How I cracked GD-PI of IBS Hyderabad

“With a large number of applicants registering for IBS Business School every year, cracking the GD-PI especially for the Hyderabad campus is not a cake-walk”

– IBS Hyderabad class of 2013 alumna, Prachi Tewari.

I still remember my experience of the selection process. After completing my graduation in biotechnology, I decided not to go for a job and instead pursue an MBA. After giving various entrance exams, IBS was one of the good options I had in my hand and I was not ready to let it go. Performing well in the group discussion and personal interview of IBS thus became very high priority for me.

Preparation – The most important factor for performing well in GD-PI of b-schools is to be well aware of current affairs, especially related to business world and the best source for that is reading newspapers. Since the time I started preparing for entrance exams I made it a habit of reading half an hour daily and if not the newspaper then at least to watch English news channels. Joining discussion forums related to latest GD topics was the second thing I did for preparing. For interview the first thing I did was to make a perfect resume as it gives your first impression to the interviewer and the second important thing was to be totally thorough with your resume.

Group Discussion

Topic – Good guys always end last

We were a group of 10 students with 2 invigilators. I had an advantage of getting the center seat. Initiating a GD, for topics like these, or as a matter of fact any topic plays a very important role. If you do come up with a strong point, the direction of the discussion is lead by you and you get easily noted but if you are not able to initiate properly, you get noted in a negative way. The same thing happened with the girl in our group who initiated with a very weak and unrelated point and she was brutally countered by me. I just spoke one point but a relevant one and got everyone to agree with my point. I spoke three points in total and got full marks in GD. My first point of course brought relevance to the discussion; my second point was an example from my personal life. In GD’s it’s very important to give examples to support your point. If you cannot remember any famous personality examples, then give examples from your personal life. Third point I made was to take the discussion in another direction as everyone was speaking against the topic, I decided to speak in favor of the topic. In short speak relevant, speak something new and always support your point of view with examples.

Interview

There was a panel of two interviewers. As expected the first question they asked was why I want to do an MBA. Giving a good answer to this question is very important. One should never project that they are doing MBA just for the namesake. Since I had no work experience, 80% of questions were based on the academic projects mentioned in my resume. One should be very thorough with one’s resume. I was pretty satisfied with my interview when I came out and few days later the results came out and I was a clear winner. In short for an interview be honest about yourself and be thorough with your resume.

This was all about my experience and best wishes to the upcoming IBSAT qualifiers for their selection process.

Photo credits

135 thoughts on “How I cracked GD-PI of IBS Hyderabad

  1. Hi Prachi , I am glad to know that your preparation led you to win a seat in IBS . This is little inspiring for me to crack GD-PI . I have one month to go to face the challenge . I will follow your procedure of preparation and will get through . Thank you 🙂

  2. I felt very fortunate about your words. I have only 28 days to go face the challenge. I follow your procedure to success and get through. Thank you. 🙂

  3. Hi Neha. Thankyou for the appreciation. I am pretty sure that with right motivation and preparation you will surely get admission to IBS Hyderabad. If you have any query meanwhile. You can comment here.

    • Congrts prachi for being selected in IBS HYDERABAD…
      Ii just want to know about the fee structure nd placement in ibs hyderabad….

      Nd how is IBS MUMBAI …
      Is it worth to apply..
      As i m much more intrested in mumbai campus..
      Nd how is it placement…

      • Hi gaurav, the fees is very low comparing with hyd.and placement is good in mumbai . I am also interest to join in mumbai

      • Hi Gaurav,

        If you are interested in Mumbai then you should go for it. Placements of IBS Mumbai are also good, Teaching methodology adopted is same at all the campuses. Mumbai is without a doubt a very good option for you

        • Thanku so much for your precious guidance and tym…
          Just last question…
          How i have heard tat the placement of ibs mumbai is not 100% nd its intake is also very high tat makes a less chance of getting a good placement ???
          Nd what about its summer placement is it good enough….?

          • Hi Gaurav,
            You can go through the website if ibsindia.org to get the placement records or join any fb group of ibs mumbai. They will be able to help you better. As far as 100% placement is concerned, i strongly feel that a college can only give you an opportunity to get placed, whether or not a student get placed depends on his/her performance. Mumbai being the financial capital of India has ample of opportunities and companies prefer to go to local colleges first so i am pretty sure that the number of companies coming to college for placements cannot not be less. Same goes for summer placements

  4. Thanks Varun. Thats very fortunate of me that i could inspire you :). 28 days is lot of time. I wish you all the best for your preparation. I am confident that with right strategy and planning you will perform excellent. If you have any query meanwhile you can ask here. As an alumna, i would be more than happy to help you.

    • Hi Prachi…thank you for ur valuable words of inspiration. But i wanted to know that do GK questions such as sensex of india, percentage of women literacy in india,population of china,etc is asked in the interview??
      and what have u been asked in the interview??

      • Hi Gulrukh,

        I can tell about my experience. Gk questions were not asked to me during interview but yeah it will certainly help in the group discussion. These topics can be your topic for the group discussion and trust me giving facts and figures in a gd gives a very good impression

  5. I got through last time but could not take admission due to some personal reasons.Feeling nervous this time as i missed the chance i got but your experience really is a help.Thanks

    • Hi Aish,

      I had a similar experience. I got admission in 2010 but did not join due to personal problem. Since i already had an experience, i was more confident during my 2011 selection process. I think you will see to yourself that having prior experience of selection process will help you

    • Hi Alif,

      You should try this and i am pretty sure you will get through the selection process and get your desired campus 🙂

  6. Hi Prachi ,

    The topic given to you in your GD was an abstract topic ! Right?! i have 32 days in my hand ! Whatever you have mentioned in detail about you experience is like the best thing i found all over.:)

    I m gonna ask you something out of the box that is what is the Cut of to get admission in IBS Hyderabad.If you could help me with that.Since you have studied there.

    • Hi Pooja,

      Yes my topic was abstract. You may topics like this. Some other topics that i remember are “there is no good way to do a bad thing”, “black” “angels and demons” etc. During my time scoring was done. 40 marks for past academics, 30 for gd and 30 for pi. cut off was 85 at the beginning. Since i scored 90 total so my name was in the first list. I donno how much the cut off was reduced for the waiting list

      • Hii prachi..
        You said about the cuttofs but this year results had shown no mrks..
        Just got a message that you have been shortlisted nd your gd pi round is on this date..
        Nd i have call to thier helpline they said that academics nd marks of exams doesnt avail much weightage …
        There all focus nd markings will be on the basis of gd pi….

        • Hi Gaurav,

          These are the marks you get after selection process i.e gd/pi. IBSAT is only a qualifying entrance test whether you are shortlisted for selection process or not. It contains no weightage in the final selection of the campus. After your gd/pi your total marking will be done on the basis of your past academic score(i.e your 10th,12th and graduation), your gd performance and your pi performance.

  7. HEY PRACHI..
    Appreciations nd Ovations for you 🙂 …
    u have explained ur experience so well that i am actually motivated now…
    can you tell me what type of actual preparations u did before ur GD nd ur PI…i mean something specifically for ur GD n PI….
    And does IBS Hyderabad gives good placements..?? what about other IBS Campuses..?
    Your views are really necessary regarding this…

    • Hi Ayush,

      Whatever i have mentioned in the article is the exact preparation i did for my gd and pi. For IBS i did go through their website once to know their history however they did not ask me any question about what do i know about IBS. As i said for interview they will ask from your resume only. So prepare your resume very well.

      I believe a college can only give you an opportunity to get placed. IBS Hyderabad gives you good opportunity. Top companies like jpmc, crisil, eclerks, mahindra, bajaj and more come for placement. At the end it depends on an individual persons preparation and performance whether he/she will get good placement or not.

    • Hi Prajakt,

      Topics can be abstract as i mentioned earlier like “good guys always end last” there is no good way to do a bad thing”, “black” “angels and demons” etc. They can be related to economics like “FDI in India”, “inflation” current affairs like “swatch bharat abhiyan- is it feasible” , “are women safe in India” etc. I think you should join discussion threads at various education portals. Also i know that IBS marketing branches conducts mock gd/pi sessions for students to prepare. You can connect with them also

      • Hi Prachi,

        I am planning for 2016 Intake in IBS Hyd. As i’m working for PVT Firm i have no time to make prepare for IBSAT Exam.
        What you suggest? Preparation is required for Cracking IBSAT or not required.

        If required i will quit the Job Early. Hope i will get reply soon.

        Thanks in advance.

    • Hi Gulrukh,

      Since i was a fresher i was asked about my academic projects. First question was why i want to do MBA. Second question was why MBA and not Mtech after engineering as i am an engineer. If you are an engineer you should definitely prepare yourself to answer this question. Then there were questions about my internship during graduation and my academic projects. I was fortunate that the faculty did not know much about biotech so i was not cross questioned much but if you are commerce person then whatever you say may be cross questioned. Apart from that there were certain questions related to management like how management brings difference. Also during my graduation i was in the fest organizing committee so i was asked questions related to that.

  8. hi prachi,
    really inspired at your blog and its very helpful for my preparation. i have got more 27 days for selection process. and i have a question about the pune campus like how is the placements in pune and is it worth to take admisssions in pune ibs?

    • Hi Swapna,

      As i informed gaurav also it is better to go through ibsindia.org website or join ibs pune fb groups to know about the placements. I really cannot give much info about that. All i can say is cities like pune,mumbai,gurgaon,banglore,hyderabad etc have ample of opportunities and companies do prefer to visit local colleges first so u cannot expect only few companies to visit campus

  9. Hi Prachi,

    As everyone said the experience you shared was pretty awesome!!
    I had started my preparations too. My interview is on 21st.
    Everything you said showed some character and i would suggest people to go through your experience.
    Thank you my friend 🙂 I am praying to Join IBS Hyderabad soon 🙂

  10. Hi Prachi,

    Thanks for your guidance. It is really gonna help us a lot. Well I would like to know whether the GD and PI results are declared then and there itself or we have to wait for a span of few days?

    • Hi Anshu,

      You can search for latest gd topics of 2015 on the internet. Join discussion thread of ibs gd-pi on forums like pagalguy, search for most frequently asked questions in a b-school interview on internet. I am sure you will get a lot of material to prepare

  11. Hii Prachi,

    I am Rumit saluja..
    I am interested to join hyd campus.
    My past acads are 10th-76%/ 12th-58%/ Graduation-66%.
    I have a gap between my 10th and 12th.

    My question is till what extent will my low 12th grades and gap affect my final selection.

    And what should I answer when asked about my low 12th acads and gap.

    The real reason for the gap was due to financial problems I left my studies in between my 11th grade and started working under one of my relatives.
    Then after a year I started my schooling again along with the work.

    It would be a great help if you can guide.

    • Hi Rumit,

      See all i know is that the break up of total score is like this

      Past academic score- 40
      gd- 30
      pi-30

      Out of this 40 what is the individual weightage is not revealed. Even if you get around 20 marks in this and you perform really well in gd and pi, you can easily get hyderabad.

      About your gap, i dont think so they will cut your marks for this as the reason is quite genuine. You can give this reason.

      • Thnx for your guidance.

        One more thing which I would like to know is can you give an idea of what a Good resume should be like?

        And does huge batch size of ibs-h acts as a disadvantage during those 2years?

      • hi prachi .
        really u r great.bucause ur claryfing the all douts about the ibs.
        prachi,honestly iam saying,i have low communicationskills.
        but ,my goal is i want to do the mba in better educational institute like ibs.so,i have only 15 days in my hand to attend the selection proceses from ibshydcampus.
        1.how i can plan these 15 days?
        2.i wan intrsted about the ibs dehradun campus r jaipur wat about these campuses?

        • Hi Guna,

          As long as you are saying something relevant, grammatical mistakes can be ignored. You have to be confident in your mind that what you are saying is correct. If you are gonna think that you will speak wrong english then definitely you will speak wrong. However i can suggest you to fully utilize the 5 mn time given before gd to write the points you want to speak and create the structure of the sentence in your mind before speaking. 2) try to focus on short facts and figures instead of long sentences of what you think. Note down when some one else is saying a good point so that u can use it while summarizing.

          For interview, prepare beforehand only the answers to general questions like why you want to do mba? etc

          During these 15 days switch to english mode completely. watch english channels, english newspaper. talk to your friends also in english only

          I clearly dont have much idea about jaipur and dehradun. You can visit the website ww.ibsindia.org or look for ibs alumni fb page to know these details

    • Hi Shaikh,

      Even i took a gap after graduation. Its not gonna effect your placements or admission but they will definitely ask you. All you have to do is to give a proper and good reply

  12. Thanks mam you inspired me a lot and gave me the confidence. In your above content you told about the resume thing so do we have to take our resume also for the Interview? Thanks in advance mam and wish you a good year ahead:)

    • Hi Trivav,

      Yes you have to bring your resume. College is never going to tell you that but they wont expect you to sit in an interview without a resume. Bring atleast three copies so that if there are more than one interviewer then you can hand your copy of resume to each one present. Good luck for your GD/PI 🙂

    • Hi Madhusudan,

      sorry but I honestly cannot rate it. I dont know much about banglore. U can find ibs alumni facebook pages and ask some alumni of banglore

  13. Hello, ma’am….. I’am having few questions..
    1) As u said that of the past-academics involvement. I would like to know that what were yours. So, I can have a general idea that with mine, i.ll get selected or not for IBS Hyderabad. only if you feel to share, but i.ll be please to know.
    2) Are Mumbai and Pune campuses are equivalent to Hyderabad one.
    3) We.ll be geting any paper to note the imp points in discussion? or else can carry one?
    4) candidates will be introduced before the GD or we should have a round of brief introduction to greet each other properly?

    • Hi Namrata,

      1) No Problem. I am an average student with average marks.I got 83% in 10, 84% in 12th and 72 % in graduation.
      2) What i hv heard from other alumni. They are at par. For details however i wud request you to visit the website ibsindia.org and check the placement record
      3) Normally we get it everywhere but i wud suggest you to carry your own paper and pen so that by chance if you dont get a paper you can use urs
      4) When i gave my gd, the invigilator asked us to introduce ourself one by one. Just the name, city and grad qualification.

      I hope i could answer your queries.

      • Thankyou really very much ma’am. Though I read it today n mah gd pi were on 25th and they were really good, now I am just waiting for the results. Once again thankyou for the reply 🙂 Bless You.

      • Thankyou so muchhh Prachi ma’am for your guidance, your guidance is one of the reason that I have got IBS Hyderabad. I have secured 96%ile. But, now I’m discussing it with my parents that which branch of college shoul I prefer. Can you please suggest. I am confused between Hyderabad and Mumbai. Fees is the main concern. Any suggestions please?

        • It depends on you. Both the campus are good. Avg salary is kinof same. But there is a diff. In highest salary.
          A very big diff in fee structure.
          And in terms of living. Mumbai is a place to be.

  14. Hie Prachi..
    You became a great inspiration for us. Thank you so much for your guidence. Even i’m having my GD – PI session on 25th of feb.
    Honestly speaking, you gave the perfect motivation I needed. Thank you.
    By the way, i need a help from you. Can you guide me for a good resume, as i’m a fresher i dont have any idea regarding any of it.

