The National Testing Agency (NTA) has declared the Common University Entrance Test Undergraduate (CUET UG) 2026 results on its official website, cuet.nta.nic.in. With the announcement of results, candidates seeking admission to undergraduate programmes at central, state, deemed and private universities can now assess their admission prospects by understanding how percentile scores are calculated.
According to NTA, a total of 15,68,867 candidates registered for CUET UG 2026, while 11,64,098 candidates appeared for the examination. The entrance test was conducted between May 11 and May 31, along with additional examinations held on June 6 and June 7, across 321 cities in India and 13 cities abroad.
CUET scores will be used by several leading institutions, including University of Delhi, Banaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aligarh Muslim University and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University for admission to undergraduate programmes.
How To Calculate CUET Percentile?
Candidates can estimate their percentile using the following formula:
Percentile = (Number of candidates who scored equal to or lower than your raw score ÷ Total number of candidates who appeared) × 100
To calculate the percentile, candidates need:
Suppose a candidate scored 180 marks and 10,00,000 candidates appeared for the examination. If 9,50,000 candidates scored equal to or below 180 marks, the percentile would be:
Percentile = (9,50,000 ÷ 10,00,000) × 100 = 95
This means the candidate performed better than 95 per cent of the test-takers.
Since CUET UG is often conducted in multiple shifts, NTA follows a normalisation process to ensure fairness and maintain parity across different exam sessions.
The normalisation method accounts for variations in difficulty levels between shifts and converts raw scores into normalised scores before the preparation of results. As a result, admission decisions are based on normalised scores and percentiles rather than raw marks alone.
With the declaration of results, participating universities will begin releasing admission schedules, cut-offs, merit lists and counselling details. Candidates are advised to carefully review the admission criteria of their preferred institutions, as each university may use CUET scores differently while preparing merit lists and allocating seats.
Students can download their scorecards from the official CUET portal and use their percentile and normalised scores to gauge their chances of securing admission to their desired courses and universities.