CAT 2023 Answer Key & Response Sheet PDF (Official) SHORTLY at iimcat.ac.in: Live Updates

Total marks of CAT 2023 is 198. Given below is the sectional break-up of CAT score:

• VARC: 72
• DILR: 60
• Quantitative Aptitude: 66

The CAT 2023 response sheet and answer key download process is expected to begin soon. Test takers are awaiting CAT 2023 website to get updated with PDF download link.

Once the CAT 2023 answer key is released candidates can calculate their exam score by counting the number of correct and incorrect options.

• For every correct attempt, 3 marks are rewarded
• For every incorrect attempt, -1 mark will be awarded
• For TITA and unanswered questions, there is no negative marking

The CAT response sheet 2023 PDFs will be released for all slots together. Every test taker will be able to see their response sheet for CAT 2023 in their dashboard.

IIM Lucknow has not announced any date or time of CAT 2023 response sheet PDF release. However, since the objected tab has been updated at the official website, one can expect the response sheet to release anytime soon.

The CAT answer key and response sheet 2023 will be available for download for 2-3 days, till the time objection window is open. After that, candidates will not be able to access their CAT response sheet.

The credentials required for downloading the IIMCAT response sheet and answer key 2023 are CAT application ID and password created at the time of registration.

Candidates can login and go to the objection tab to fill the form and upload supporting document to challenge any answer provided by the examination body.

CAT 2023 response sheet and answer key is expected to be released anytime now as the objection window has been activated. The official website of IIMCAT will update the download link soon. 

The CAT 2023 answer key objection window has been activated. 

CAT 2023 answer key objection form link

The table below indicates qualifying CAT cut offs for IIM Indore MBA admission 2024. The final cut offs are expected to be much higher than qualifying cut offs. 

CAT 2023 final answer key will release after all the objections on preliminary answer key have been examined. One can expect final answer key to be released a week after the closure of objection forms.

There is no communication from IIM Lucknow about the delay or announcement date of CAT 2023 answer key. The institute had earlier announced that the answer key will be released anytime in the first week of December.

IIMs accept CAT score for admission to full-time MBA/PGDM, Executive MBA, PhD and FPM programme. From this year, NITIE has been added to the list of IIMs as IIM Mumbai.

IIM Lucknow will release the CAT 2023 answer key, slot wise. The examination slot will be mentioned on the response sheet PDF.

If you’ve not performed well in the CAT exam, don’t worry and prepare for other MBA entrance exams such as XAT and CMAT. XAT registration is open till December 10, so apply if you haven’t already.

The official CAT 2023 answer key and response sheet were released on December 1 last year, only 4 days after the exam. This year, it is getting delayed.

In the CAT response sheet of every candidate, correct answer, candidate’s answer and status of question –answered/unanswered will be mentioned under every question. The PDF will be section wise, with VARC questions appearing first, followed by DILR and QA.

The process to download the official CAT 2023 answer key is simple. Candidates have to log into their CAT 2023 account with the ID and password created at the time of registration. They will see the response sheet link in the dashboard. 

Candidates can download CAT 2023 official answer key by using their application ID and password. The credentials are to be put in the login window for the answer key and response sheet.

There are high chances of CAT 2023 answer key releasing today. IIM Lucknow may release the CAT response sheet and official answer keys today. Candidates have been waiting for long now.

For 99.99 percentile in CAT 2023, the estimated sectional cut offs are:

• VARC Score: 48
• DILR Score: 36
• QA Score: 48
• Overall Score: 106

For 99 percentile for CAT 2023, the estimated sectional cut offs are:

• VARC score: 40
• DILR score: 28
• QA score: 28
• Overall score: 80

For 98 percentile in CAT 2023, the estimated sectional cut offs are:

• VARC score: 36
• DILR score: 25
• QA score: 24
• Overall score: 71

For 95 percentile in CAT 2023, the estimated sectional cut offs are:

• VARC score: 30
• DILR score: 19
• QA score: 19
• Overall score: 57

IIM Kashipur, IIM Sirmaur, IIM Sambalpur, IIM Bodhgaya, IIM Ranchi, IIM Nagpur, IIM Amritsar are some of the IIMs which are within 90-95 percentile reach for General candidates.

