TISSNET and the IIFT Exam Are Discontinued: What Replaced Them

Updated 9 October 2026 · Check each institute’s own notice before relying on a date

IIFT: CAT only

Careers360’s IIFT guide (updated 8 October 2026) states it flatly: IIFT conducts no entrance exam for MBA admission, and selection rests on the CAT score. For the 2027–29 batch, applications are expected to open around the third week of October 2026, which would mean CAT 2026 scores.

The selection runs in two stages. Shortlisting is done on the CAT score, with sectional cut-offs, plus small weightings for work experience and gender diversity (CAT carries 90 of 100 points at this stage). The group discussion and interview stage then adds further weightings, with CAT still the largest at 55 of 100. The page’s own text isn’t consistent about which CAT year applies (it mentions both 2025 and 2026), so confirm on IIFT’s admissions page.

TISS: CUET-PG for most programmes

TISS announced it was discontinuing TISSNET, which was its common entrance test for postgraduate programmes. According to Careers360, most TISS PG programmes are now admitted through CUET-PG, with the MA in Human Resource Management & Labour Relations and the MA in Organisation Development, Change and Leadership as the exceptions. Several coaching sites report that those two use CAT scores, but sources conflict on weightings and dates, so check TISS’s current brochure.

One point of terminology: TISS doesn’t offer a programme called an MBA. Sites that call its HRM and ODCL degrees “MBA-equivalent” are using shorthand.

What this means at a low percentile

It narrows your options in a useful way. With IIFT now a CAT-only route that applies sectional cut-offs, and the CAT-route TISS programmes shortlisting mainly on CAT, neither is a back door if your percentile is low. The routes that fit a lower score are the ones this site covers: other national tests, state tests, and colleges grouped by the percentile they actually admit at.

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