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How the Common Admission Test (CAT) Normalization Process Works

Staff Writer: Sweata Maiti

Last Updated: November 28, 2025

Synopsis: The normalization process for CAT ensures fairness when the exam is conducted over multiple slots with different question-papers. Raw scores from each slot are adjusted through statistical scaling so that candidates are evaluated on a common scale, producing “scaled scores” and percentiles. This method helps offset variations in paper difficulty across sessions.

What is Normalization in CAT?

CAT is conducted in multiple slots, each with a different version (test-form) of the question paper.
Because difficulty can vary between these forms, a candidate’s raw marks (number correct minus wrong penalty) alone may not reflect the relative performance accurately. To correct for this variability, the exam uses a normalisation (scaling and equating) process.
The process adjusts for “location and scale differences” among different question-paper versions.

How Normalisation is Carried Out — Key Steps

Slot-wise Normalisation: Raw scores from each slot are adjusted so that variations in difficulty between slots are compensated for.
Section-wise Scaling: After slot-wise adjustments, each section’s (e.g. Verbal, DILR, Quant) scores are scaled — ensuring consistency across all sections and slots.
Conversion to Percentiles: The scaled scores for each section and total are finally converted into percentiles. These percentiles are used for shortlisting candidates for the next stages (WAT-PI) by institutes.

When you check your CAT result, you’ll see scaled scores for each of the three sections (VARC, DILR, Quant), along with an overall percentile and not the raw score.

Why Normalisation Matters

It levels the playing field for candidates across slots — so someone in a tougher slot is not disadvantaged just because their paper was harder.
It allows fair comparison and percentile calculation across all test-takers despite differences in difficulty levels and test-form versions.

What Candidates Should Know

Your raw score matters, but what ultimately counts is the scaled score and percentile after normalisation.
Because of scaling, performance perception may change: a high raw score in an “easy” slot may scale down slightly; a moderate raw score in a tougher slot may scale up.
CAT’s normalisation method is similar to practices in other large multi-slot exams (e.g. GATE), used globally to ensure fairness when multiple test-forms are used.