Beyond The Percentile: Start Mastering Your Interview Game

GDPI rounds, as you can see from the link above, carry a serious 30-40% weightage. Plenty of times they even exceed the weightage of your CAT score  and for good reason too, which most people realise later. Therefore, it is imperative that you give them the preparation they demand — not only post CAT/OMETs results, but also before it.

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The Philosophy behind GDPI

Here's some 'Inside info:' To a B-school, you are not just a student, but also an asset. Your hard work, intelligence, and marketability don’t just land you top offers; they also reflect positively in the school’s placement reports. So, of all the candidates that could clear the brute force examinations (which were indicators of hard work, problem solving skills & memory retention), what's left to test is one’s spontaneity, general awareness & communication skills (both written & spoken).

GDPI & WAT have been serving that purpose over decades for the industry. And truth be told, they are good markers of these traits. More so, the skills put to test during the GDPI rounds aren't developed overnight, they are skills that reflect off one's personality - an accumulation over a period of time. And a time-frame of around 6-7 months is a sufficient to bring enhancements to one's persona.

 

Preparing for Interviews in-advance (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

As mentioned earlier, interviews test your self-awareness, personal journey, ambition, motivation, personality, leadership potential, resilience, spontaneity, general awareness, and business acumen. These qualities aren’t fabricated last-minute — they grow with you.

Here are some activities that you could start doing today to present a better fit of yourself tomorrow:

1. Work on your communication: it’s great if you have all the knowledge & spontaneity to crack an interview BUT you can’t crack it if you can let it out! Consume more content in English, watch your favorite topics through English YT channels, follow English talk shows, listen to podcasts & try to emulate sentences & converse as much in the English language. Make it your new normal rather than looking onto it as “English me baat karni padegi!” After all, it's just a tool for communication, sharpen that tool when you know you’ll be needing it.
2. Reflect on leadership roles: recall any responsibility you’ve shouldered – a college event, a community outreach, projects at job, etc. Try to think of the impact you’ve created, setbacks faced and any changes brought about. If you can back it with numbers, great!
3. Your ability to be a team player: MBA life is teamwork-heavy. Recall times when you’ve worked with others toward a shared goal. How do you contribute? How do you adapt?
4. Watch Business content: Shows like Shark Tank (India & USA) and YouTube channels like The Think School help you understand business fundamentals and build your acumen. Plus, they’re fun!
5. Practice writing on relevant topics: this is particularly a tip for your WAT & GD rounds. Pick a relevant topic, draft a one-pager (300 words) and practice delivering it in front of a mirror. A range of topics you can work on are current affairs, innovation, recent IT & AI developments, space, etc. Such topics can be shared to a common panel of 5-10 candidates where each person would have some idea.
6. Static & Dynamic GK:
   Static GK: Facts that don’t change — rivers, capitals, your hometown, name meaning, etc.
   Dynamic GK: Current affairs, geopolitics, AI, fintech, business trends.
   While one can go overboard on this, I’d like to suggest resources to keep your GK grounded: The Guardian & The Economic Times are great newsletters – spend at least 1 hour reading them daily!
7. Ethics, morals, drives & aspirations: What are the principles that serve as your guiding light? Introspect!

 

You might be reading this article with probably 4, 5, 6, or more, months to CAT but trust me, if you start the aforementioned process now, your GDPI prep will be a smooth sail – more like glistening your weaponry at the time when others will only be getting started. It only takes a little over 1 dedicated hour per day alongside your QA, DILR & VARC prep. These hours will snowball into a noticeable difference in your personality. You won’t just be a good candidate — you’ll be “desirable.”

 

So, when it comes to leaving your mark during interviews, I believe that there’s no substitute for the above since that is transformational. However, if you’ve not come across this article early enough, I’ll still be generous enough to share what you can do on-the-fly to drive the most impact during your GDPI rounds…

 

GDPI + WAT Cheat Sheet

 

1. Why MBA? Why MBA post <qualification>? Why MBA during the time of AI? All sorts of Why MBA variants… have a convincing “ story” [needless to say, don’t mention “high packages”]
2. Tell me about yourself (TMAY) – include good hooks that the interviewers hopefully latch on to
3. About your work – have an easily communicable & impactful answer ready with less technical jargon
4. All facts & figures about any place you’ve spent >3 years in (be it your hometown, your UG college or workplace)
5. All facts & figures about yourself, your mobile number, your favorite food, sport, color, etc. These are tests of individuality & you need to demonstrate that you have a reason to make choices
6. Do rote-learn the college website & about the city that it’s in
7. Your company, its annual report and competitors – if >1 year of work-ex
8. Your college subjects – choose 2 favorite subjects & present 1 out of them as your weakest subject
9. Basic questions from your degree – say you are an electrical engineer: what is resistance, diff. b/w motor & generator, what is step-up & step-down transformer? [use GPT for questions]
10. Yourself in the next 5 years (short-term goals) & next 10 years (long term goals)
11. Appreciate the curriculum & B-school for what it offers on a learning front. Don’t display greed (talking about placement reports)
12. All about your hobbies – especially the extrema questions eg. fastest swimmer, heaviest weight lifted, etc.
13. About your dream company & dream role and why
14. Never bad-mouth your previous college, company or any organization! Speak of how it doesn’t fit well with yourself but no objectively negative statements
15. Politically acceptable comparisons between different colleges of whom you have calls
16. Write 2 topics daily and then rehearse their delivery in a confident, yet humble tone. Make sure you WRITE & not type them. Use OCR & then have them spellchecked & verified for accurate grammar
17. No fighting or abruptly interrupting a speaker during GDs
18. Keep some frameworks in mind such as PESTLE around which your argumentation can be structured
    2-3 entries covering different aspects of a topic and that should be it in your GD. If you are confident enough, go for the intro – brownie points!

 

TIP #1: No rote-learning answers! It always shows through your body language. The interview panels are seasoned enough to pick up the subtle cues when candidates are regurgitating answers before them. Rather prepare bullet points & craft answers around that
TIP #2: Practice your answers – devote at least 1-2 hours daily on speech, articulation, pronunciation & posturing
TIP #3: Keep managerial anecdotes ready. Be prepared for “Can you give us an instance of when you failed to accomplish a target? <You answer> … Hmm, interesting. Can you share another such incident?” Always have at least 2 such incidents ready. There’s no one who has only failed or faced setbacks just ONCE.
TIP #4: Show character! Be humble, listen keenly, show a knack to acquire knowledge and let your values reflect.

Insider tip from my sister, a B-school faculty member:
"Arrogant candidates are instant rejects. We obviously don’t expect you to know everything, but we do want to see who you really are — not someone trying to outwit us."

 

While this cheat sheet will help, don’t rely solely on it. If you have even 3–4 months before CAT, start prepping for interviews now. By the time exams are over, you’ll be transformed. Then, come back to the cheat sheet and polish the specifics.

 

Hope you’ve got a heads-up & give your best for both - CAT & OMETS, and your GDPI prep. Keep the hard work going and I hope to see y’all on the other side :)

 

Read More

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3. Free Formula Book for Quants
4. From a Failed UPSC Attempt to IIM-C
5. From Journalism to IIM-K
6. VARC Guide For Engineers
7. Staying consistent with the 6-month-long CAT journey
8. Alternative Options to the CAT Exam
9. Avoiding Exam Burnout
10. Is this the right Time for an MBA
11. Quitting a Job for CAT: Is it the right thing?
12. Train your mind for the 2-hour Exam