IIMK BMS selection process simplified

Since there have been many doubts popping up in the Forums regarding IIM Kozhikode's BMS selection process and how the cutoffs work, I thought it might help to put together a simple explanation.

The exact method used by the institute to compute the shortlist score is not publicly disclosed. What is shared in this post is a proxy that closely approximates how the shortlisting seems to work based on the official weightages provided by IIM Kozhikode.

For the first stage, which is the call for interview, candidates are shortlisted using something called the Aggregate Index Score or AIS.

Based on the official weightages, the AIS roughly follows this structure

AIS ≈ (Class 10 percentage × 0.3) + (Class 12 percentage × 0.3) + (Exam percentile × 0.4)

This means your boards and your entrance exam performance both matter for getting the interview call.

For example

Student A

Class 10 = 95

Class 12 = 95

Exam percentile = 90

AIS = (95 × 0.3) + (95 × 0.3) + (90 × 0.4)

AIS = 28.5 + 28.5 + 36

AIS = 93

Student B

Class 10 = 75

Class 12 = 75

Exam percentile = 99

AIS = (75 × 0.3) + (75 × 0.3) + (99 × 0.4)

AIS = 22.5 + 22.5 + 39.6

AIS = 84.6

Even though Student B has a significantly higher exam percentile, the lower board scores reduce the overall AIS. Because of this, someone with strong marks in Class 10 and Class 12 but a slightly lower percentile can still end up with a higher AIS, while someone with a very high percentile but weak board scores may end up falling below the cutoff.

(this is the official cut offs for BMSAT 2025, stage 1, that is the interview)

After the interview stage, the evaluation criteria changes.

The final merit list is computed using a different set of weightages.

For the final selection, the components are:

Qualifying exam percentile score contributes 70 percent

Personal interview contributes 25 percent

Gender diversity contributes 5 percent

So once you reach the interview stage, your entrance exam performance becomes much more important in the final merit calculation.

The main takeaway is that boards matter primarily for getting the interview call, while the entrance exam percentile and interview performance matter a lot more in the final selection stage.

Again, the AIS formula shown above should be viewed only as a proxy. The institute may normalize or scale scores internally in ways that are not publicly disclosed. However, this method provides a fairly reasonable estimate to understand how shortlisting might work.