As NITIE is a very reputed and popular college, the minimum CAT percentile required for admission is generally high. There are several factors that are considered before announcing the cut-off marks. These include - number of candidates applied for admission, the average performance of the candidates, availability of seats, etc. 

• The cut-off of CAT for OBC students is 75+, but it has now probably increased to 80. 
• It is better to aim for a higher percentile, around 80-85 so that the chances of getting admission are improved. 
• They give different weightage to CAT, GD, PI, 10th, 12th, and Graduation marks for the final merit list. 
• In NITIE, only 30% weightage is given to the CAT score for the final selection. 
• The major part of the selection is the Group Discussion and Personal Interview round in order to get admission to NITIE. 

Hence, the cutoff marks of CAT are very high even for OBC students to get a call from this college. You will also have to clear the Group Discussion and Personal Interview round, which is a very important part to get admission to this college.

Wait for a bit for the later rounds of counseling, then you can for sure secure a seat in the department of CSE. However, if you wish to acquire admission during the first round of counseling then you would surely be offered IT and not CSE. 

This happened to one of my friends. He waited for a few rounds and was able to secure admission later. I would advise you to opt for CSE and IT as your preferences in the first and second rounds of counseling when you are required to fill out your choices for the admission procedure. 

It is suggested you select CSE in the first place and IT in the second place during filling your choice, and you should do this in the second round too. Through this way, you would securely get admission in IT if not CSE. 

Admission in NIT Trichy has seats reserved for the students belonging to the states of Tamil Nadu. Therefore there is some quota that benefits certain students. 

• If you are from outside Tamil Nadu and belong to the general category then with 165 marks you may get Production Engineering or something related to the production department. Some of my seniors got admission to the production department in NIT Trichy, two years back, and they had almost the same marks.
• In the second case if you belong to the state of Tamil Nadu and are from the general category then the chances are better for getting core or better branches. You may get branches such as MME, production engineering, or chemical engineering. 
• If you don’t belong to Tamil Nadu and are from the OBC category then you can expect branches like Instrumentation and control, Civil which is one of the core branches, MME, Production, Chemical. The chances for this gets even better if you are from Tamil Nadu and belong to the OBC category. 
• If you are from SC and ST category then you will be able to get even better branches however it’s less likely to get CSE or ECE. 

Here is the 2020 cutoff for NIT Trichy.

The cutoffs are known to change every year and with no certainty and predictability. It can only be confirmed after the first few rounds of counseling. The opening and the closing rank of a particular department sometimes varies by 2k in the general category and more in the quota.

One of my cousins is a student at Vasavi College of Engineering and can particularly elaborate better about the topic. There are essential things that you should take into account before enrolling with a specific rank.

Here is the latest cut off details of TS EAMCET for enrolling at Vasavi College of Engineering, 

For example, you should update your preferences. For instance, the details like caste, gender, preferable branch choice, are essential things to note when filling the form. 

NITIE has released the GATE cutoff 2021 for PGDMM and PGDPM courses. The required cutoff for different categories is as follows.

Although the cutoff varies each year depending on the application pool, you can give it a try. 

The BITSAT score you need for securing a decent branch in BITS Goa changes each year due to a variety of factors. The recent cut-off BITSAT scores for various courses at the BITS Pilani Goa campus is given below.

Now it is always advisable to prepare for JEE (Advanced) more than BITSAT. This does not mean the Goa campus of BITS Pilani is bad or BITSAT is really easy. Many students actually keep BITSAT as a backup plan in case they fail to get IITs and I think it is a good strategy. Any day you should aim for IITs. But around 4-6 months before the exam you should know your potential and seriously consider whether you should give BITSAT or not.

As for the exam difficulty, it is often considered that BITSAT has a lower difficulty level than JEE (Mains). While that may be true but the time constraint, accuracy, and the competition from students should also be taken into account. You should take at least 10 practice BITSAT tests to nail your time management skills.

Finally, I would suggest that get a good grasp of mathematics and you can certainly excel at any entrance exam.