MBA Program or Masters of Business Administration is the most popular post graduate degree amongst students. Every year almost 2.5 lac students pursue MBA programs but when it comes to talk about entrance examinations many of them only know about the CAT Entrance Exam.

About 2-3 lakh students take the CAT Exam every year and the success rate is just 4 to 5%. In this case they choose to wait for another year and give the CAT Entrance exam again. But apart from this many of them don’t know that there are other prestigious exams other than CAT for admission in top MBA colleges or institutes.

This year the MBA Entrance Exam like CAT and others will be held from 30th November 2025 till January 2026. In this duration the examinations that will help you get admission in best MBA Colleges are CUET MBA, XAT, CAT, SNAP, XAT, IIFT, MAT, NMAT, MAH CET, IBSAT, CMAT, GMAT, IGNOUOpenMAT, and more.

List of Upcoming the MBA entrance examination and examination date
Here is the list of the top MBA entrance examination with their expected exam date

MBA Entrance Exam 2025-2026	Date of Examination
CAT	30th Nov 2025
XAT	4th Jan 2026
SNAP	6th,14th, 20th Dec 2025
MAT (AIMA)	PBT- 13th Dec 2025 CBT- 21 DEC 2025
NMAT (2025)	5th Dec to 19th Dec 2025
MAH-MBA CET	April 2026 (approx) Date not Confirmed
IBSAT	27 to 28th Dec 2025
CMAT	25th Jan 2026 (tentative)
CUET	March 2026 (approx) Date not Confirmed

Government MBA Entrance Examination List

There are several Government Universities & Colleges that conduct entrance examinations for the admission in their MBA program.
Here is the list of top Government MBA Entrance examination:-

CAT	MAH MBA CET
CUET	OJEE MBA
CMAT	KMAT
MAT	APICET
ATMA	TSICET
TANCET	IGNOU OPENMAT

Which are the top MBA Institutes and their cut offs list?

The top institutes & colleges of MBA programs are IIMs as they tops in the list of quality of education and also NIRF ranking. Apart from this there are many other top B-schools for admission in MBA programs. Also the entry to get admission in IIM is by clearing CAT entrance exam.
So If you clear any of these examinations, here is the list of Top MBA colleges and Institutes with their Cutoff list:-

MBA Institute / top B-School	NIRF Ranking 2025	Cutoff/ CAT Score
IIM Ahmedabad	1	99+percentile
IIM Bangalore	2	99+ percentile
IIM Kozhikode	3	99 percentile (or very close)
IIT Delhi-DBS (Management School)	4	90+ percentile
Management Development Institute, Gurgaon (MDI)	9	95 to 98 percentile (CAT/GMAT/XAT admission)
XLRI Jamshedpur	10	94 to 96 percentile (XAT Score)
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune (SIBM)	11	70 to 85 percentile (Admission through XAT/SNAP Entrance exam)
Indian Institute of Foreign trade (IIFT, Delhi)	17	98+ percentile (XAT/CAT Score Accepted)

Top MBA Colleges in India (excluding IIM)

Name of College	Eligibility	Entrance Exam	Salary Package	Apply Link/Official Link
XLRI Jamshedpur	Bachelor’s degree (50%+)   Final-year students can apply	XAT (main), GMAT (for some programs)	Average Package: ~28–30 LPA Highest Package: ~60+ LPA	https://xlri.ac.in/
SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai	Bachelor’s degree with 50%+	CAT / GMAT	Average Package: ~33–35 LPA Highest Package: ~80+ LPA	https://www.spjimr.org/
Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad & Mohali PGP (equivalent to MBA)	Bachelor’s degree   2–3 years work experience	GMAT / GRE	Average Package: ~34–35 LPA Highest Package: ~70+ LPA	https://www.isb.edu/
FMS Delhi (Faculty of Management Studies)	Bachelor’s degree (50%+)	CAT	Average Package: ~27–30 LPA Highest Package: ~60+ LPA	https://fms.edu/
Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon	Bachelor’s degree (50%+)	CAT / GMAT	Average Package: ~25–27 LPA Highest Package: ~50+ LPA	https://mdi.ac.in/
IIFT – Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi & Kolkata)	Bachelor’s degree	IIFT Test (now through CAT for MBA-IB)	Average Package: ~25–26 LPA Highest Package: ~75+ LPA	https://www.iift.ac.in/iift/raj1.php
TATA Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) – HRM & LR	Bachelor’s degree	TISSNET (usually), changes possible	23–25 LPA	https://tiss.ac.in/
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune	Bachelor’s degree (50%)	SNAP	Average Package: ~22–25 LPA	https://www.sibm.edu/
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS)	Bachelor’s degree	NMAT	Average Package: ~18–21 LPA	https://www.nmims.edu/
Great Lakes Institute of Management (Chennai & Gurgaon)	Bachelor’s degree   Work experience required for PGPM	CAT/XAT/GMAT/CMAT	Average Package: ~13–15 LPA	https://www.greatlakes.edu.in/
IMT Ghaziabad	Bachelor’s degree (50%+)	CAT/XAT/GMAT	Average Package: ~17–18 LPA	https://www.imt.edu/
FORE School of Management, Delhi	Bachelor’s degree	CAT/XAT/GMAT	Average Package: ~14–16 LPA	https://www.fsm.ac.in/
IIT MBA Programs (IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, IIT Madras)	Bachelor’s degree   Many IITs require 4-year degrees	CAT	Average Package: ~20–25 LPA (depending on IIT)	IIT Bombay: https://www.som.iitb.ac.in/  IIT Delhi:https://dms.iitd.ac.in/  IIT Kharagpur:https://som.iitkgp.ac.in/
	Bachelor’s degree	CAT/XAT/GMAT/CMAT	Average Package: ~11–12 LPA	https://www.tapmi.edu.in/