The academic eligibility criteria for IIM is same as CAT, i.e. 50 percent score in Graduation from a recognized university or equivalent (45 percent score for SC/ST/PwD candidates).

Given the difficulty level of the CAT 2023 exam, the ideal sectional and overall scores are:

• VARC: 40
• DILR: 27-30
• Quantitative Aptitude: 25-28
• Overall: 80

CAT 2023 had 66 questions which were divided into three sections:

• VARC: 24 questions
• DLIR: 20 questions
• Quantitative Aptitude: 22 questions

There is no change in marking scheme this year. For every correct attempt, candidates will get 3 marks and for every incorrect attempt, candidates will get -1 marks. There is no negative marking for TITA and unanswered questions.

The official CAT 2023 answer key will be available for download most likely from December 4. So, far no date has been shared by IIM Lucknow, but it had been told that the answer key will be released in the first week of December so now the expected date is December 4.

The qualifying CAT cut offs 2023 for IIM Kozhikode for PI-WAT shortlisting is given below. Check category-wise IIM Kozhikode cut offs:

The qualifying CAT cut offs 2023 for IIM Ahmedabad for PI-WAT shortlisting is given below. Check category-wise IIM Ahmedabad cut offs:

The qualifying CAT cut offs 2023 for IIM Bangalore for PI-WAT shortlisting is given below. Check category-wise IIM Bangalore cut offs:

Yes, academic record, specially scores of class 12 and graduation, are very important criteria for IIM admission. Higher the marks, higher the chances of selection to IIM.

Personal Interview or PI shortlisting is the first stage of IIM selection process, in which the institutes select candidates on the basis of their CAT score and academic record for personal interview round. After the CAT result is announced, the IIMs release the PI shortlisting form at their website, which the candidate have to fill if he/she meets the eligibility cut off.   

CAT score is not the only parameter on which a candidate is selected for MBA admission. Candidates will be selected for admission to IIMs on the basis of the following parameters:

*These parameters and weights are of IIM Lucknow. Campus wise the weights of parameters vary.

The admission criteria of all IIMs include the following

• CAT score
• Class 10,12 and graduation score
• WAT/PI performance
• Work experience
• Gender and academic diversity

CAT answer key and response sheet for slot 3 will be available for download to only those candidates who appeared for the test in slot 3. They will not be able to access CAT 2023 answer key of any other slot.

CAT answer key and response sheet for slot 2 will be available for download to only those candidates who appeared for the test in slot 2. They will not be able to access CAT 2023 answer key of any other slot.

CAT answer key and response sheet for slot 1 will be available for download to only those candidates who appeared for the test in slot 1. They will not be able to access CAT 2023 answer key of any other slot.

Check below the list of 30 popular non-IIMs which accept CAT score for MBA admission and expected  cut offs.

The table below mentions the expected cutoff score for FMS admissions based on CAT 2023. The actual CAT cut offs may be higher:

Given below is the qualifying CAT cut offs for admission to MBA batch of IIM Mumbai, which was formerly as NITIE Mumbai.

CAT score is the marks that a candidate gets in the exam after totaling his/her correct and incorrect attempts. The CAT percentile indicates the candidate’s performance in comparison to rest of the test takers. For example, if a candidate gets 99 percentile, it means his score is higher than 99 % of all test takers.

The following formula will be applied to calculate CAT 2023 percentile of every test taker:

• P = (R/N) × 100
• where,
• P= Percentile score
• R= Rank of the candidate assigned on the basis of scaled CAT score or total number of candidates who rank below a particular candidate.
• N= Number of candidates who appeared in CAT exam (all three sessions)

Suppose, 1,0000 people take CAT and a candidate bags the top rank, which means 9999 candidates scored less than him/her. The CAT percentile will be 9999/10000*100= 99.9.

