With the formulas and fundas racing in my mind, I focused on the questions asked in the GD-PI eligibility test conducted by IBS, IBSAT. On 24th December, 2011, I nearly fell over in elation when I learned that I cleared the exam and now I was eligible to appear in the GD PI at IBS Hyderabad on 13th March, 2012.
In this approximately three months gap I left no stone unturned in preparing for the upcoming entrance level GD and PI. I browsed through the google and newspaper pages to learn about the new bills introduced in India, figures like GDP, import & export revenue, inflation and national & International current affairs. Any major new or current affairs running around the globe was no more in dark for me. If the above were the chores of the morning then the evenings became reserved for mock GDs at the IBS local office present in my city.
With my head bombarded with all the current happenings I reached Hyderabad on 12th of March, 2012. On 13th of the same month I woke up before the sun just to reach the campus on time. The solitude on the way to the campus helped in calming down the excitement and nervousness of the process. I learned that the process was of 100 marks. 40 Marks for the marks obtained in 10th, 12th and Graduation, 30 Marks for GD and last 30 Marks for the PI was the bifurcation.
I moved to Lecture Theatre A of the academic block along with nine more students who would soon be cutting each other to state their points. One look at the white board and a smile took a birth on my lips. The GD topic was “ In Today’s World, Government Jobs are at par with the Corporate Jobs”. One of the invigilator hit the buzzer when the one minute of ‘Thinking’ came to an edge and there started the discussion.
Though I could not initiate the discussion but soon started flowing in it. Four were speaking in the favor of it and five sat in the opposition of it. I wanted to stay on the neutral ground and thankfully the reading and the preparation part came for my rescue. I talked about PPP (Public Private Partnership) model and soon diverted the discussion. The invigilator hit the buzzer again. It was now the time to take one minute each and conclude the topic. We all did the same with alacrity and peacefully.
There was no elimination round and hence it was now the time to face two more professors for the personal interview round. I climbed the stairs and came on the first floor to the Finance wing to give the interview.
I handed my CV to one of the professor and stood there until another one nodded for me to sit.
‘Tell me something about yourself.’ Was the first question which was asked by one of them.
Since I had prepared for it during those three months I narrated to them about my schooling, my graduation stream, my purpose behind MBA, favorite stream in MBA, hobbies, likes, dislikes and interest.
Then came questions from accounts because of commerce as my grad. Stream. Being marketing as my favorite stream in MBA, one of them asked me to promote my hometown and convince them to “buy a ticket”. It was a hard nut to crack. They were expecting a proper description of the city on the basis of four Ps of marketing but the hotspots of my city was the only thing I was conversing about that time. Though I goofed up in that question but the professors boosted my moral by mentioning that they were checking my confidence and communication skills.Towards the end they talked about the pressure I would have to face in MBA and took my point of view in handling the same.
On 16th of April, 2012 I was floating on air when the result announced and I learned that all the IBS branch options were open for me. I selected IBS Hyderabad and started the MBA journey on 1st June 2012.
Takeaway: Keep your preparations tight. Be it about the current affairs or your academic concepts, make sure you know a major chunk of them. Practice for GD before turning up at the process place. For PI, sit in front of the mirror and answer some FAQs of PI. Keep your documents, especially CV, updated. Trust yourself and all the very best.
Contributed By : Hasan Ali Gumani, Class of 2014, IBS Hyderabad