    • Hi Raj,

      Its better if you can search this on web. You will get good points and techniques from well known people. All i can give are following suggestions

      -> It should not be more than two pages. One page will be more preferred. Following points should be covered
      objective
      academic summary
      academic projects
      strengths
      achievments
      extracurricular activities

      If you have work ex then it should be mentioned first after your academic summary. Your resume decides how ur interview will go so if your writing some strength you should be ready with an answer that justifies how is that your strength, similarly if you are writing your hobby is reading books then you should be ready with answers like what kind of books, your fav author,your fav book, what u liked about that book etc

  15. Has u told ther wil be 5 minutes time given to explain ..is it necessary to talk full 5minutes or just a point is enough for a minute??? These question I asked u will solve my problem and ther wil no be headache for an gd .. but pi will be very simple .. as u told earlier.

    • Hi Nithyanad,

      5 min time will be given before the gd starts to think over the topic and decide what all to speak. You will not be given individual 5 min. May be in the end they can ask everyone to give summary of the discussion in one min.

      PI can be very simple or very tough. It depends on an individual. His preperation, his confidence, his spontanity. It differs from person to person. So if one person finds the PI simple that doesnt mean it will be simple for some other person also

  16. Hi prachi
    Done wid my gdpi at hyderabad
    Gd was gud ,I was the best in my grup.
    Also pi was nice
    Waiting for the results
    As said u got 90 total,can u pls tel the composition of 90 marks regard academic,gd and pi
    also how much was ur 10 12 n grad percentage

  17. Done well in gd and pi but ibs regret me.
    My preference was bangalore . But I dint expect from ibs that they will send me a bad news .. I wasted 1 month to prepare foibsatat plus 1500 for application and I would have written mat and join other college butherw ther is no time left to rght exams r approching . Room rent bus expenses was 15000.. full of waste .
    Your ibs representative came to ideal coaching classes and given presentation and recommended us .. but I was the only person who joined ibs .. and spoiled entire life .. now from our tutions I tell my friends not to join ur ibs .. bec its worst to hurt their feelings life long..:'(

    • Hi Nithyanand,

      Sorry to hear that you did not get your preferred campus. There are so many times we perform really good but sometimes it is not enough. I would ask you not to loose hope. By the way which campus did you get?

    • Hi Rumit,

      You may get i am not sure. During my time total marks were given not the percentile. Any ways good luck. Fingers crossed 🙂

  18. Hi guys. I got admission in IBS Mumbai(2 option). But i want to get admission in IBS Hyderabad I got 78 Percentile in Selection process. Is there any chance to get IBS Hyderabad. I’m not shortlisted for waiting list also.

  19. Hi prachi.
    I have scored 75 percentile overall and have been selected for IBS Mumbai. Is there a chance in the wait list which can get me to Hyderabad campus?

    • Hi Shamim,
      You may forward your request specifying the name of campus where you wish to take admission on the email id ibsat@ibsindia.org.
      The campus requests would be considered on March 24, 2015 on the basis of eligibility (based on overall score) and availability of vacancies at the campus.

  20. Hi Prachi,

    I have got 82.4 %ile in GD and PI. I am selected in IBS MUMBAI and waitlisted in IBS HYDERABAD. What are my chances?

    • Hi Rohit,

      I think 82.4 will be cleared but again i am not sure. I think you must join a facebook group of 2015 batch. I am sure somebody must have made it by now. you will get to know updates from there

  21. Hii…Prachi

    It feel good to goes through your inspirational thoughts & views,no doubt you being a great inspiration for us. Thank you so much for your worthy & possessions guidance. Even i’m having my GD – PI session on 6th April since i had missed it in last month due to health problem. Honestly, you gave the perfect motivation & rel-vent question i had in my mind clearly which was I needed.Thank you so much.
    By the way, the questions or you can say it my unfortunate although i have excellent past academic record is that, Hyderabad campus is not listed in for a GD/PI which is scheduled on 6th April. So, i feel great pleasure to heard your suggestions regarding the IBS campus to which one i should give more preference or for which one i should go; considering you have been in this situation?- mumbai , dehradhun ,bnglr,guragaon,pune & so on.
    And one more thing what i wanna know is that is there any difference or it makes impact in-respect towards the course they are providing such as – MBA & PGPM. MBA i can understand but it feel kind if you clear views on PGPM & is it goiing to impart any resitance in higher studies,or it is a degree or not?

