Students' Speak: Parameters assessed during a Group Discussion

By: Lakshay Saini

In GD, the main focus of interviewers is on your communication skills because it shows how confident you are in expressing what you are thinking. Having good communication skills gives you a strong upper hand in GD.

Group discussion is one of the most used techniques for the interviewers to analyze the capabilities and communication skills of a person. The way a speaker participates in a group discussion (GD) reflects his/her personality, way of talking, communication skills, thinking process, etc. That’s why most of the interviews have this process.

Here in this article, I’ll tell you the parameters on which you are judged in a GD:-

1. Communication skills - As you know communication skills play a major role in your personality as well as in your life. The one who has good communication skills can easily convey their thoughts and ideas to others and also convince others easily. In GD, the main focus of interviewers is on your communication skills because it shows how confident you are in expressing what you are thinking. Having good communication skills gives you a strong upper hand in GD.
2. Leadership skills - Leadership skills are also analyzed by the interviewers in a GD because it signifies that you have that quality of handling people and can you make them work together according to your need. In a GD always remember that the final sentence that the conclusion of the problem should be delivered by you because this will give you some major points in the criteria of leadership skills.
3. Listening - Listening skill is also a major skill that shows your quality of analyzing things that are going around and delivered by other competitors. If you have the idea of what they are talking about and what you should speak in between to make your point highlighted then you can easily score higher marks than others in group discussion.

Other notable parameters are:-

Knowledge about the topic

Body language and appearance

• Flexibility
• Creativity
• Team spirit

So these are the parameters on which you are going to be judged in a Group Discussion. To improve these skills let me give you some tips from my own experiences.

To improve communication skills in a GD you should be focused on the topic and all your concentration should be on what other competitors are saying. To grab the upper hand in leadership skills you should deliver some sentences that contain the collaborated ideas of others to make the final conclusion. Interviewers will surely be impressed by your team spirit of summarising every member together. To improve listening skills you should not just hear to give an answer, you have to listen to other people to understand what they are actually saying and pay attention to every detail.

About the Author:

Lakshay Saini is a student at B.M. Institute Of Engineering & Technology (BMIET), Sonipat.  He is currently pursuing B.Tech with a specialisation in Computer Science.