Group Discussion (GD) Topics & PI Experience by Athira Anand, AIIM Ahmedabad

In a recent conversation with Shiksha, Athira Anand talks about her experience of GD & PI process for admission at Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management, Ahmedabad. She talks about questions asked by the panelists and also has a few tips for aspiring students.

I didn’t go through a GD session but I had attended the interview. One among the panel of interviewers was the Director of the college himself. The interview was easy with some general questions.

No GD was conducted.

Mostly we need to concentrate on the richness of the points related to the topic. Also, we need to take care of group dynamics and ask questions also if needed. It is also important to counter-argue on points by intervening in between.

There are six major things to keep in mind while appearing for GD according to me:

1. Richness in points
2. Opening statement and closing statement(very important)
3. Assimilation of points and acknowledging others
4. Encouraging participants who have not spoken
5. Asking questions and intervening if necessary
6. Bringing back the members to consensus if anyone is deviating from the topic

We had sessions in class on various topics ranging from abstract topics like zero, black to political and general awareness topics. There were also questions on infrastructure topics. The topics which we have discussed were given by faculty and are filtered and rich topics.

There were two panelists and six participants.

Director of Institute, Organizational Behavior teacher and another head of the institute were part of my PI.

There were technical questions regarding UG study and some questions in general. Also, most of the questions were from my CV.

I had thoroughly gone through my resume, which I believe is the most important part of PI. Along with resume, I had gone through technical aspects of my UG course and also current general awareness topics.

I prepared on my own, read online articles and UG books. I also had taken advice from faculties on how to pitch yourself in PI. Once you’re ready and confident with the resume, half of your preparation is done.

In my interview, there was a point when I had been asked to explain about any infrastructure project and if I had a chance to appear for it again, I would talk about DMRC. I actually wasn’t satisfied. I lacked confidence and I stuttered two to three times. The answer I gave was a complete mess and I believe that was the only part where I panicked.

The experience was good. I got a bit nervous because of the panel and also because I'm a fresher.

All we need to do before appearing either of the two is to have a chocolate and keep calm. Last moment chaos will never help, rather it will create more tension. Both PI and GD require the presence of mind, some logic, and richness in content. If these are taken care of, anyone can crack both easily.

The lesser-known fact on GD which I never knew before was the assimilation of points before speaking when the GD is ongoing. Usually, we close the GD by summarizing our points but our faculty taught us to acknowledge others' points and assimilate them before we conclude.

The lesser-known fact about PI is that we don’t need to mention the company brief in work experience column in CV as it might seem irrelevant.

About the Author:

Hi! I am Athira Anand and I am pursuing MBA from Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management, Ahmedabad. I have done B. Tech in Civil Engineering from the University of Calicut.