Group Discussion (GD) Topics & PI Experience by Rohan Mamtani, FORE

In a recent conversation with Shiksha, Rohan Mamtani talks about his experience of the GD & PI process for admission at Fore School of Management, Delhi. He talks about questions asked by the panelists and also has a few tips for aspiring students.

In FORE’s admission process, there is no group discussion round. Instead, there is a WAT and Business Awareness quiz followed by a personal interview.

While preparing for GDs of other B-schools, my main focus was on current affairs. It is very important to quote facts and figures in a GD. This helps you to give strong backing to your opinion in front of other candidates.

I gave plenty number of mock GDs at my CAT coaching institute. Those mock GDs were followed by a one to one feedback from the faculty. It really helps you to work on your strengths and weaknesses. Also discussing current affairs questions with your friends and family also helps to prepare for GD.

I regularly appeared for mock interviews at my coaching center. They also provided some tips, a thumb rule to perform better in GDs but none of it stays in your head once you are inside the GD room. You need to change your strategy depending on the dynamics of the group.

There were 3 panelists during my PI. One of the panelist asked many questions from my subjects in graduation, for which I couldn’t answer most of the questions. Other panelist asked few questions about my hobbies and the third panelist didn’t ask a single question and was just observing me getting nervous.

Overall strategy is very simple, don’t beat around the bush. Answer what you know, simply say ‘I don’t know’ for questions you don’t know and if you need time to recollect some facts in your head, then you can politely ask for some time to think (30sec-1min).

It is very important to keep your answers ready about yourself during PI. It includes basically everything about yourself, your personality, childhood, hometown, education, professional, hobbies, etc. As a part of my CAT coaching center, I could sit for 5 mock PI. I used this opportunity and took feedback from the moderators and constantly worked on it.

You can also prepare a set of questions for yourself and answer it while recording a video of it. Then you can go through it. This will help you a lot and you will get to know about the non-fluencies (pauses which we take while speaking).

Also, make sure you have a solid answer for the most typical question ‘Why MBA?’

Basically you need to be truthful with yourself. You need to know your strength and weaknesses and how you are working towards it. You should also have knowledge about your favorite subject in school or graduation and if you are a working professional, then in-depth knowledge about your company and your role. Besides this, only current affairs will help you. Also make sure that you read, you dig deep and know about the crux of the situation.

There are few interviews known as ‘stress interviews’ where the candidate is bombarded with questions back to back. All you have to do here is not to bluff and answer the questions you are aware about. The moderators don’t expect you to know answer for every question. They normally check your ability to handle tense situations.

GD: Play according to group dynamics. If you feel that you’re the strongest amongst other members, then make sure that you take the lead and instead of speaking the most, encourage other members to speak specially those who haven’t spoken a word. On the other side, if you feel that there are other dominating candidates in the group, do not counter them else that would create a fish market. In this scenario, try to sneak 2-3 solid points in between and make sure that the moderators hear you.

No matter how much you prepare, it all depends on your state of mind at that very moment.

About the Author:

Hi! My name is Rohan Mamtani. Currently I am pursuing PGDM in International Business Management from Fore School of Management, Delhi. I have done B.Tech from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi.