Admit Card - 5 Nov '25 - 30 Nov '25
To help MBA aspirants crack WAT-GD-PI round of IIMs, Shiksha has compiled a list of parameters on which a candidate is judged in the MBA WAT-PI round. Check below:
IIM Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) round is tough to crack due to its unpredictable nature. Many CAT candidates prepare well for this round, go through all the current affair journals, business magazines and newspaper editorials, but miss their dream IIM by a whisker. So it is important to be 100% prepared for this personality assessment round. All the hard-work will be really fruitful for IIM aspirants only if they can convert the interview calls. Here are some key insights and IIM WAT-PI experiences of students who converted the interview calls successfully.
Also Read: Top GD-WAT topics for MBA admission 2025-2026
How to Crack IIM Interviews?
- Communication skills
- Writing ability
- Subject knowledge
- Listening power
- Confidence
- Leadership skills
- Presentation skills
- Interactive skills
- Decision making ability
- Problem solving ability
- Critical and analytical thinking
- Open-mindedness
Previous years toppers of the CAT exam who later on joined top IIMs, say that confident and to the point answers are the key. Most of the times, the interview panel members pose ambivalent questions to test the candidate's ability of thinking on the feet. Here's what some of the previous years' CAT test takers have to share about their IIM experience.
- IIM Ahmedabad's Anchal Taatya told Shiksha that he stumbled on two questions but sailed through. Read more about his IIM Ahmedabad WAT-PI.
- IIM Ahmedabad's Akshay Mehendiratta, on the other hand was lucky to have a relaxed interview panel. Here’s what he says about IIM Ahmedabad’s WAT-PI round.
- Another IIM Ahmedabad graduate Ananya Mishra confessed that the WAT-PI round was not a piece of cake. On the one hand she had to present her opinion on 24x7 news channels and on the other she had to answer Chemistry questions. Here’s how she came out a winner at IIM Ahmedabad Interview
- IIM Ahmedabad’s Pratham Mani was asked questions from Electrical Engineering and Fantasy Premiere League. Here’s how he handled his IIM Ahmedabad PI panelists.
- IIM Calcutta’s Omkar Mukherjee had to write on global warming in WAT, while the PI panelists grilled him on Chess. Here’s how he impressed IIM Calcutta PI panelists.
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Also Read:
- 14 Parameters on which you are judged in WAT-GD-PI
- IIM Shortlist 2026: Check institute-wise dates and process
- IIM selection and admission criteria 2026 for MBA/PGDM
- What is IIM CAP? Know selection criteria, cut offs, participating IIMs
How to Crack IIM Interviews: Student Share the Secrets
Read below, accounts of more students who converted IIM calls in in the past five years.
| Student Name |
IIM |
Interview |
|---|---|---|
| Abhishek Roy |
IIM Lucknow |
|
| Vedant Chandewar |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Harshil Satasiya |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Nishanth Pandey |
IIM Lucknow |
|
| Shreshth Khare |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Satya Gopal |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Akash |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Akansha Ghosh |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Rupesh Gupta |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Akshay Mehendiratta |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Anchal Taatya |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Ananya Mishra |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Pratham Mani |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Omkar Mukherjee |
IIM Calcutta |
|
| Vaibhav Jatin Shah |
IIM Shillong |
|
| Parth Agarwal |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Anshul Aggarwal |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Ankur Parmar |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Satya Gopal |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Priyanjit Biswas |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Sai Prabhu |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Ruchika Bhartiya |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Abhinav Paigwar |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Mayank |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Shreshth Khare |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Parth Agarwal |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Ankit Anand |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Pratham Mani |
IIM Calcutta |
|
| Aditi Agarwal |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Gursimran Ahuja |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Biswanath Chakraborty |
IIM Indore |
|
| Nishant Shah |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Biswanath Chakraborty |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Achintya Bhattacharya |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Biswanath Chakraborty |
IIM Lucknow |
|
| Shubham Varshney |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Shubham Ranka |
IIM Calcutta |
|
| Dhiraj Bedi |
IIM Calcutta |
|
| Wasim Khan Pathan |
IIM Calcutta |
Another factor that plays a significant role in final selection is previous academic record. It has been seen in the past that 90 percentilers couldn’t make it to IIMs due to unsatisfactory academic record. Moreover, with growing focus on diversity in the class, the IIMs are now looking for candidates who come from diverse fields and non-traditional background.
So cracking IIM WAT-PI is all about how you use your knowledge and presence of mind to handle the questions. Keep your calm, don’t panic and don’t beat around the bush. Believe in yourself and you will sail through.
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The best way to prepare for DILR section is through practice. Before starting the preparation, aspirants should be accustomed to the question types by going through previous years’ question papers and solving those. Since there is not much conceptual understanding required in this section, practice is the key to excel in this area.
Some of the most popular books on DILR section that you can refer are How to Prepare for Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning for CAT by Arun Sharma, Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT by Nishit Sinha, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning for CAT by Pearson, to name a few.
While candidates belonging to Science and Engineering background do have an edge over Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), it is not impossible for students from non-Science background to crack this section of an MBA entrance exam. They do need to prepare harder which includes going back to study fundamentals of Mathematics such as Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Mensuration.
With regular practice and understanding of the question types and topics, candidates, irrespective of the educational background, can crack this section. Aspirants must note that it is important to identify the weak areas and improve on them to get a stronghold on this section. For Logical Reasoning, a good amount of practice of sample questions will be enough.
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