Procedure adopted by IIMA for short-listing candidates for personal interviews

Procedure adopted by IIMA for short-listing candidates for personal interviews



1. Qualifying the IIMA Minimum Cut-offs for CAT

The IIMA minimum cut-offs are applied to candidates‘ CAT scores. The minimum cut-offs for DA, ST, and SC categories are lower than the minimum cut-offs for the other categories. These minimum cut-offs are:

DA/ST/SC: score not less than 17% in each section & not less than 25% in aggregate.
For others : score not less than 25% in each section & not less than 33% in aggregate.

A total of 3776 candidates met the IIMA minimum cut-offs for CAT. The number of
candidates in each category who met the respective minimum cut-off are as follows:
DA œ 11, ST - 25, SC - 115, NC-OBC - 113, and Other (general) - 3512.


4. Qualifying Pre-Screening Criteria

Those candidates who met the IIMA minimum cut-offs for CAT are considered for
further pre-screening. For DA and ST candidates, the pre-screening criteria remained
same as the IIMA minimum cut-offs for those categories. Pre-screening criteria are:

DA/ST : score not less than 17% in each section & not less than 25% in aggregate.
SC : total percentile not less than 80 & sectional percentiles not less than 65.
OBC : total percentile not less than 88 & sectional percentiles not less than 80.
Other : total percentile not less than 98, section 1 and section 2 percentiles not less
than 94, and section 3 percentile not less than 94.5.

The number of candidates in each category who met the pre-screening criteria are as
follows: DA - 11, ST - 25, SC - 109, NC-OBC - 107, and Other (general) - 1160.


5. Short-listing for Personal Interviews

DA Candidates:
All 11 candidates who met the IIMA minimum cut-offs for CAT are called for
interview.

ST Candidates:
All 25 candidates who met the IIMA minimum cut-offs for CAT are called for
interview.

SC Candidates:
The 109 candidates who met the pre-screening criteria were considered for further
evaluation. A Composite Score (CS) was assigned to the candidates based on their
total percentile and pre-bachelors academic performance (AP1). The CS formula is as
follows:

CS = 0.3 ( total percentile - lowest total percentile of the pre-screening criteria) + AP.

Maximum value for CS2 is 22. Arranging in descending order, top 86 candidates are
short-listed for personal interview.

NC-OBC Candidates:
The 107 candidates who met the pre-screening criteria were considered for further
evaluation. A Composite Score (CS) was assigned to the candidates based on their
total percentile and pre-bachelors academic performance (AP1). The CS formula is as
follows:

CS = 0.5 ( total percentile - lowest total percentile of the pre-screening criteria) + AP.

Maximum value for CS2 is 22. Arranging in descending order, top 86 candidates are
short-listed for personal interview.

Other (general) Candidates:
The 1160 candidates who met the pre-screening criteria were considered for further
evaluation. A Composite Score (CS) was assigned to the candidates based on their
total percentile and pre-bachelors academic performance (AP1). The CS formula is as
follows:

CS = 3 ( total percentile - lowest total percentile of the pre-screening criteria) + AP.

Maximum value for CS2 is 22. Arranging in descending order, top 609 candidates are
short-listed for personal interview.


Notes:

1.Academic Performance (AP) values are assigned as given in Table 1 below.
The maximum value of AP for a candidate would be 16.

Table 1: Academic Performance Values

Percent in 10th Std. < 60 60 - 69 70 - 79 80 - 89 ≥ 90
Performance Score 1 2 4 6 8

Percent in 12th Std.. < 60 60 - 69 70 - 79 80 - 89 ≥ 90
Performance Score 1 2 4 6 8

2. Different coefficients, 0.3, 0.5, and 3 are used in the CS formula for SC, NC- OBC, and Other (general) categories respectively to take care of the difference in the range of values for the term in parenthesis ( total percentile - lowest total percentile of the pre-screening criteria) for each of the categories.
IIM Ahmedabad has used three criteria for Personal Interview calls.
1. Class Xth marks
2. Class X11th marks
3. CAT Score
Intrepretation
1. Unlike IIM B/L, IIMA hasn’t given any weightage to the prior work experience.
2. There is no weightage given to your Bachelor’s stream or marks
3. It seems that abnormally high importance has been given to Class Xth and Class X11th marks i.e., as The CAT score is taken as yours-lowest percentile, so for general category students, consider 2 cases
Student 1: CAT percentile: 100%, Class Xth :88%, Class X11th marks ( 89%)
Student 2: CAT score: 99% ( So there were 2500 students who got more marks than him in CAT), class Xth: 90%, class X11h:91%
So, student 1 score is=3x2+12=18
Student 2 score is=3x1+16=19
Hence, student 2 would get the call over student 1.
Worst, if a student have scored less than 80% (even 79%) in Xth or X11th, next to impossible to get IIMA call
4. As the conditions are ‘OR’ in nature, a student can get a call if he has done miserably in one of the criteria, i.e. is the CAT score is 98 percentile (lowest pre screening cut off) but the student have done remarkably well in schooling, scoring over 90% marks in both the board exams, he has a fair chance to get IIMA call.
To Summarise, Studyplaces believe that IIM Ahmedabad is looking for a consistent academic record of the students during the schooling with no focus on Bachelor’s performance. This also justifies the fact that why many students get only IIMA call. Also, As the average marks are higher in Science streams because of subjects like Mathematics which are high scoring subjects, we feel that there is an advantage for students which pursued Science and Commerce in school over humanities.