The CAT 2023 official answer key will only have questions and their options, correct answer and candidate’s responses. The CAT score and percentile will not be mentioned in the answer key.

CAT 2023 answer key challenge fees can be paid in online mode only. Through debit card, credit card or netbanking.

CAT 2023 answer key challenge fee is INR 1200 per question. The fee amount is to be paid while filling the objection form. The fee is non-refundable. It will be refunded to only those candidates, whose objections will be accepted as valid.

The CAT 2023 answer key can be downloaded through login only. The candidate will be able to access only their response sheet in their login.

Given below is the list of IIM courses for which CAT score is valid.

The MBA cut offs of IITs offering the course through CAT are listed below. Registrations at IIT for MBA will begin in January 2024.

The official announcement of CAT 2023 answer key will be accompanied by raising objection schedule, fees, process and details regarding the same.

The time of CAT 2023 official answer key has not been announced but going by the trends of previous years, it can be released either by 10:00 - 11:00 am or 4:00- 5:00 pm.

The CAT 2023 answer key with candidate response sheet is highly awaited for the past three days now. The examination authority should release the official answer keys today as it exam was held a week ago.

If the question is dropped from any slot, after examining the objections raised by candidates, then the calculation of that question will not be done. The total marks will be calculated on remaining questions for all candidates.

No, the final answer key of CAT 2023 cannot be challenged under any circumstances. If anyone wants to challenge the official CAT 2023 answer key, then they should do it within the given time frame.

Final CAT answer key is the document containing revised answers of the questions after examination of the objections received from candidates. The final answer key of CAT is released only when any objection is found to be valid.

After CAT 2023 result, candidates will have to apply to colleges of their choice for admission. The IIMs will start PI shortlisting in January 2024. Even other MBA colleges will start the PI process in January-February 2024.

CAT 2023 result date has not been shared by IIM Lucknow. Traditionally the result used to be announced in the first week of January but last year, it was announced in the third week of December. So, there is a lot of anticipation on that front.

To challenge the CAT 2023 answer key, candidates will have to upload a document supporting their claim. Like a document containing the process of and solution of the answer, they think is correct.  

The CAT 2023 answer key challenge window will be opened for 2-3 days only. Candidates will have to submit their claims within that time period only. No objection after that will be accepted under any circumstances.

The official CAT 2023 answer key will be available for download for 2-3 days (the duration when challenge window will be open). Candidates must download their response sheets within that duration as after that only scorecard and final keys will be issued.

Here’s the expected CAT 2023 cut offs for top MBA colleges in India. These are estimations based on previous trends.

The official CAT answer key is prepared by the team of subject matter experts. The team comprises experts who prepare questions in the test forms. The same team of experts evaluate answers.

The official CAT 2023 answer key will be available to candidates through login only. It will be available to only those CAT applicants who had appeared for the exam on November 26, 2023.

CAT question paper is not released separately. The official CAT answer key/response sheet has all the questions mentioned section wise, so that document is treated as the question paper.

For the 2024 batch, IIFT Delhi will accept CAT score for admission to its flagship programme MBA-International Business and newly launched programme MBA-Business Analytics. The entrance exam for IIFT is not being conducted this year.

CAT scores of candidates is normalized on a common scale to ensure that no candidate gets advantage or disadvantage of easy or tough paper (the CAT test form of every slot has a unique set of questions). The formula applied to normalize CAT score is the same formula that is applied for GATE score normalization.

There is unlikely to be any difference in CAT cut offs 2023 due to difference in difficulty level of the CAT 2023 question papers. Since the scores will be normalized for all candidates, the cut offs will not be different for any slot.

