The results of CAT will be most probably out by the second week of January and your WAT-PI round will be conducted in mid-February or later. This gives you roughly a time of 45 days to prepare for WAT-PI round. Although some of you might have already started preparing for WAT-PI but for those who haven’t, '
start your preparation now'. It is not late and even I started my preparation around this time only last year.
Now coming to the crux, let us try to understand why do all leading B-Schools have included an interview in their final selection process. Why don’t they just take a student based on CAT score and profile as that would be the sharpest minds of our nation in terms of aptitude?
I'll explain it to you. Interview literally means the exchange of views and in my opinion, a personal interview is a way through which IIMs can get to know about the views and attitude of the potential candidate. Also, the written test is like an add-on process where they can judge whether the flow of ideas of the particular candidate is logical or not and how well a student can articulate them.
The interview and WAT process should be taken very seriously because even after scoring 99+ percentile many students are not able to get into IIMs as they aren't able to perform well in WAT-PI.
So we have identified a potential problem and here are some tips on preparing for the interviews:
In more than 95 percent cases, the interview starts with a cliche question “Tell me something about yourself.” This is like a golden opportunity for the candidate to drive the interview towards one's strengths. The interview is like an exam in which you already know the questions and trust me, the best interview is the one which is driven by the candidate.
Prepare your introduction really well as it's the packaging of the product you are going to sell and in today's world, a good packaging is a key to sales. Include your achievements, work ex or graduation projects, hobbies, positions of responsibilities taken etc in the introduction. It should be a good 2 mins answer. There are very high chances that the interviewer will cut you within the first minute but you should be prepared with a 2-minute answer. Frame an answer for the same and practice it as many times as you can. Frame the answer as interestingly as possible. By interesting, I mean something that can gauge the interviewer's interest instantly like some different hobby, for example, Kayaking or maybe numismatic. In my introduction, I told about my engineering project which was on PlayStore and through which I was able to earn Rs. 20000. Try to include something which differentiates you from the crowd.
Now based on your introduction, frame 100 questions that you think are relevant and can be asked to you. Prepare answers for them too.
I would suggest you to actually write another 1000 word essay about yourself other than the introduction and then form 100–200 questions that you think can be asked to you. It can include questions about your hometown, your school name, your hobby, your project work etc. I know this approach may sound a little weird but it will really help you. Then prepare some other commonly asked questions like Why MBA? Your Weaknesses, Your Strengths, Hobbies, Interests, Basic questions of your graduation stream, Job-related questions, Projects etc.
For all these don't just copy and paste some answer from the internet. Your interviewer will be taking hundreds of interviews and you have to stand out hence your answer should be intriguing. Practice beforehand. Half of the interview you will win by an interesting answer to Tell me about yourself and the other half with confidence.
Tell all your answers with conviction. Remind yourself that if you are nervous you have a lot to lose, and you have been able to reach here because
you are capable. So, remain confident!
For current affairs, I would suggest read different views and based on that form your own opinion. Some of the current affairs you should definitely know include GST, UBI, Digitization, Triple Talaq, Bit Coin etc, ……..! Through current affairs, you will be judged on your awareness.
Lastly, if you don’t know the answer to a particular question, don’t beat around the bush. Remain calm and say I am sorry, I don’t know the answer. This will avoid further cross questions on the same topic.
Wish you all the best!