• XAT : Xavier's Aptitude Test

• IIFT : Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

• CET : Common Entrance Test
• MAT : Mgt Aptitude Test
• IBSAT : ICFAI BUSINESS SCHOOL APTITUDE TEST
• CAT : Common Admission Test
• FMS : Faculty of Management Studies
• TISS : Tata Institute Of Social Sciences
• IRMA : Institute of Rural Management,Anand
• N.M A T : Narsee Monjee Admission Test
• MFC : Master of Finance and Control
• DSE : Delhi School of Economics
•NITIE : National institute of Industrial engineering
•SCMHRD : Symbiosis centre of mgt and human resource development
•MDI : Management development institute
•MICA : Mudra institute of communication Ahemdabad
•XLRI : Xavier’s Labour Research Institute
•JLB : Jamnalal Bajaj
•IMT : Institute of Management & Technology
•SIBM : Symbiosis Institute of Business Management
•IMI : International Management Institute
•UBS : University Business School
•XISS : Xavier’s Institute of Social Science
•GBO :Global business operations
 WHY MBA?
HOW MBA EDUCATION DEVELOP
THESE SKILLS….

Role Plays

Guest
Lectures /
Presentati
Seminars /
ons Workshop
s

MBA
Industrial
Visits /
Student Communi
cation
Trainings Skills

Operation Case
al
Workouts Studies
A Successful MBA needs the following skills…

Ethics

Knowledge

Skills

Attitude

Communication
Group Discussion- Tips for Success
 What is a Group Discussion?

• Method to find whether the candidate possess certain qualities

and skills.

• Process:- Candidates are given with a topic or a scenario, given

some time to think on the topic, and then they are asked to discuss
about it among themselves for a certain period of time.

Why Group Discussion?

Institute’s Point of View:

•Test Candidate's ability to work as a part of team.

 ASSESMENT
The following are the skills which are typically assessed during a
Group Discussion:
•Communication Skills
•Leadership Skills
•Interpersonal Skills
•Assertiveness
•Initiative
•Flexibility
•Team Building Skills
•Motivational Skills
•Presentation Skills
•Listening Skills
•Ability to Tolerate
•Analytical Skills

Assess your strengths and weaknesses in all the above areas , & put efforts
accordingly to improve yourself to be ready to participate in a Group
Discussion confidently.
 Type of Group Discussion

Basically there are two types of Group Discussions

• Topic-based
• Case-based.

Topic-based is further divided into four types:

Knowledge Based Topics,

Factual Topics,
Controversial Topics,
Abstract Topics.
Knowledge Based Topics:
Under this kind of group discussion, you require in depth information
about the topic been given to you.
1) You should be able to support it with facts and figures
2) Your information should be substantial.
Examples:
a) Unique Identification Number

Factual Topics:
Based on the practical things that an ordinary man has knowledge in his
daily life. Usually these are socio-economic topics.

E.g. Education System in India, Indian Tourism

Controversial Topics:
•Argumentative type
•Usually these topics are given to analyze a candidate maturity level &
control his / her temper logically and rationally in these situations.

E.g. Girls do well in the academics, There should not be any reservations

Abstract Topics:
• Indefinable things
•Abstract topics help the interviewer to test the creativity and lateral
thinking of the candidate.
E.g. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
26 Alphabets
 Type of Group Discussion…… contd.

Case-Based:

 Case is used instead of a topic usually real life scenario.

 You will be given with the information about the situation, and as a
group you will be asked to resolve the situation.

 Analysis of the topic with different angles.

Behavior during GD:

Behavior in GDs are being tested for:

 Body language,
 Communication
Leadership,
Persuasive skills,
 Confidence,
Team Skills,
 Listening ability,
Logical presentation
Time management

Remember that this is a discussion and not a debate.

•Leading a Discussion: Initiative
Initiative: Responsibility of generating, leading & facilitating discussion
topic.

It depends a lot on the enthusiasm of the participants, their

preparedness, and the general dynamics of the group.

You need to acquire basic understanding of group dynamics and how

you can contribute effectively in a discussion not only as a leader but
also as an active participant. Group discussions ‘do not just happen’.
They need to be carefully planned.
 Six C's of communication

Clarity,
Completeness,
Conciseness,
Confidence,
Correctness
Courtesy

• Group Discussion is a ‘group’ activity with an aim to enhance the

knowledge pool of the group by making constructive contribution.

• GD is not a conflict.
•Importance of Listening?
• Listening is one of the main leadership skills in GDs being assessed.
•Active Listening fetch you-

• extra credit points

•Provide facts & opinion for discussion in group

•Remember Listening is the major part of the GD

• Listening skills and posture that you can get most speakers to address you
and thus become center of the discussion group.
•Summarizing

• Listening to every speaker carefully

• So if you were not able to initiate the discussion, you
could summaries and close it.

• Good summarizing will always make a good impression

and get you extra reward points.
• There may not always be a consensus in a group but all
discussions can be summarized objectively.

•Keep your summary very brief and concise but include all
the important points during discussion.