As per the expert analysis, there was not much difference between the difficulty levels of CAT 2023 slot 1, 2 and 3, but, the quantitative aptitude section of CAT 2023 slot 3 was tougher than slot 1 and slot 2, so one can say slot 3 was the toughest.

Check below the table indicating CAT percentiles vs overall scores to estimate sectional cut offs for this year.

Given below is the list of colleges that accept CAT percentile between 50 to 60 percentile:

• Asian Business School
• School of Management Sciences Varanasi
• New Delhi Institute of Management
• Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India
• School of Management Sciences Lucknow
• International Institute of Management Studies Pune
• Jagannath International Management School Delhi
• Acharya Business School Bangalore
• Doon Business School
• FOSTIIMA Business School
• Bengal Institute of Business Studies Kolkata
• PSG Institute of Management Coimbatore
• International School of Management Excellence Bangalore
• Apeejay School of Management Delhi
• AIMS Institute Bangalore
• School of Communication and Management Studies Kochi
• Balaji Institute of Modern Management Pune
• Gitam Institute of Management Visakhapatnam
• Amrita School of Business Bangalore
• Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management
• MIT College of Management Pune

Given below is the list of colleges that accept CAT percentile between 60 to 70 percentile:

• AIMS Institutes (AIMS), Bangalore
• Amrita School of Business - Bangalore
• Acharya Bangalore B-School
• Asian Business School (ABS), Noida
• Amrita School of Business, Kochi
• Bengal Institute of Business Studies (BIBS), Kolkata
• Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani
• Christ Institute of Management, Pune
• Doon Business School (DBS), Dehradun
• Eastern Institute For Integrated Learning In Management, Kolkata
• FOSTIIMA Business School, Delhi
• International Institute of Business Studies, Noida
• International School of Business and Media
• IIKM Business School, Calicut
• IILM Institute for Higher Education, Delhi
• International Institute of Business Studies, Bangalore
• Institute of International Trade, Kolkata
• Indus Business School, IIEBM, Pune
• International Institute of Management Studies, Pune
• Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad
• ISBR Business School
• Presidency College
• Justicec KS Hegde Institute of Management
• Jagannath International Management School, Delhi
• Jagan Institute of Management Studies, Delhi (JIMS ), Rohini, Delhi
• Lotus Business School (LBS, Pune)
• New Delhi Institute of Management
• Pune Institute of Business Management (PIBM), Pune
• PSG Institute of Management, Coimbatore
• Sanskar Educational Group, Ghaziabad
• SSN School of Management (SSN SOM), Chennai
• School of Business Studies - Sharda University, Greater Noida
• School of Petroleum Management-PDPU, Ahmedabad
• The Indian Institute of Financial Planning, Delhi

Given below is the list of colleges that accept CAT percentile between 70 to 80 percentile:

• Amity University
• Alliance School of Business - Alliance University, Bangalore
• Asia-Pacific Institute of Management (AIM, Delhi)
• Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida
• Birla Institute of Technology and Science, BITS-Pilani, Pilani
• Christ University-Institute of Management, Bangalore
• CMS Business School, J.P. Nagar, Bangalore
• Chandigarh University
• GITAM School of Business
• Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon
• GNA University, Phagwara
• Infinity Business School, Gurgaon
• Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad
• IIKM Business School, Calicut
• Indus Business School, IIEBM, Pune
• ICOFP - International College of Financial Planning, Mumbai
• ICFAI University, Mizoram
• IBS Business School
• Jagdish Sheth School of Management (Formerly IFIM Business School)
• JK Lakshmipat University-Institute of Management, Jaipur
• Jaipur National University (JNU), Jaipur
• JRE Group of Institutions (JRE), Greater Noida
• Lotus Business School, Pune
• Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar
• MATS University, Raipur
• IIM Shillong
• School of Petroleum Management, Gandhinagar
• School of Business Studies - Sharda University
• SRIRAM Group of Institutions, Greater Noida
• Universal Business School, Mumbai
• Vignan's University, Guntur
• XIME Kochi
• XIME Bangalore

