MAH CET 2025: Normalisation process announced to ensure fair scoring for MBA and MCA entrance exams | File Photo
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell on Monday outlined the normalisation procedure for the 2025 entrance examinations for Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Computer Applications (MCA) courses.
As the exams will be conducted in multiple shifts, the authorities have adopted a normalisation method to ensure that candidates are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged due to variations in difficulty across different sessions.
According to the CET Cell, “Normalisation Method will be used for ensuring that candidates are neither benefited nor disadvantaged due to the difficulty level of the examination.” The process is a well-established practice in large-scale educational selection tests conducted across India and is intended to ensure fairness in scoring.
Since each session will feature a different set of questions, difficulty levels may vary slightly. To address this, the scores obtained by candidates will be converted into percentile scores ranging from 100 to 0. As stated in the official document, “The Percentile Score indicates the percentage of candidates that have scored EQUAL TO OR BELOW (same or lower raw scores) that particular Percentile in that examination.” This means that the highest scorer in each session will receive a percentile score of 100, ensuring that candidates are evaluated relative to their peers.
To maintain precision and minimise ties, percentile scores will be calculated up to seven decimal places. The CET Cell clarified, “The Percentile Scores will be calculated up to 7 decimal places to avoid bunching effect and reduce ties.” This high degree of accuracy aims to provide a distinct ranking system for all test-takers.
The normalisation process follows a systematic approach. Candidates will be randomly distributed into multiple sessions to ensure an even distribution of examinees. The official guidelines specify that “candidates would be distributed into four sessions randomly so that each session has approximately equal number of candidates.” This randomised allocation minimises bias and ensures a balanced assessment environment.
Once the raw scores are compiled, percentile scores are calculated for each session. The official notice explained, “In this method of scoring, the HIGHEST RAW SCORE in each paper (irrespective of the raw scores) will be the 100 Percentile indicating that 100% of candidates have scores equal to or lesser than the highest scorer/topper for that session.” This approach guarantees that candidates from different sessions are assessed on a uniform scale.
The CET Cell has also clarified that the total percentile score is not simply an average of individual subject percentiles. “The Percentile of the Total shall NOT be an aggregate or average of the Percentile of individual subject. Percentile score is not the same as percentage of marks obtained,” the notice stated. Instead, percentile scores for all four sessions are merged to form the final CET scores used for result compilation.
