Students’ Speak: Things to be considered before appearing for GD round

By: Bisharah Saeed

The judgement criteria are based on how valid your points are and how polite you are during the discussion to your colleagues mainly, says Bisharah.

For most colleges offering Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree, Group Discussion (GD) is one of the rounds based on which they evaluate candidates’ admission to the institute. So, it is really important that you know how to perform well in a GD. Let me tell you that just because you read this article doesn’t mean that you will definitely outperform the other candidates. The information I am sharing is based on my personal experience and may or may not completely work for a candidate.

Talking about the skills or the things that you should know before attending a GD, depending on the college, you will be given a set of topics. As a group, you are allowed to decide the topic and after which you will be evaluated individually based on your input. If you are the one that starts the discussion in a group, you will be awarded extra points. At the same time, you should also keep in mind that talking continuously is not the whole point of a group discussion. It is about delivering the right arguments at the right time. You are free to voice your opinion based on arguments of the other candidates. But when doing so, make sure that you respect the other person’s arguments. NEVER interrupt or rudely argue with a candidate in the discussion. This can affect your score drastically and can even get you kicked out of the discussion. So, keep this in my mind. At the time you want to interrupt, make sure you use the phrases, “I agree with you” or “I disagree with you”. If it’s only a portion that you would like to oppose, use the word “partially”. Another important thing that you should keep in mind is that never interrupt a candidate halfway. Allow them to complete what he or she wishes to say.

The judgement criteria will be based on how valid your points were, how polite you were during the discussion to your colleagues mainly. Sometimes, a small weightage might be given to your attire as well but I am not entirely sure about this.

Since I am studying at Rajagiri, I will share my experience with the panel here. There were three professors and the discussion took place in a quiet air-conditioned conference hall. The professors that conducted the sessions were experienced.

One more thing that I would like to share is that the panel will put out the topics in front of you and sometimes ask one candidate among the group to come and pick one topic for discussion. The topics will be placed face down. Make sure that you take the initiative because there are marks for that as well.

About the Author:

Bisharah Saeed is a second-year Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) student at Rajagiri Business School. He has a Bachelor's degree in Automobile Engineering. Bisharah has over 10 months of work experience at Amazon.