• Avoid raising any new point or dwelling only on what you

think is important.
Do
•Speak pleasantly and politely
•Respect the contribution of every speaker
•Remember that a discussion is not an argument. Learn to disagree politely
•Think before you speak
•Stick to the topic
•Be aware of your body language
•Agree with and acknowledge what you find interesting

Be…
•Cheerful
•Caring
•Generous
•Cooperative
•Helpful
•Humble and
•Open minded
•Pleasant
•Prepared

Don't
•Lose your temper. A discussion is not an argument
•Shout
•Use too many gestures when you speak
•Dominate the discussion - confident speakers don’t need to
•Loose a chance to contribute
•Interrupt. Wait for a speaker to finish what they are saying before you speak
Few basic tips during a Group Discussion
•Maintain Eye Contact with all speaker while Speaking:
•Initiate the Group Discussion:
Initiating the Group Discussion can make a big plus point for you. But
remember, take the initiation only if you understood the group
discussion point, and only if you have proper knowledge and awareness
of the topic. Speaking without proper knowledge can bring a bad
impression on you.
•Allow Other Participants to Speak:
Do not try to interrupt someone while speaking.
Take notes while they are speaking, and raise the point and clear it out
during your turn.
Speak Clearly:
• Speak loudly, still politely and clearly- heard by everyone.
• Use simple words that is understood by everyone. Do not try to put heavy
vocabulary thinking that it can bring a plus.

• Group discussion not to evaluate your language, rather it is to evaluate your

communication skills, where it is necessary to be understood by everyone.
• express yourself calmly and politely, instead of being aggressive.

Don’t Deviate from the Topic

Don’t bring irrelevant topic. Even someone deviate from the topic then it is a
good move for you to take initiative to bring the subject back to the topic.

Positive attitude
Speak confidently. Don’t try to dominate other participants. Maintain positive
body language.

Speak sensibly:
Do not speak too much, just to add time to your speaking duration. Though
you speak for less time, it should be of sensible and relevant, and should try
give an aim to the topic.
Be a Good Listener
Pay attention while other members are speaking. This makes you
involve in the group positively, and it brings a coherent discussion.

No Need of Statistics
The discussion is about how much you are aware of the topic. You do
not need to come up with exact figures and numbers. As you have very
limited time, just be precise and try to convey your thoughts in a short
and simple language.

Formal dressing:
You should always attend a group discussion in a formal wear. No funny
and fancy dressing. It is just like a personal interview.

Don’t Moderate the Group discussion:

• Do not unnecessarily impose his will on others.

• Moderate the discussion only reflects poor leadership skills.
Good leader rather encourage a shy participant by providing him an
opportunity to speak.
Team Player:
Business Schools and Organizations put a great importance on this
factor because it is very important for managers or any other
professionals to be good team players, because managers or other
professionals always work in teams, and from team member he can
become a team leader one day. Candidates who lack good team skills
cannot become good team leaders.

Creativity/ Out of the box thinking

A perspective or an idea that opens new possibilities for the discussion
is always appreciated. If you express a new idea that is discussed at a
long length by the remaining participants, you can be found in the
good books of the evaluator.

Flexibility
The candidate should be open to others ideas as well, and balance
them with your own ideas. This is what flexibility is about. But it is not
at all good idea to start a group discussion with a conclusion or a
stand.
 Assertiveness:
 The participant should always express the point in a vigorous,
confident and positive manner. Assertiveness is often confused with
aggressiveness.

 Aggressiveness is about forcing your views on the second person,

and can look like a threat. Aggressive participant displays negative
body language, where as the assertive person displays positive body
language.

