EC, EE and ME examinations were conducted  in multiple sessions. Suitable normalization process was therefore applied to take into account any variation in the difficulty levels of the question sets across the different sessions. The normalization was done based on the fundamental assumption that "in all multi-session GATE papers, the distribution of abilities of candidates is the same across all the sessions".

According to the GATE committee, this assumption is justified since "the number of candidates appearing in multi-session subjects in GATE is large and the procedure of allocation of session to candidates is random. Further it is also ensured that for the same multi-session subject, the number of candidates allotted in each session is of the same order of magnitude."

10.2 GATE formula
Based on the above the committee arrived at the following formula for calculating the normalized marks, for CE, CS, EC, EE and ME subjects. From GATE 2014 onward (and year 2014-15 of the 2-year validity period of GATE 2013 score), a candidate's GATE score is computed by the following new formula.

where, S = Score (normalized) of a candidate; M = Marks obtained by a candidate ("normalized marks" in case of multiple-session subjects CE, CS, EC, EE and ME); M_q = Qualifying marks for general category candidates in that subject (usually 25 or μ + σ, whichever is higher); μ = Average (i.e. arithmetic mean) of marks of all candidates in that subject; σ = Standard deviation of marks of all candidates in that subject; M_t = Average marks of top 0.1 % candidates (for subjects with 10000 or more appeared candidates) or top 10 candidates (for subjects with less than 10000 appeared candidates); S_t = 900 = Score assigned to M_t;   S_q = 350 = Score assigned to M_q.

Percentile
A candidate's percentile denotes the percentage of candidates scoring lower than that particular candidate. It is calculated as: Percentile = ( 1 - All India rank( No. of candidates in that subject) x 100%

The formula to calculate the percentile in CMAT can be devised.  The score normalization process formula by CMAT expert would be as follows-