Students’ Speak: Focus areas for GD preparation

By: Abdullah Salman

Abdullah Salman talks about a few of the important topics or segments that usually appear in Group Discussions.

Now that CAT 2020 result has been announced and WAT-PI shortlisting process will begin soon for all IIMs and top MBA colleges, let’s take a look at the most trending GD topics and few tips on how to prepare for them.

Group Discussion (GD) is an important part of the MBA selection process. GD Topics for MBA include topics on current affairs, business and economy and even abstract topics to see the creativity of students.

Type of GD Topics -
There are basically two types of GD Topics for MBA:
1.Abstract
2.Non-abstract

Abstract: These are the most tricky ones and need less preparation as these topics focus on candidate’s interpretations and smart thinking. E.g.- They will give you a topic like ‘Zero" and you will have to build meaningful stories and innovative ideas out of it. Since most of the candidates fumble and make lots of mistakes, you will have to be cautious with abstract topics.

Non-Abstract: Here the GD topics are generally extracted from 3 fields such as-
1.Business & Economy
2.Current Affairs
3.Social issues

Business and Economy section focus on topics such as any emerging or failing companies, businesses in and around the world and how it will affect our Indian economy on a global aspect. E.g. GST, Demonetization, Economic Slowdown, Increase in the Unemployment rate, US-China Trade Talks, etc.

In the Current Affairs section, you can expect any random topic in your GD. You should be well versed with the latest trend happening in India concerning government policies and international relations with the Indian Government.Eg. ‘Are Digital payments secure?, ‘Indians need bullet trains or not’, ‘Should PSUs be privatized?’, ‘Brexit deal or not’, etc.

In the Social issues, you will face topics that are affecting our society either directly or indirectly due to the sudden government policies or any corporate policies, such as NRC, CAA, Triple Talaq, Cambridge Analytica,  etc.

Some of the important sources for preparing GD topics are-
1.Newspaper
Develop a habit of reading at least two newspapers daily (one is general newspaper like "The Hindu" or "Times of India" and one business newspaper like "Business Line" or "Economics Times") of your choice and gather information about all the 3 sections of non-abstract topics which I have discussed earlier as this will give you realtime content to deliver during your GD round.

2.YouTube/Blogs
A digital video platform also helps in learning and delivering GD content during the admission process for major Management Schools. You can learn from the channels like Freshersworld.com for major latest trending topics and TED Talk for communication and content.

About the Author:

Abdullah Salman M. is currently pursuing an 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.