NIACL AO Cut Off: Previous Year Marks and Category-wise Trends

The NIACL AO cut-off is the minimum score the company sets at each stage after the exam, based on the number of vacancies, the difficulty of the paper and how many candidates appear. There is no fixed cut-off in advance, so previous years are the best guide to a safe target. This page collects the figures that are available for Generalist posts and explains how to use them.

The figures below come from the company's published marksheets as reproduced by third-party sites, and they are not independently verified here. Confirm them against the official marksheet on the recruitment page before relying on them.

Table of Contents

• How NIACL AO Cut-Offs Work

• Phase I Cut-Off for Generalists

• Phase II Cut-Off for Generalists

• Final Cut-Off

• What Affects the Cut-Off

• How to Set Your Target Score

How NIACL AO Cut-Offs Work

Cut-offs apply at three levels. Phase I has a minimum for each section and a category-wise overall cut-off that decides who moves to Phase II. Phase II has sectional minimums, a total cut-off out of 200, and a separate qualifying mark of 15 out of 30 (13.5 for SC, ST and PwBD) in the descriptive test. The final list is ranked on the main objective score and interview marks in a 75 to 25 ratio. Specialist streams have their own cut-offs, which differ from the Generalist ones.

Phase I Cut-Off for Generalists

For 2025, the reports we checked differ slightly for OBC and EWS (71 and 71 in one, 71.25 and 70.5 in another), which is why those cells say about 71. Phase I marks are not added to the final merit, so this cut-off is a gate, not a ranking score.

Phase II Cut-Off for Generalists

These are cut-offs for shortlisting to the interview. The company also published separate cut-offs for disability categories and for each Specialist stream, and sectional minimums for every test.

Final Cut-Off

For the 2024 recruitment, the final Generalist cut-offs out of 100 were reported as UR 60.09, OBC 57.97, EWS 57.84, SC 53.09 and ST 51.22. A verified final cut-off for the 2025 recruitment was not available when this page was prepared, so it is not shown. The final figure is a weighted combination of main objective marks and interview marks, so do not compare it directly with the stage cut-offs above.

What Affects the Cut-Off

• Paper difficulty: A harder paper lowers raw scores and the cut-off, which is why equated scores matter.

• Number of vacancies: More posts in a category mean a larger shortlist and a lower cut-off.

• Number of applicants: More competition in a category pushes the cut-off up.

How to Set Your Target Score

Cut-offs change every year with difficulty, vacancies and the number of applicants. Treat last year's figures as a benchmark only, and aim for a clear margin above them rather than a bare pass. As a rule of thumb, your mock average should stay several marks above the previous year's number for your category, in every section, not just in total.

• Track sectional scores: A failed section ends your attempt even when the total clears the cut-off.

• Test under real timing: You can attempt NIACL AO mock tests on Testkart with the same section timings and compare each score with the tables above.

• Review by category: Check the number for your own category, since the gap between UR and ST can be large.

• Watch your trend: The score-wise reports on Testkart show whether your accuracy and attempts are improving across mocks, which tells you more than a single result.

For the pattern behind these numbers, see the NIACL AO exam pattern. Official marksheets and cut-offs are published on the company's recruitment page: https://www.newindia.co.in/recruitment/list