A few pointers for your preparation :

Some General Guidelines :

General Awareness :
Regular reading from the following four types of sources is required to build awareness about key current issues
and also to develop an opinion/perspective.

1. Regular newspapers- TOI, HINDU

2. Business newspapers- ET, Business Standard, Business line

3. Regular magazine- India Today, Outlook, Frontline(slightly left-oriented viewpoints IMO)

4. Business magazine- Business world, Business today, Business outlook

Study Groups:
Sharing always increases knowledge. Sit together with friends and colleagues. Discuss current issues, exchange
opinions, learn from the other person’s perspective. Also, help each other out to practice interview questions.

Guidelines for group discussions:

How to start a GD :
 The starter has the responsibility of giving a structure and direction to the GD, do not start unless you
have something like this in mind.
 A structure can be arrived at breaking down the topic into 2 or 3 key issues and then listing down the
most pertinent points to be discussed on these issues.
 Never directly start off with your first point. Put some structure or direction first
 Don’t start simply by repeating the topic name. Everyone already knows it.
 If you do not know much about the topic, then do not start. Let a few people speak so that you get an
idea of what to say.

How to operate in a GD :
 While cutting in, either wait for a strategic pause in the speech, or if it doesn’t come, politely interrupt the
speaker.
 While cutting in from another speaker, the way you interrupt must be assertive, yet polite, not too
aggressive like waving hands or raising your voice too much.
 Interrupt only if the person is speaking something irrelevant or otherwise wasting airtime. Do not
interrupt someone else’s good point.
 Interrupt only if you yourself have a good point.
 Personal opinions can be given if they throw some perspective on the topic at hand.
 If someone counters your argument never get into one-on-one confrontations, whatever you have to say
must be said to the entire group.
 Do not disagree or counter with someone unless you have a pertinent point from the other side.
  You do not have to stick to only one side of an issue. If you have relevant points from two different
perspectives, it is good.
 Do not let your body language and gestures out of your control. Always keep calm and sit in an upright
manner, whilst keeping your hands steady.
 Gestures can be made but they should not be intrusive or very outgoing.

How to conclude or finish a GD:

 When asked by the panel to conclude the GD, do not come up and start saying a new point which was
never discussed in GD
 The Panel expects you to tell them a crisp conclusion of the discussion held on the basis of the points
mentioned by all participants.
 If it was an opinion based GD, you can conclude mentioning the inclination of the group towards one
specific opinion ( possible if majority points put forth by group were oriented towards one specific
opinion )
 If group could not arrive at a conclusion during the discussion, you can ' infer logically from the points said
by all participants' and state a conclusion on behalf of the group’, but you cannot put your own personal
conclusion on top of it

Guidelines for interviews :

How to go about a PI :
1. Listen to what the panel says : It has been observed many times that due to nervousness/anxiety, people try to
answer the question in a hurry either by cutting off the panel towards the end of the question OR without
understanding the question properly. Take your own time and come up with the apt answer. There are no marks
for answering quickly, marks are for answering appropriately!

2. Body Language : Be positive with your body language. Do not shake legs ( some people do it unknowingly, keep
a check on that). Try to have eye contact with the person asking the question and do not let expressions of
anxiety come on your face. If possible keep a slightly smiling face. Also, if one is of the habit of moving hands too
much while speaking, try to control it.

3. A PI is no place for too many emotions : Few questions might be asked in PIs asking your views on current
scenarios, happenings etc. Don’t be too emotional while answering them. Be calm and objective. Try to be open
and put forth all the perspectives and their analysis while asked such questions.

4. Career Objectives : Be clear with your career objectives and how will an MBA help you in achieving them. This is
among those questions which might be make or break for you, so try to be clear in answering and also prepare
some cross questions which might come up.

5. Value Addition: You could be asked on two value additions and you need to have a decent answer for them.
First one is the value that you would add to yourself during your MBA and how do you see yourself growing
during your MBA. Another one is the value addition that you would bring to the College and the other students
studying there with you.

6. Dress Code : People sometimes ask if wearing coat/suit is necessary. No such thing is necessary. You just need
to be in formals. Just wear the formals that make you comfortable and ensure that they are properly washed and
ironed. Girls please try to avoid jewellery !
Why MBA :

Generally people mention in the answer that they want to take a leap in their career so that they can arrive at the
positions involved in decision making in the organization. But the question that becomes very obvious for any of
the faculties is that, at the age of 24-25 on an average what have you done in life that you think you should be in
decision making roles for the organization you work for.

So, it is better to keep the following things in mind while answering the question:

1. Mention your strengths

2. Your long term goals and how MBA will help in it.
3. How will you leverage your work ex in MBA
4. What are the goals in which being an MBA is necessary and will help you a lot.
5. How the incidents in life made your belief stronger on MBA
6. You can also correlate the answer with the strengths of the particular college for whose PI you are appearing.

Please avoid having just the following in your answer if possible:

1. Fast paced career growth and decision making roles

2. Will to lead and manage the teams

Reason being both of the above don't need a person to be an MBA and can be done easily by a person who just
has good industry exposure.

Frequently asked interview questions :

1. Questions on work experience :
- What was your role/responsibility?
- How did you contribute?
- What are your learnings?
- How can you leverage it in your MBA?
- How MBA can help you after what you have learnt from your job?
- Questions specific to the technology/domain you worked in?
- Questions on technology/domain competing to technology/domain in which you worked
- Few questions about your client
- Questions on firms which are competitors of the firm in which you worked

2. Questions on academics
- Favourite subject?
- Why less marks?
- Questions related to graduation background
- Current happenings in your graduation’s background
- Correlate your graduation background with MBA
- Questions on final year projects ( especially for freshers)
- Inconsistency in academic record
- Advantages of MBA after pursuing graduation in xyz field
3. Questions on topics related to current affairs, mainly related to what has happened in last 5-6 months!!
4. Your views on recent political, economic , technology and social developments
5. Questions on your hobbies and areas of interests
6. What is the meaning of your name and few cross questions on it.
7. Why MBA
8. What are your strengths and weaknesses
9. Your views on the latest book/novel you have read
10. You can be asked to solve a few puzzles
11. Questions about social, political and economic affairs of state/city to which you belong or where you have
worked in past
12. Questions on your favourite sport
13. Questions on your group discussion
- How well did the group discussion go according to you
- What are the reasons that you spoke less ( if applicable)
- Why did you mention this point ( cross questioning on points mentioned by you in the GD)
14. What is the specialization you are looking forward to? ( few cross questions )
15. Why this B-School ?
16. Questions on rural development/rural inclusion
17. Questions on current state of education in India at school and graduation level
18. Give an example where you worked in a team
19. What did you learn from the experience of working in a team
20. What role do you want to play in a team
21. Difference between team leader and team player
22. Difference between leader and manager
23. Long term and short term goals.
24. How will this B-School help you in achieving your goals
25. Your vision of life
26. Most significant achievement of your life and your learnings from it
27. Situation in which you faced an ethical dilemma
Few other important things from which questions can be asked!!
• Latest books which you have read
• Latest poems you have read
• Latest movies you have seen
• National/international conferences/summits taken place recently
• Specialization you want to pursue and cross questions on it
• Your dream company and few cross questions on it
• Some Public figure ( national as well as international ) who has influenced you a lot
• What are ethics for you
• How will you maintain work life balance during job
• Why are you opting for MBA when you will have the same responsibilities and position after 3-4 years and why
do you want to waste two years and spend so much money and lose your salary ( for people with work
experience)
• All CEOs are not MBAs, then why do you want to do an MBA