Cutoffs: What You Need to Know About Admission Thresholds in India

When it comes to getting into a top college or landing a government job in India, cutoffs, the minimum score or rank required for admission or selection. Also known as admission thresholds, they’re not just numbers—they’re gatekeepers that decide who moves forward and who gets left behind. Whether you’re aiming for an IIT, a medical seat, or a public sector job, your success often comes down to one thing: did you clear the cutoff?

Cutoffs aren’t random. They’re shaped by how many people apply, how hard the exam was, and how many seats are available. For example, JEE Advanced cutoff, the minimum rank needed to qualify for IIT admission changes every year based on difficulty and applicant performance. In 2025, the topper scored 342 out of 360, but the cutoff for general category candidates was far lower—just enough to separate the top 20,000 from the rest. Same goes for NEET cutoff, the score required to be eligible for MBBS seats. Biology dominates the exam, so even if your physics is weak, a strong NCERT-based biology score can still push you past the cutoff. And it’s not just exams. government job cutoffs, the minimum qualifying marks for civil service and council positions vary by state, category, and even the year the notification was released. Some candidates clear the written test but fail the interview round—not because they’re unqualified, but because the overall cutoff for final selection was higher than expected.

What most students don’t realize is that cutoffs are moving targets. A score that got you into a college last year might not be enough this year. That’s why focusing only on past cutoffs is risky. You need to understand the trends, know the competition, and build a strategy that doesn’t just aim for the cutoff but beats it. Whether you’re preparing for JEE, NEET, or a government exam, your goal shouldn’t be to barely clear the line—it should be to leave it far behind.

Below, you’ll find real stories and data from students who cracked the system—not by luck, but by knowing exactly what cutoffs mean and how to work with them. From MBBS salaries in the US to the highest-paying 2-year degrees, from CBSE acceptance abroad to coding bootcamps that lead to jobs, these posts show you how cutoffs shape paths, not limit them.