Students’ Speak: Don’t try to be someone else during the GDPI

By: Abdullah Salman M

GDPI plays a vital role in getting selected for any top B-School even if an aspirant has scored very well in CAT Exam. Be prepared with UG subjects, especially on management electives (if any) and most importantly about UG project and career goals post-MBA.

Group Discussion and Personal Interview (GDPI) is a key aspect for admission in most of the top B-Schools. However, few of the top B-schools have ruled out GD (Group Discussion) as a criterion for evaluating students but most of them consider GD. Nonetheless, PI (Personal Interview) is very much crucial in knowing each candidate's potential and career upliftment during the process of MBA Education and post MBA in their career aspects.

Just be yourself

If you are a fresher, i.e a fresh graduate after college, I would suggest you personally to focus more on GDPI preparation soon after your CAT or Management Exam. For serious aspirants, GDPI plays a vital role in getting selected for any top B-School even if they have scored very well in CAT Exam. Be prepared about your UG subjects, especially on management electives( if any) and most importantly about your UG project and career goals post MBA. Just be yourself; you do not need to act. The panellist will quickly come to know if you try to be someone else during the process. Try to be honest, clear, confident in the entire process of GDPI. If you do not know something in the PI, admit it and say that you will learn it soon after returning home. This will make them very clear and positive about you. This will have a high probability of taking you in their B-school.

Don’t be too stressed

The panellists also make sure that the candidate is comfortable and they should not be too serious during the process. From my understanding, I think just like candidates, the panellists also get stressed up by taking so many GDPI rounds for many candidates. I converted We School (Welingkar Management), both Mumbai and Bengaluru Campus. I converted TSM, Madurai too and later on joined TSM, Madurai for personal reasons. My GDPI process at WE School went very well. Many batches and slots were going on for the admission process. Nearly 500 people were called during my batch day. Out of every 120 candidates, they take one student approximately.

Common mistakes students make during GDPI Process

 I observed that the reason for the rejection of students is they talk too much or they do not talk at all on the right time or they keep themselves idle in the entire GD process. This is a big negative thing for their result. So, At least gather some points when others speak on topics and with common sense, try to add your insight which must be meaningful. During the interview, students try to pretend be someone else and make the interviewer irate by giving stupid answers, even though they know the answer very well.

About the Author:

Abdullah Salman M. is currently pursuing MBA in General Management from TSM, Madurai. He has 15 months of work experience as a Network Engineer. He hails from Vellore, Tamil Nadu and has previously completed BE (ECE) from Anna University, Chennai.