Group Interview Experience - Anamika Kumari

Name: Anamika Kumari               

Entrance Exam Percentile: 96.82

Programme and Batch: PGDM 2014-16

Work experience: NIL

For WAT:

1.       How was your performance in the MBA entrance exam? Also share your overall WAT experience?

I did not have a very good score in CAT but I got calls from SPJIMR, MDI and IIM Indore. You need no preparation for WAT and the topics are very random and usually not related to general awareness. It is to judge your writing ability and consistency of thoughts. Topics are usually you can easily relate to.

2.       What was your topic for WAT and what was your Time limit?

Topic: You are 80 years old now and you look down to your life. Do you feel happy about it? Do you regret about something? Write your thoughts. (Not exactly the same but somewhat similar)

Time: 30 minutes

3.       What was your approach towards WAT and how would you rate your writing?

My approach was very simple. For a minute I collected my thoughts on what and where I want to be by the time I become 80 and started writing according to that. I wrote about all the successes and wrote about some of the regrets I felt could be possible.

4.       How did you prepare for WAT, your Time Management strategy?

No preparation works usually for these topics. You need to be in habit of writing. Just make sure you fill in your form very well and answer the questions on your own, know yourself – your strengths and weaknesses, try to be a bit creative and you’re done.

5.       How did you Structured your essay writing along with the time constraint?

For me it was kind of a story writing, I tried to make it as interesting as possible and did not follow any structure as such. Time was a constraint. One should time oneself while practicing for WAT.

6.       Was the topic tough for you to write? Please share the difficulty while outlining the structure for the essay and how you tackled the problem?

The topic was not tough for me, it just required some creativity and clarity of thoughts. Once you know yourself well, it becomes easy to write.

7.       Is there any advice for the aspirants who’d be appearing in the WAT test soon?

Practice writing; pick up any topic and write down your thoughts, it increases your speed and helps you structure your essay.

For GI-1:

1.       How many members were there in your interview board?’-

There were 3 members, two were faculty members and one was an alumnus of SPJIMR.

2.       How was your interview structured?

We were asked some questions one by one in the sequence in which we were sitting. The questions were the typical ones – Tell me about yourself? Why SPJIMR? Why this specialization?

3.       Was there any tough question for you to answer?

As mentioned above, these were some very typical questions that one can prepare for. One needs to justify the specialization really well.

4.       What were the key factors which you think influenced your selection at PI stage?

I was confident, witty and gave clear answers. I believe this worked for me.

5.       How did you prepare for your PI?

I used to follow PagalGuy religiously. It helps a lot to know the experiences and questions asked and prepare some general questions asked in interviews. In the process of preparing those answers and while preparing the answers for the questions in my form, I realized a lot of stuff about myself.

6.       Did you appear for any other PI exercise at other top B-schools? Please share a few experiences (where you went wrong).

Yes, I appeared for IIM Indore and MDI interviews. In IIM Indore I was mostly asked questions from my academics and some general questions to test my thought process. MDI was also mostly technical and they also asked questions related to current awareness.

7.       Any interesting moment from your PI which you would like to share with MBA aspirants?

In my GI-1 I gave some really witty answers which made everybody in my panel laugh.

8.      What is your advice to aspirants for Group Interview?

Prepare some of those typical questions really well and fill the form on your own. List down your achievements and reflect on the past experiences in life, your learning from them and then write down the answers, your weaknesses and strengths.

For GI-2:                                   

1.       How was your GI-2 experience different from GI-1?

GI-2 is tougher. The number of applicants forwarded to GI-2 completely varies across the panel. In GI-2, they see if you are fit for the institute or not. They judge you on your social sensitivity and clarity of thoughts. I was grilled a bit on the difference between smart work and hard work.    

2.      What according to you was different/unique in your interview (ex: over Skype, Extremely technical, completely non technical etc.

GI-2 was completely non-technical for me.

3.      How was your selection post GI-1 communicated to you?

Our group was taken to a different room from the waiting area and we were informed about the result by the Admission Committee (ADCOM) members

4.      How did you overcome your nervousness(if any) during the interview?

Group Interviews has both pros and cons for an applicant. Overcoming nervousness is one of the pros. You feel comfortable when you go in a group. Talking and being familiar with the people in your group when you are waiting to be called in also helps.

5.      What role did your background play during the interview process?

It did not help much as there were no technical questions but I had connected my background with the choice of my specialization and it helped. What they look for is a logical connect, I believe.