CAT 2025 in numbers: the result patterns from 149 named Indore students

Every CAT cycle, coaching institutes publish topper photos and headline numbers. Most of the time the underlying data is opaque — you see the names but not the percentile distribution, the conversion rates, the undergraduate backgrounds, or the patterns that connect them. This post unpacks the IMS Indore + Bhopal CAT-25 cohort in full.

The headline first: 2,512 IIM calls across the Indore and Bhopal centres in CAT-25. This is the highest IIM-call count from any single CAT coaching in Madhya Pradesh, ever. Of those, we have 149 named students for whom we have validated which IIMs they were called by — the full list is on the /results page. What follows is the analysis.

Pattern 1 — The percentile distribution is wider than people expect

The 149 named students span percentile bands from 86 to 99.96. The distribution looks like this:

• 99.9 percentile and above: 1 student (Harsh Agrawal at 99.96 — converted IIM-B, C, K, SPJain, MDI)
• 99–99.9 percentile: 7 students. Top three converts: IIM-L, IIM-I, IIM-K, FMS, multiple new IIMs.
• 95–99 percentile: 38 students. This is the largest single band — and it is the band most aspirants think doesn’t convert anything. It converts new IIMs widely, IIM-L/I/K selectively, and the second-tier B-schools (NMIMS, SIBM, IMT) reliably.
• 90–95 percentile: 51 students. Convert new IIMs, second-tier B-schools, and select MDI/SPJain calls.
• Below 90: 52 students. Most of these are diverse-category students who convert IIM calls with profile adjustments. Some are general-category students who get calls from newer IIMs and select B-schools.

The takeaway: 90% of the IIM calls in our cohort come from students between 90 and 99 percentile. The popular fixation on 99.5+ misrepresents what the bulk of CAT outcomes actually look like.

Pattern 2 — IIM concentration is steep but not absolute

Counting calls (not converts), the distribution across IIMs in our 149-student cohort:

• IIM Ahmedabad (PGP + FABM): 9 calls
• IIM Bangalore: 5 calls
• IIM Calcutta: 1 call
• IIM Lucknow: 11 calls
• IIM Indore (PGP + PGP-HRM): 14 calls
• IIM Kozhikode: 9 calls
• IIM Mumbai / Shillong: ~26 calls combined
• Newer IIMs via CAP and direct (Vizag, Sambalpur, Trichy, Udaipur, Amritsar, Raipur, Rohtak, Kashipur, Nagpur, Sirmaur, Jammu, Bodh Gaya): ~290+ calls combined

Two takeaways. First, the “old IIMs” — A, B, C, L, I, K — concentrate roughly 50 calls in our 149-student sample. Second, the newer IIMs convert at much higher volume but the percentile floor is lower, which is consistent with the underlying selection criteria. The narrative that “you either get an A/B/C or you get nothing” is contradicted by every cohort we have data for.

Pattern 3 — Non-engineers are the majority of IIM call-getters

Of the 149 named students, more than 80% come from non-engineering undergraduate backgrounds. The breakdown:

• BBA (any university): 28 students
• B.Com / Commerce undergrads: ~24 students
• Arts / Humanities undergrads (incl. Mithibai Arts, DU Hansraj, Ashoka): ~12 students
• Other professional degrees (CA, law, B.Sc Economics, etc.): ~10 students
• Engineering (B.Tech / B.E.): ~14 students
• Background unspecified in our data: the remaining majority — but the named individuals in this set are predominantly non-engineering by Mumbai Mithibai, Delhi University, Symbiosis, and Indore-region colleges

Engineering is a substantial but not dominant slice. The persistent perception that “you need to be an engineer to crack CAT” is a folklore claim that the data refutes year after year. A separate article goes deeper into the non-engineer pathway with named examples and prep strategy.

Pattern 4 — IIM Indore PGP is the conversion gateway for the region

Fourteen of our 149 named students converted IIM Indore PGP or PGP-HRM. This is by far the highest single-IIM conversion rate in our cohort. Two reasons.

First, IIM Indore weighs both percentile and profile in a balanced way. Their selection process gives meaningful weight to academic consistency, work-experience quality, and (in some years) diversity factors. Students who optimize for both percentile and profile fare better at IIM Indore than at IIM-A/B/C, where the percentile bar is higher and there is less profile flexibility.

Second, our students are closer to IIM Indore geographically. Many of them apply with greater conviction because they have visited the campus, attended their info sessions, and built a clearer narrative about why IIM Indore specifically. The marginal effort matters in interviews.

For aspirants from Madhya Pradesh specifically, IIM Indore PGP is often the right primary target — high-quality, high-conversion, and a campus you can visit before applying. The full IIM Indore PGP fit guide is on the b-schools page.

Pattern 5 — Multi-IIM converts cluster at specific profile types

Among the 149, a smaller subset converted four or more IIMs. They tend to share three features:

• Percentile in the 98+ band, but not necessarily 99+.
• Strong sectional balance — no single section below 95 percentile.
• Documented prep discipline — they wrote 35+ mocks across pre-, take-home, proctored, and past papers, and analysed each one.

Vaishnavi Goswami (CAT-25, 98.99 percentile, converted IIM-L, IIM-I, FMS, IIM Udaipur, IIM Raipur, IIM Amritsar, IIM Kashipur, IIM Trichy — eight IIM calls) is the canonical example. Her percentile is 98.99 — well below 99.5. Her conversion pattern is what disciplined sectional balance plus systematic interview prep produces.

What the cohort tells us about CAT-26 preparation

Three practical implications for anyone starting their CAT 2026 prep:

1. Aim for sectional balance over single-section dominance. Multi-IIM converts in our data are sectional-balanced. Lopsided scorers (99 percentile overall driven by 99.9 in QA, but 88 in VARC) hit IIM cutoffs less often than balanced 97-percentile students.
2. Treat 95 percentile as a realistic primary target, not a consolation prize. Most IIMs convert at 95+ percentile with the right profile. Going for 99 as the only target leads to mock-day brittleness and lower actual conversions.
3. Apply to a broader shortlist than the canonical A/B/C/L/I/K list. Our cohort converts most heavily at IIM-Indore, IIM-Mumbai, IIM-Shillong, and the newer IIMs. A shortlist that includes those gives you 4–6 IIM call possibilities at percentile bands you are actually likely to reach.

What the data does not say

A few things to be honest about. We have not normalized for time-of-application, profile factors, or interview-stage conversions versus call-stage. The numbers above are call-counts and percentile distributions at the call stage. We have separate data on call-to-convert ratios that we will publish in a follow-up.

The cohort is also self-selecting. These are students who chose IMS Indore for their CAT prep, which means they had access to our pedagogy and mentor bench. The patterns we see may not generalize to students at other coaching centres or self-prep. We make no claim that they do — only that, for the IMS Indore + Bhopal cohort in CAT-25, these are the patterns.

Related: the full named list of 149 CAT-25 call-getters · You don’t need 99.5 on CAT · How a non-engineer cracks IIM-A.