    ……………………………….waiting for favorable response as soon as possible……………………………………………………..

    • Hi Soumya,
      With an NMAT score of 165, you will qualify to attend the GD PI at IBS Hyderabad. Admission will be based on your performance at GD-PI and also your academic performance earlier.
      Applications with NMAT/CAT/GMAT score are open – so you can go ahead and apply.
      Good luck!

  22. Thanks..prachi:)…
    Can you tell me up to when registration is open?
    And I also heard that IBS hyd has increased its cutoff from 150 to 200 score by nmat..is it true??

  23. Hi Prachi,

    Greeting for the day!!..

    I am Sarfraj Momin. Working in IBS Pune – Marketing Department. First I would like to congratulate you for your previous success story shared by you on blog. I will definitely let my students to go through your experience , which would help them to crack the SP well. I am guided in all the ways but some of points wore very value adding.

    Thanks & Warm Regards,
    Sarfraj Momin, Pune

  24. Hey!
    I have one month for my gdpi round
    Could you give me examples of more topics so that i could get an idea of it
    Thankyou in advance

  25. I got short listed for selection process. I wanted to know that what kind of GD topics are given, abstract topics or business topics or case based topics?

  26. Hi,wanted to ask that from 40 marks,how do they distribute for 10,12 and grad.
    Also generally engg students dont have much score,hardly 65 being in university.Is there any normalizing process for this or not?

  27. Hi mam..
    I am attending the interview on 24th of feb …. Mam i lack in communication alot.. Is the any change of being selected in IBS Bangalore?

    • Hi Bharath,

      Sometimes its not words but the matter that is important. If your communication skills are not good its very important that you should speak less but relevant. Try to speak numbers more if you know the topic good. In one of my placement gd i only spoke for 5 seconds but gave a solid statistical figure and was selected. Also just say the sentence in your mind before speaking out loud. It will surely help

  28. Hello Prachi 🙂 A big thank you for taking your time out to answer all the queries. I was wondering if there is any Dress code that has to be followed like forals with blazer/coat ?

  29. hello prachi .. first i would like to congrats all of u who got the admission into ibs …. as i got the call letter from ibs hyd for gd & pi on 24th feb16 . so my question is which gd topic should i prepare for …. and how to tackle abstract topics in actual gd if i dont have more points to say on it.

    thanks in advance

    • Hi Shubham,

      Actually there is one another blog of mine “what to do when you dont know anything in a gd”…. there are many articles related to your query. You can go through them. Just adopt one single funda, if you donno something notedown all the good points other speaker says and summarize in the end or find topics related to the topic being talked about and tell some facts about it

  30. Hi prachi.I just want to know that whether the gd process of ibs hyderabad is based on any topic maybe an abstract or anything else or it is a case study based??I mean can i get gd based on a case study??

    • Hi,

      It can be any… Like my topic was abstract. Some people got a topic based on current affairs. We did not have case based questions in our time. I donno the scenario now

    • Hi Mandar,

      PI questions will basically compose of your academic projects, why mba, your hobbies. your strengths and weaknesses. The rest of the interview will continue on the basis of what kind of answers you give for these basic questions

    • Hi Snigdha,

      Since i was a fresher my resume mainly had my acedemic details, my academic projects, My achievements till then , my hobbies, my strengths and weaknesses. Please note that the interviewer will ask you questions based on your resume so whatever you write just make sure you can answer any question related to it

  31. There are many websites and articles on the internet which give tips about passing various exams and tests, this article, however, gives a blow-by-blow account of the whole process. Even if you are not interested in joining IBS, it makes you want to attempt joining it. very well-written indeed.

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