Arvind like many engineers had received Group Discussion and Personal Interview calls for IIM- Ahemdabad, IIM- Bangalore, IIM- Calcutta, XLRI, and many other MBA institutions. He knew he had to start reading the economic dailies to prepare for the Group Discussion. Given his lack of knowledge of the economy he used 4 steps to improve his chances of success.
Information: Arvind would pick up one major financial daily and scan through the headlines and editorials. He would pick 5 topics a day and choose 3 major keywords from each topic.



Suppose the topic chosen was India’s Nuclear Policy – from there he would choose 3 words
(i) Power (ii) Environment (iii) National Security
Organized messages: Based on each of these 3 keywords he would then write down what he intended to say as a viewpoint in 2 simple phrases. He would then refine each message so that they became coherent and well connected statements

Non verbal skills: Arvind realized that for such a topic there would not be enough time to state all his viewpoints. He practiced in front of a mirror and experimented with his hands to create visual images of his keywords phrases for the GD panel to understand better. For example to state the difference in power production between India and China – instead of merely stating the data - he would substantiate the data by creating visual images of bars one smaller than the other to describe the difference in power production.
Benefit: Arvind ensured that all his viewpoints ended with a final solution. He would always finish by stating the economic benefit of such a decision to be taken and why he thought it would create benefit for the nation and economy

Using the above 4 steps, Arvind managed to create a list of topics for which he could speak using pure economic terminology. With good two weeks practice – Arvind managed to thoroughly impress the Group Discussion panel and snag the seat from his choice of B- Schools.

Posted in Labels: INDIAN INSTITUTES OF MANAGEMENT / IIM'S AND GROUP DISCUSSIONS