Post Graduate Programme in Business Analytics(PGPBA) - 2025-27

Admission Procedure

The programme

The Post Graduate Programme in Business Analytics(PGPBA) at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, henceforth IIMB, is a two-year full-time residential programme leading up to a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

Eligibility

The basic criteria for applying to the programme include:

• A bachelor’s degree in any discipline with a minimum of 50% marks or equivalent Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). Applicants from SC, ST and PwD categories should have a minimum of 45% or equivalent CGPA.²
• A Common Admission Test (CAT) score that is valid on the date of application submission.

Required documents

The documents to be submitted as part of the application process are listed below. Please ensure that all the documents submitted are complete in all respects.

• 10th board, 12th board and bachelor’s degree transcripts
• Bachelor’s degree certificate / provisional degree certificate (if applicable)
• Bonafide certificate (for candidates studying in final year)
• Professional degree transcripts (CA/CS/ICWA) (if applicable)
• Professional degree certificate (if applicable)
• Statement of purpose
• Work experience letters, first and last payslips (if applicable)
• SC/ST/NC-OBC/EWS certificate (if applicable)
• Relevant disability certificate and UDID Card for persons with disability (PwD)

1. All information in this document is pertinent to the admissions cycle (2025-27) alone, and therefore no inference can be made from this document about the admissions process that will be used for future admission cycles at IIMB. IIMB reserves the right to change, modify or adopt any new admissions process that it deems necessary, at any point.

2. Applicants who do not have a bachelor’s degree but have completed their CA/ICWA/CS after Class XII, are also eligible to apply for PGP 2025. The requirement of minimum percentage marks /CGPA is the same as a bachelor’s degree.

Reference letters

Submission of TWO (online) reference letters is mandatory. Candidates must provide details (email id and contact details) of two persons as referees in the on-line application. References should preferably be from an employer (current or past) or from a teacher in an academic institution where the candidate hasstudied. References will have to be submitted online by the referees directly on or before the stipulated last date for submission of application. References are a part of the application, and the application can be submitted only after the “Reference” section is complete. No separate extension will be allowed for submission of references. References cannot be received/submitted separately.

Application process: Stage I

The PGPBA admission process at IIMB starts with the submission of the online application form

• A first shortlist is prepared comprising candidates who have secured a pre-determined minimum score on all sections of CAT 2024. Only candidates obtaining a minimum raw score that is positive in all sections of CAT2024 will be considered. The percentile cut-off scores for admission, applied to CAT 2024, are shown in Table 1 in Annexure I. All the subsequent processing, standardization and selection are limited to candidates in the the first shortlist alone.
• For candidates in the first shortlist, a pre-PI (Personal Interview) score is created. The weights for different components at the pre-PI stage are as follows : CAT = 55 , 10^th board score = 10, 12^th board score = 10, Bachelor’s score = 10, Work experience / Professional course = 10, Gender diversity = 5. The 55 points for CAT are derived from performance in each of the three sections as follows: Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VARC) - 19 points, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) - 21 points, and Quantitative Aptitude (QA) - 15 points. The gender diversity component is applicable only for computing the pre-PI score and is not used in the next stage.     
  • The scores for 10^th and 12^th board exams are normalized. For candidates without a 10^th board and/or 12^th board exam score (due to COVID), no weightage shall be given to these component(s), and the weights assigned to other components shall be re-adjusted.
  • The bachelors’ degree scores are normalized. Incomplete or intermediate graduate scores are considered only if the candidate's final score is pending. For candidates without a bachelor’s degree score (due to COVID), no weightage shall be given to this component, and the weights assigned to other components shall be re-adjusted
  • Candidates with Chartered Accountancy (CA), Cost Accounting (ICWA), or Company Secretary (CS) certifications are eligible for weightage under the category of professional course. The scores obtained in these professional courses (Final year completed only) are normalized and weightage is calculated.
  • The pre-PI score for work experience         

    = 10x/36 if 0 < x < 36

    = 10 if x >= 36

    where x is the months of work experience up to July 2024. No consideration is given to any time spent as an intern, either during or after the course of study in a programme, or any periods of apprenticeship such as articleship required as part of certain professional courses, or any unpaid work undertaken in any organization or institution.

  • For all components mentioned above, the standardized score, truncated between 0 and weight (wt) is computed from the raw score (val) as: Max [0, min {wt, wt/2 + ((val-mean) / sd) * wt / 6}]
• For candidates in the first shortlist, the top-ten candidates in each of the following category automatically qualify for the PI stage: total score in CAT, CAT score in DILR and CAT score in QA. Post PI, all such candidates are evaluated in the same way as any other candidate.
• Presentation of employment claims that are false will be dealt with severely. A candidate who is found to have provided incorrect information about work experience will not be considered further for admission. Furthermore, the candidate will be barred from applying to any programme at IIMB for the next 3 years.
• Prior to calling candidates for the PI, IIMB will write to those candidates who are in the first shortist. These candidates will be required to reconfirm their interest in applying to PGPBA 2025-27. From those who reconfirm their interst a shortlist of students (category wise) will be called to appear for PI/WAT based on their pre-PI Score calculated by applying the weights above.

Application process: Stage II

The second stage of the admissions process at IIMB consists of a personal interview (PI) and a Written Ability Test (WAT) where candidates will be required to write a note.

• The PI and the WAT will happen on the same day and in the same location. The duration of the WAT is approximately 30 minutes. The WAT will be evaluated based on the content and style of the note. Candidates who have applied to both programmes – PGP 2025 and PGPBA 2025 -- and have been shortlisted for the PI process of both programmes, will be required to attend a common interview.
• The work experience weight assigned while computing the Pre-PI score is scaled down from 10 to 5 during the post PI process to arrive at the composite score. This work experience score will be multiplied by the quality of experience score where the latter will be evaluated on a 5 point scale (0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2) by each member of the interview panel. The average quality of work experience score will be multiplied by the pre-PI work experience score to arrive at a revised weighted work experience score.
• For all candidates called for interviews, the weights for the parameters at the post-PI stage are as follows : Personal interview = 40, WAT = 10, CAT = 25 , 10th board score in Mathematics = 5, 12th board score = 5, Bachelor’s score = 5, Work Experience = 10. The 25 points for CAT are derived from the performance in each of the three sections as follows: Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VARC) - 6 points, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) - 9 points, and Quantitative Aptitude (QA) – 10 points.

Final offers of admission to candidates from each category will be made strictly on the basis of the post-PI scores.

Reservations

IIMB follows reservation for EWS, NC-OBC, SC, ST and PWD in accordance with the law.

Disputes

Any dispute concerning admissions for the PGPBA Batch 2025-27 would be subject to jurisdiction of the competent courts within the territorial jurisdiction of the city of Bangalore only.

ANNEXURE I

Cut-offs for the batch of 2025-27, based on CAT 2024

* These are cut-offs used for preparing the first shortlist. The scores of those called for interviews were higher