What colleges do I need to register for an MBA before the announcement of the CAT results?

This depends on your profile and scores. If you are confident of scoring a 95 percentile, you can go with tier 1 colleges and few of tier 2 colleges.

If you think you cannot score more than 90 percentile, there is no need to apply for the top colleges.

The selection becomes tough when you are oblivious to any idea about percentiles. This is the case with all applicants as the percentiles cannot be predicted easily. Due to this colleges earn millions without doing anything.

The best you can do is, apply to those colleges which accept the students having percentile in the range of your expected percentile. As a backup you can also apply to a couple of colleges below and above your expected range.