Given below is the list of colleges that accept CAT percentile 85 percentile:

• IIM Nagpur
• IIM Amritsar
• IIM Bodh Gaya
• Goa Institute of Management, Goa
• FORE School of Management, Delhi
• Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai
• Great Lakes Institute of Management
• TA Pai Management Institute
• IRMA, Anand
• MICA, Ahmedabad
• KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research, Mumbai
• Nirma University, Ahmedabad
• Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management (Delhi)
• BITS Pilani Dept. of Management
• Institute of Management, Banaras Hindu University
• IMI, Delhi
• Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur
• Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras
• Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee
• Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur
• School of Management, Manipal University
• University Business School, Chandigarh
• Delhi School of Management-DTU
• Department of Management Sciences, Pune University
• Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirapalli

Given below is the list of colleges that accept CAT percentile between 80-90 percentile:

• Amity University
• Fore School of Management
• Goa Institute of Management
• International Management Institute, Delhi
• Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal
• Indian Institute of Management, Visakhapatnam
• Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai
• Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management
• National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
• Praxis Business School, Kolkata
• N. Welingkar Institute of Management development & Research, Bangalore
• Shiva Institute of Management Studies, Ghaziabad
• Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education
• Jain Institute of Management and Research
• TA Pai Management Institute
• Trinity College for Management and Technology, Ghaziabad

There are over 1300 colleges in India that accept CAT score for admission. These include private, government as well as deemed universities. Whether you have a high score or low score, you will still get a seat in an MBA college. All you need to do is, make a choice after considering all options.

The status of every question will be mentioned in every candidate’s response sheet and answer key as – answered/unanswered. The correct option will also be marked in green for every question.

The memory based answer keys for CAT 2023 and question paper analysis were released by various coaching institutes on the exam day. Those answer keys, helped candidates understand questions and their answers.

The link to raise objection against official CAT 2023 answer key will be given in the student dashboard. Candidates will have to fill a form to challenge the answer key.

The process to download the official CAT 2023 answer key is given below:

• Open CAT 2023 website
• Click on login tab
• Enter application ID and password
• Answer key will be displayed

The CAT 2023 answer key along with the candidate response sheet is expected to be released anytime today. The window to raise objection will also open today.

Candidates can evaluate their performance and calculate their raw CAT score by counting number of correct and incorrect attempts. For every correct attempt 3 marks are awarded and for every incorrect attempt 1 mark is deducted.

The purpose of CAT answer key and response sheet is to help candidate know the which questions they solved correctly and which questions they answered incorrectly.

This year, IIMCAT received record breaking number of applications. The total number of forms received was 3.30 lakh out of which 3.28 applications were accepted.

This year, the CAT exam was held in three shifts in 375 test centres in 167 cities across India. In every centre, the exam was held in three slots.

This year, IIM Lucknow conducted the CAT and the question paper was on the tougher side. The institute conducted the CAT exam after 6 years. It had previously conducted the CAT in 2017.

CAT 2023 exam was tougher than previous years. This may lead to lower cut offs for admission this year.

CAT 2023 exam was held in three slots – morning, afternoon and evening. CAT 2023 answer key and response sheets of all three slots will be released together.

Check below release dates of CAT answer key and response sheet over the years:

CAT 2023 response sheet of every candidate will carry their application ID, exam slot, date, timings and the answers they selected in the test form.

The CAT 2023 answer kay in the past two years have been released with 2-3 days of the exam, so it was expected that this year too, it will release by November 30. However, it is now expected by December 2.

The CAT 2023 answer key and response sheet will be available for download at the official website only. The link to download the PDF will be available at iimcat.ac.in website.

The CAT 2023 answer key and response sheet PDF is now expected to be released tomorrow. The CAT 2023 answer key download link will be made live at the official website of CAT 2023.