Is CAT Exam Tough 2025? Minimum Score & Comparison with Other MBA Exams

The CAT is among the most prestigious and competitive entrance tests for admission into India's foremost business schools (for instance, the IIMs and other top management institutions). The CAT is an annual entrance exam, and serves as the standard test for assessing the quantitative ability QA, DILR, and VARC of candidates. The CAT is India’s most popular management entrance exam, leading many students to ask before they start their CAT preparation, is the CAT exam tough?

The answer to this question depends on many things, every one of which we have defined and explained in the paragraphs that follow.

This blog will discuss all the facets of the CAT exam to provide aspiring candidates with a clearer understanding. We will consider the difficulty level of the exam, the minimum score for admissions, and how its level of difficulty compares across other leading management entrance exams. If you are about to start your preparation for the CAT, this post should help you initiate your academic journey.

Is CAT Exam Tough to Crack?

Here is a quick overview of the CAT 2025 exam, highlighting its structure, difficulty, and competitive landscape.

What Makes CAT the Toughest Exam in the Country?

The CAT test is considered to be one of the most difficult competitive exams in India owing to the competition intensity as well as its tough structure and format, as it is used to screen candidates for possible admission to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

• Organized by IIMs: The CAT is the gateway to India's top management institutes: the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). 
• The Competition: Approximately 2,25,000 candidates attempt to gain access to a very limited number of seats across the best B-schools in India every year. 
• Tough Sections: The exam assesses VARC, DILR, and QA. 
• Time Pressure: Candidates must solve challenging problems under strict time pressure (40 minutes per section). 
• Uncertainty Over Question Patterns: Types of questions and difficulty levels vary each year, making it difficult to prepare for. 
• Selectivity Over Admission: Decisions regarding admission will be based on the CAT exam, academic transcripts, as well as work experience and the interview process. 

Minimum Required CAT Score to Get into IIMs

The following is a brief summary of the minimum CAT percentile that candidates from the General category must achieve to be considered for shortlisting by the different IIMs, based on the official data published by the IIMs for the admissions cycle of 2025. IIM Rohatak, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad are the toughest to get into, and IIM Shillong and IIM Vishakhapatnam are a little easy to get into. 

Also check:

• CAT Score vs Percentile 2025
• CAT 2025 Reservation Policy

CAT Exam Format To Assess CAT Exam Toughness

The CAT exam has a coherent computer-based structure for measuring aptitudes across key proficiencies, a limited amount of time is allocated for answering questions, and a diversity of question forms are asked to assess an applicant's analytical and verbal ability.

Read More: CAT exam registration 

Is CAT Exam Tough When Compared to NEET?

Yes, CAT is tougher than NEET. You can see a comparison between the two examinations, the CAT exam and the NEET exam, to outline the format, focus areas, and level of competition to assess which of the exams poses a greater degree of difficulty based on exam structure and a selection process.

Conclusion

The CAT exam is certainly one of the hardest competitive exams in India, given its very low success rate (2.5-3%), wildly random patterns of question type, and competition limited to a small number of available seats in the IIMs. One significant difference in the exams is that the NEET exam is memory-heavy, and has a larger pool of applicants, but the CAT exam stands out because of the analytical depth, time pressure, and selectivity involved. So, it goes without saying that to crack the CAT, you need to be prepared academically, but it still takes speed, strategy, and continuous practice before displaying all of your skills to a target school in the Indian B-School system.

Is CAT The Toughest Exam In India: FAQs

Ques: Is the CAT exam really difficult? 

Ans: Absolutely! The CAT is considered one of India’s hardest exams due to its unpredictability, time limits, and very low success rate (only 2.5-3% for admissions in IIMs). 

Ques: Who conducts the CAT exam? 

Ans: The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) conducts the CAT every year for getting admission in MBA/PGDM programs in IIMs and other top B-schools. 

Ques: How many questions will be in CAT 2025? 

Ans: CAT 2025 will have 68 questions to be solved in 120 minutes, distributed across the three sections - VARC, DILR, and Quant. 

Ques: What is the marking scheme in CAT? 

Ans: +3 for a correct MCQ 

+1 for a correct TITA (non-MCQ) 

-1 for an incorrect MCQ 

No negative marking for TITA questions. 

Ques: What percentile do I need for IIMs? 

Ans: The basic percentile of CAT exam to get into IIMs for General Category Candidates is as follows: 

Top IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta) - 85-90+ 

Newer IIMs (Raipur, Udaipur, Trichy, etc.) - 94-95 

Lower cutoff (Shillong, Visakhapatnam) - 75-80 

Ques: Is CAT tougher than NEET? 

Ans: Both are tough, but at the same time, both are tough in different ways: 

CAT: Conceptual, analytical, time-pressured, very low success rate (2.5-3%)

NEET: High-pressure memory exam, larger pool of aspirants, higher "success" rates (5-6%)

Overall, CAT is tougher in terms of strategy, speed, and selectivity.

Ques: What is the average number of students taking the CAT each year? 

Ans: Approximately 2.25 lakh candidates take the CAT examination, competing for around 6000 seats in IIMs.

Ques: Is a calculator permitted in the CAT exam? 

Ans: No. Candidates are not permitted to carry a calculator with them. An on-screen calculator will be provided for basic calculations.

Ques: What makes the CAT exam so unpredictable? 

Ans: Each year, the patterns of questions, level of difficulty, and distribution of topics change so each year nothing is consistent or predictable and affect the preparation.

Ques: What is the ideal way to prepare for CAT? 

Ans: Focusing on Fundamentals in QA, VARC, DILR 

Practicing mock tests and taking them under time restrictions

Speed + Percentage are more important than quantity 

Having consistency in your strategy and a revision of your notes