 Initiative
 Only initiate when you are well aware of the topic.
COMMON GD AND PI TOPICS
•Is MBA a must to be successful as a manager?
•Advertising is legalized lying
•Should business lobbying be made legal in India?
•FDI in retail - a boon or a bane
• GD topic: Terrorism, an evil in religious attire
•Corruption root cause for economic slowdown in India.
•Problems in Aadhaar implementation shadow utilities
•No gender bias in portraying women in ads
•Prepare for GD: FDI in retail - a boon or a bane
•Activism is necessary for survival of democracy
•Capital punishment for rapists.
•Foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail sector.
•Lokpal Bill.
•Content on internet should be censored!
•Film-makers are indulging in cinematic Fortitution in the name of folk culture.
•Under Indian parliamentary democracy it is impossible to ensure balanced
•regional development.
•Corruption is the main outcome of democracy in India.
•In an over-regulated society corruption is inevitable.
•For the poorer sections of society, a state controlled economy is better than a
•liberalized economy.
•The money being put into cricket is harming the development of other sports.
(SCMHRD)
•The formation of European Union has a drastic effect on India's trade.
•Women's empowerment will lead to social development.
•Computers result in unemployment (FMS Delhi)
•With IT replacing middle level management, soft-ware jobs are more lucrative
•than MBAs (S.P Jain)
•Do you think accent holds you back? Would you prefer everyone speaking
•uniformly? (XIM Bhubaneswar)
•Men resent women power at work place (NMIMS)
•Youth in India are becoming greedy by the day (MICA)
•MBAs should be taxed at higher rates in the country (IIMB)
•India should be reorganized into smaller states.
•Managerial skills learnt from classroom can never match those learnt
from
•experience.
•who is responsible for eve TEASING: Boys or Girl.
•Banning smoke in public place is a right decision
•Criticism...is good!
•Should INDIA Change Its National Game?
•Should India stop trade and all relations with pak?
•freshers are better then laterels!
•western culture adopted by india fair or not?
•Religion is a private matter and should be no concern of the state.
•Is corrupt but efficient politicians better than honest and in-efficient politicians.
•Beauty contests do little to improve the stature of women.
•Only one supwer power is better then two for world.
•Women empowerment - A cause for increasing divorce rate in India
•MNS-cultural bullying / Localization
•Mobile phone a ban or a boon.
•Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy.
•He who knows how to be poor knows everything.
•Foreign Television Channels Are Destroying Our Culture.
•Euthanasia: To Do Or Not To Do.
•Education and Success - Is There A Correlation?
•Valentine day is harming our culture.
•A ship Docked in Harbor cannot face the storms.
•Every cloud has a silver lining.
•Small is beautiful.
•Growing BIG is boon or ban?
•Idea to make India a superpower in 2020.
•Obama's visit to India-gain or loss.
•Intrusions in privacy is more important then security.
•Kohinoor must be returned to india.
•Life may start getting happier after 50.
•Penalty shoot-outs are an unfair way of deciding football matches.
•Social network Boon or Ban.
•The government should stop funding the IITs and the IIMs and, instead, divert
the
•funds to primary education.
•Profit is the only business of business.
•Democracy has hampered India's progress.
•Principles of Mahatma Gandhi; are they valid today?.
•Growth and integrity are poles apart.
•Satyagarh by Baba Ramdev.
•Middle East Protests.
•Are we raising a generation of burnt out children?
•Advertising is all glitter and little truth.
•Is bureaucracy a hindrance to economic reforms in India?
•To sustain India's integrity it is necessary to devolve more power to states.
•Women reservation in parliament is against the tenets of democracy.
•Computers result in unemployment.
•The parliamentary form of democracy has failed in India.
•Consumer satisfaction should be achieved at any cost.
•Managers do not add value to the society.
•Democracy is the only way to a sustained economic growth.
•Should youth indulge in politics?
•Liberalisation in 1991 was a forced one.
•Democracy is a luxury in India.
•Business Ethics.
•Infrastructure and India.
•Effectiveness of economic embargo on Iraq.
•The parliamentary form of democracy has failed in India.
•Consumer satisfaction should be achieved at any cost.
•Managers do not add value to the society.
•Corruption is the main outcome of democracy in India.
•The formation of European Union has a drastic effect on India's trade.
•Knowledge is the awareness of one's ignorance.
•Virtue has its own reward.
•Is the job of a manager to do the right things or to do things rightly?
•Coke and Pepsi should be driven out of India.
•Can religion be kept out of politics?
•Religious fundamentalism is more dangerous than regionalism.
•International embargo: the US is going too far.
•India-Pakistan relation: has it reached a point of no return?
•'Tryst with destiny' ' has India redeemed its pledge?
•Is India ready for e-commerce?
•Has the time come to eradicate the nuclear weapons?
•All education should be exclusively provided by the government.
•Tryst with destiny - Has India redeemed its pledge.
•Indo-Pak relations ' more rhetoric, less substance.
•Money is the sixth sense.
•All Education should be exclusively provided by the government.
•Indo-Pak relations ' point of no return.
•Is bureaucracy a hindrance to economic reforms in India?
•Under Indian parliamentary democracy it is impossible to ensure balanced
regional
•development.
•For the poorer sections of society, a state controlled economy is better than a
•liberalized economy.
•Industrial growth in the next millennium will depend a lot on how we tackle the
•environmental issues.
• Food comes first, ethics later.
•In India democracy is nothing but politicised monarchy.
•New Delhi should not be the capital of India.
•Industrial growth and environmental care do not go hand in hand.
•TV commercials should be banned.
•To survive in the civilized world one needs to be hypocrite.
•Money is the sixth sense without which one cannot enjoy the other five.
•Advanced mathematics has no value in life.
•Efficiency and corruption go hand in hand.
•Welcome back socialism.
•Information Technology.
•TV Commercials should be banned.
•Politics and economics go together.
•Winning is not the important thing, it is the only thing.
•Does India need to reduce defense expenses?
•Love marriages are a black spot for our culture
•The only conviction in a man's life should be to not take life seriously
•who serves more either boys or girls
•God:Myth or Reality
•offbeat career vs conventional career
•Should India have Two-party system ?
•Joint family vs Nuclear family
•Cloning is good or bad?
•Love marriage is better then arrange marriage.
•Capital punishment for rapists
•Growth and integrity are poles apart.
•Government should reduce defence expenditure and spend more on social
sector.
•The UN has not served any purpose in the last decade.
•Religion is a private matter and should be no concern of the state.
•Is corrupt but efficient politicians better than honest and in-efficient politicians.
•Beauty contests do little to improve the stature of women.
 Thank You
&
Best of Luck!!!