Sail past that last hurdle with ease
This is that time of year when MBA aspirants who have crossed the first hurdle on their way to the prestigious IIMs and other top B-schools need to come to grips with the next and last hurdle — the Group Discussion and/or Personal Interview Stage. Having managed not to get rejected on the basis of their performance in the written test, it is now time for these students to get selected by demonstrating their competence in these highly competitive selection processes. A good preparation goes a long way in improving a student’s chances of success.
Preparing for Group Discussions
In a typical Group Discussion, a group of around 6-18 students (varies across institutes) is given a topic to discuss for around 15-20 minutes. The GDs may be based on a topic of general interest, a mini-case study or an article extracted from a newspaper or a magazine. In addition, some institutes may also employ a device known as a Group Task in which the students will have to achieve a particular outcome at the end of the GD.
In a GD, students are evaluated on the basis of their content (the quality, depth and breadth of their ideas), their communication skills (speaking and listening), their group behaviour and their leadership skills. In order to perform well, a student should come up with good ideas, present them clearly using simple but formal language and work effectively with other members of the group to explore the topic as well as possible. It helps to note that in a typical GD situation, the group is not expected to reach any particular conclusion on the topic. Rather, they are expected to discuss the topic/case/article from as many angles as possible and understand all the issues involved in it. Understanding this point can be very critical to a student’s performance in the GD process.
In addition to speaking in the GD, students may sometimes be asked to summarise, orally or in writing, the discussion that happened. In most cases, they are expected to faithfully summarise the discussion and avoid introducing any points of their own which they did not or failed to introduce into the GD itself. Some institutes do permit candidates to add their own ideas not presented in the summary.
Preparing for GDs should start off with a primer on idea generation and effective communication in a competitive situation where everyone is eager to speak. Once the fundamentals are understood, students should participate in as many GDs as possible in order to hone their skills and gain the confidence to explore any topic irrespective of the familiarity or complexity of the subject.
Preparing for Interviews
In a typical B-School interview, every candidate gets around 15-20 minutes with a panel varying in size from 2 to 7 members. During the interview, candidates are asked a wide variety of questions aimed at helping the panel understand them and evaluate their suitability for an MBA programme at the institute concerned. The questions asked could be personal, professional, academic or related to general awareness. The panel would like to understand candidates’ values, attitudes, beliefs, goal orientation, goal clarity, level of maturity, ability to handle uncertainty and complexity and the preparedness to handle stressful situations without losing their cool.
As a part of the interview process, many institutes require students to fill out an interview form where they may be asked to answer a variety of questions related to their background, experiences, career goals, response to situations including moral/ethical dilemmas faced in their lives and even their role models. The student should fill in these forms very carefully and after a lot of introspection as the panel usually uses the form to decide what questions to ask the candidate.
A good preparation for an interview should start with a round of intense introspection. Candidates should try to understand themselves, their achievements in their academic and professional career thus far, their strengths and weaknesses, their reasons behind choosing management as a career, their career goals and how and within what time frame they hope to achieve them, their alternate plans for a career, etc. Talking to friends, well-wishers and experts who have experience in helping students clear the interviews and getting them to evaluate, validate and even shoot down one’s ideas can all be useful supplements to this process of introspection. Attending 1 or 2 mock interviews can help candidates asses their level of preparedness and put in the necessary additional effort to fine tune her ideas and approach.
Preparing for the Essay
Some B-Schools, including some of the IIMs, have introduced an essay writing stage instead of or in addition to the GD stage. In this process, a topic of general interest or an abstract topic is given and the student gets anything from 10 to 30 minutes to write an essay. The student is expected to analyse the topic from various perspectives and view-points, present her arguments and work towards a conclusion in a systematic manner. The evaluation is expected to be based primarily on the quality of ideas generated, the logical flow of the argument and the ability to look at an issue from multiple perspectives. The importance of language Unlike commonly believed, language may not be the most critical factor and students who feel they are not extremely proficient in English may still perform well by communicating their ideas in simple and crisp language. This is true of the GD, Interview and Essay Writing stages of the selection process.
The key success factor
As in everything else related to the B-School selection process, having a systematic and structured methodology and putting in sufficient practice is the key. The readiness to introspect and understand oneself and one’s motivations also play a key role in cracking this all important stage of the selection process. If you are prepared to work hard, however, it is not as difficult as you might imagine it to be.
(The writer is the Centre Director for T.I.M.E., a CAT coaching institute in Bangalore)