Hi, I read that 0 marks in CAT would still fetch us 55 %ile, so what are the marks we should aim for ( a figurative 50%?) to get a 95%ile +?

The nature of CAT is very dynamic because of the changing difficulty level and changing patterns. In some of the past year getting 50% percent of questions right could help you score 90 percentile or more while in some other years getting 50% percent of questions right could help you score only 70-80 percentile or sometimes lesser than that. Also the section level difficulty also varies amongst the three sections and you can get different percentile in 3 sections if you attempt 50 percent. For example in last years CAT the LRDI section was perceived tougher and you could score 90 percentile by getting 50% percent of questions right.



Hence it is always suggested to select questions which you can solve correctly and then try to solve them with complete accuracy. If the section seems relatively easy then try to attempt maximum questions. Try to understand the difficulty level of paper and solve accordingly.



All the best!

What is the meaning of percentile. It means that score you have got is more than this percentage of students out of the total students who appeared in the exam.



So it is a total relative phenomenon which depends on your performance and also the performance of other students appearing in CAT exam. There is no absolute marks scale for any percentile. Your percentile can even vary according to difficulty of paper also. If it is easy even after getting very high marks there is a possibility that you might not be able to get high percentile and if it is difficult there is a possibility tgar you might get a high percentile with low marks.



So it's all relative and the score for any figurative percentile changes every year. It could fluctuate to any percentage in comparison to last year.



The 55 percentile on 0 marks happened only once 3 or 4 years back. It doesn't happen every year. I have explained you very well above about how it varies relatively.



Still seeing the general trend of past few years in order to get 95+ percentile aim for atleast 170+ score. Remember one thing when you are at low percentile your percentile grows to a huge extend with every mark but as you go up the ladder you need to score much more to score in order to increase a percentile that means on an average scoring above 1000-1500 students.



Don't pay any attention on any humours or myths and give your best in the exam. As less than a month is left for CAT exam so it's better to quickly brush up with your basics and give up lots of online mock test and analyse solution of each mock test which will help you in overcoming your mistakes and come up with a strategy to attempt your paper which will definitely help you in improving your marks and percentile.



All the best for your preparations and exams!!

To get 95 percentile or more you have to attempt 23-24 questions in VERBAL out of 34 with 80%  accuracy. In Quant section you have to attempt 18-19 questions out of 34 with 85% accuracy. And in DILR you have to attempt 16-17 questions out of 34 with 90% accuracy.