Online MBA from IIM with low CAT Exam Score

Yes, now MBA admission in IIM is possible with low CAT examination. Now with the increasing demand of digitisation and online education, even IIM has started its Online MBA program in which you can take admission with a low CAT exam score.

Here is the list of IIM offering Online MBA with low CAT Score

Type of IIMs	Program offered	Selection Process
IIM Ahmedabad	Executive/Blended Post Graduate Program in Management Program	Valid Score of CAT/GMAT/GRE/XAT  + personal Interview Relevant Work Experience
IIm Kozhikode	Executive/Blended Post Graduate Program in Management Program	EMAT+Relevant Work Experience Personal Interview
IIM Shillong	Post Graduate Program for Working Executives (Online/ Blended)	Valid CAT/GMAT Score + Personal Interview
IIM Rohtak	Online MBA /EPGPX/PGDM Online	Valid CAT/GMAT/GRE/GATE Score + Personal Interview
IIM Raipur	Executive MBA/ Online PGDM for Working professionals	CAT/GMAT Score + Personal Interview
Baby IIMs (Simaur, Visakhapatnam, Body gaya, Kashipur, Amritsar, Sambalpur)	Online MBA/ PGDM/ Executive MBA	Bachelors Degree + Entrance Exam + Work Experience + Personal Interview (CAT/GMAT/ GRE scores also acceptable)

Online MBA from Top Online Universities with no Entrance Examination

Apart from regular MBA you can also opt for Online MBA from top-notch online MBA Universities in India.
Here is the list of all the best online universities for online MBA:-

Online Manipal	Amrita Ahead Online
Amity University Online	Chandigarh University Online
LPU Online	Shoolini University Online
Jain University Online	Sharda University Online
UPES	GLA University Online
DP Patil University Online	Parul Online University

CAT Entrance Examination Details
Common entrance test (CAT), is the golden ticket to get into IIM and considered to be the most critical examination.

The Eligibility Criteria for CAT Entrance Examination

To take the CAT examination all you need is a bachelor’s degree from an approved university or institute.
Also you must have scored 50 percentile in your graduation for this examination.
Final year students can also apply for the CAT Examination.

You can see the complete entrance examination pattern:-

Exam Section	MCQs	Total No. of Questions
Data interpretation & Logical Reasoning	14	20
Verbal Ability and Reading & Reading Comprehension	21	24
Quantitative Ability	14	22
Total	49	66

Official Links of all the other MBA Examinations:-

You can directly apply to all these examinations and get official links from here.

Entrance Exams	Official links to apply for these exams
CAT	https://iimcat.ac.in/per/g06/pub/32842/ASM/WebPortal/1/index.html?
XAT	https://xatonline.in/registration
SNAP	https://www.snaptest.org/
NMAT by GMAC	https://www.mba.com/exams/nmat
CMAT	https://cmat.nta.nic.in/
MAH-MBA CET	https://mba2025.mahacet.org.in/
IIFT MBA Entrance	https://www.iift.ac.in/

MAT (AIMA)	https://mat.aima.in/
IBSAT	https://ibsindia.org/
GMAT	https://www.mba.com/
OPENMAT	https://ignouadmission.samarth.edu.in/
CUET PG	https://exams.nta.ac.in/CUET-PG

Conclusion:

So the CAT exam is not your only option to get into top MBA universities or institutes. You have several other examination options as well as other modes of education like Online MBA which is also widely spreading and acceptable in the Industry.

FAQs

Is CAT exam mandatory for MBA?

No CAT exam is not mandatory for an MBA program as you have several other options through which you can pursue MBA like Online MBA without any entrance exam or MBA from baby IIMs with low CAT score. But if you want to take admission in top IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Kozhikode  or IIM Bangalore then a 99+ percentile CAT score is mandatory. 

What are the top MBA entrance examinations in India? 

Here are the list of top MBA entrance examination in India that will help you get admission in best MBA Colleges are CUET MBA, XAT, CAT, SNAP, XAT, IIFT, MAT, NMAT, MAH CET, IBSAT, CMAT, GMAT, IGNOUOpenMAT, and more.

What is the eligibility criteria to give CAT entrance examination? 

To take the CAT entrance exam all you need is a bachelor’s degree from an approved university and a minimum of 50 percentile in your graduation and final year students can also apply.