SEBI Grade A has two entirely different kinds of cut off, and mixing them up is the most common mistake candidates make when they plan their preparation. Phase 1 has a fixed qualifying bar that never moves. Phase 2 has a competitive cut off that decides everything.
Phase 1 cut off: fixed, and it does not count
| Requirement | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Paper 1 (GA, English, Quant, Reasoning) | 30% — 30 out of 100 |
| Paper 2 (stream subject) | 40% — 40 out of 100 |
| Aggregate | 40% — 80 out of 200 |
Clear all three and you are through. There is no category-wise Phase 1 cut off to chase, and — this is the part people miss — your Phase 1 marks are not carried forward. Scoring 160 instead of 90 buys you exactly nothing in the final merit. It is a gate, not a race.
The practical consequence: past a comfortable margin, every extra hour spent on Phase 1 preparation has zero return. Those hours belong to Phase 2.
Phase 2 and final cut off, year by year
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These are General category, General stream, out of 100 after the weights are applied.
| Cycle | Phase 2 cut off | Final cut off |
|---|---|---|
| 2025–26 | 66.50 | 70.285 |
| 2024 | 66.50 | 69.30 |
| 2022 | 62.34 | 64.82 |
| 2020 | 66.00 | 69.24 |
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Get it on WhatsApp — one tap or just leave your numberWhat these numbers actually tell you
The band is narrow. Four cycles, and the Phase 2 cut off sits between 62 and 67. That is unusually stable for an Indian recruitment exam, and it means you can plan against a number instead of guessing. Treat 70 in Phase 2 as the working target: it clears the shortlist in every cycle on record with a margin, rather than landing on the line.
The gap between Phase 2 and final is small — about 3 to 4 marks. Since the final score is 85% Phase 2 plus 15% interview, a final cut off sitting only 3.8 marks above the Phase 2 cut off tells you that interviews cluster. Almost nobody is rescued by the interview, and almost nobody is destroyed by it. A candidate at the Phase 2 borderline needs an exceptional interview to move up; a candidate five marks clear is nearly safe. Phase 2 is the exam.
2022 was the outlier, and it was a harder paper year, not an easier competition. Cut offs fall when papers get harder, so a low cut off is not good news arriving — it means everyone struggled. Plan for 66–67, not for 62.
Reading the cut off for your own case
- Category. The figures above are General. OBC, SC, ST and EWS cut offs run lower, and the gap widens in the smaller streams where a single post decides the list.
- Stream. Each stream is a separate contest with its own cut off. A stream with 3 posts can produce a much higher or much lower cut off than General purely because of who applied that year — small samples are volatile, and this is why stream-wise cut offs from one cycle are a weak guide.
- The shortlist ratio. Three times the vacancies are called for interview. With 56 General posts last cycle, roughly 168 candidates were interviewed — so the Phase 2 cut off is set by whoever sits at position 168, not by any fixed standard.
- Vacancies move the line. 97 posts in 2024, 110 in 2025. More posts, a deeper shortlist, a slightly kinder cut off. This is the one variable outside your control, and it is why cut offs are best read as a band rather than a target line.
Turning 66 into a plan
Phase 2 is one third descriptive English and two thirds your stream paper. To reach a weighted 70:
- Paper 2 (stream), weight 2/3. This is where the marks are. 70 here contributes 46.7 to your weighted total.
- Paper 1 (descriptive English), weight 1/3. 70 here contributes 23.3. Most candidates score in the fifties because they have never written a timed precis. Moving from 55 to 70 on this paper adds five marks to your weighted score — more than most people gain from another month on Commerce.
That arithmetic is the whole argument for treating the English paper seriously. It is the cheapest five marks in the exam, and the cut off history says five marks is the difference between the shortlist and the waiting list.
Next
- Syllabus and exam pattern — how the weights work in full.
- Preparation strategy — a week-by-week plan built around Phase 2.
- Result — how SEBI declares each stage.
- Previous year papers — the only honest way to find out where you currently stand against 66.
Cut off figures are compiled from SEBI’s published result documents and the cycle records available publicly. Always confirm against the official result PDF on sebi.gov.in for the cycle you are appearing in.
