Group Interview Experience- Monisha Mohan

Name: Monisha Mohan

Entrance Exam Percentile: ~96%

Programme and Batch: PGDM 2014-16

Work experience: 23 months

 

For WAT:

1.       How was your performance in the MBA entrance exam? Also share your overall WAT experience?

I was uncertain about my performance in CAT till the day of the results as I had attempted very few questions as compared to my peers who had almost over 20 attempts in each section. On the day of results, I realized that my accuracy helped me bell the CAT and the number of attempts is just seconday.

2.       What was your topic for WAT and what was your Time limit?

The topic was something like cross country travel is important to maintain relationships between countries (don’t remember it very clearly). Time limit was 20 mins I think.

3.       What was your approach towards WAT and how would you rate your writing?

I gathered my thoughts first in a rough sheet and then gave it a structure by shuffling the points and putting them in place. With the time constarints, I wouldn’t rate my writing high but I must admit that I brought in a few new perspectives to the topic.

4.       How did you prepare for WAT, your Time Management strategy?

My preparation for WAT was based on written topics from the previous years which I gathered from Pagal guy threads

5.       How did you Structured your essay writing along with the time constraint?

I spent most of the time jotting down any point that struck me in a rough sheet. In the last 7 mins I rearranged the points and made it into a coherent essay.

6.       Was the topic tough for you to write? Please share the difficulty while outlining the structure for the essay and how you tackled the problem?

I am  good at handling abstract topics but this one was a bouncer as we had to quote a few facts. Thank god for my preparation, I had read some relevant news on the topic and it came in handy. (Newspapers are a blessing! Read them, atleast occasionally!)

7.       Is there any advice for the aspirants who’d be appearing in the WAT test soon?

Don’t get too worked up. You have prepared well, things will fall in place.

For GI-1:

1.       How many members were there in your interview board?

4

2.       How was your interview structured?

There were four candidates and the interviews went in rounds where each of us were question on our preferences.

3.       Was there any tough question for you to answer?

There was a heated debate I had with one of the profs in the interview board regarding a marketing concept.

4.       What were the key factors which you think influenced your selection at PI stage?

Confidence, Sticking to my opinion and not letting off my stand even though the prof said I was terribly wrong.

5.       How did you prepare for your PI?

Pagal guy threads was my bible. I went through every question, every post from 2009 onwards. For GI1, the major preparation was for “Why Marketing?”

6.       Did you appear for any other PI exercise at other top B-schools? Please share a few experiences (where you went wrong).

IIM-K was another interesting PI experience where I was questioned on my under graduation, Visual communication(B.Sc). It was a stress interview. I was also questioned on a few mathematical concepts which I was not prepared for.

7.       Any interesting moment from your PI which you would like to share with MBA aspirants.

There was a heated debate between me and a professor on a marketing concept, Below the line advertising, where he kept saying I was wrong and I was very sure about what I was saying. This went for about 5 mins and it was a herculean task for me to convince him on what I thought.

8.      What is your advice to aspirants for Group Interview?

Be a very good listener, pay attention to what other people are saying and have a strong reason for why you have opted for the particular specialization.

For GI-2:                                   

1.       How was your GI-2 experience different from GI-1?

GI-2 hovered on the kind of a person I am and how good a fit will I be at SPJIMR.

2.      What according to you was different/unique in your interview (ex: over Skype, Extremely technical, completely non technical etc.

GI-2 was very conversational. We had two senior profs talking to us and it was not as grilling as GI-1 was.

3.      How was your selection post GI-1 communicated to you?

The Adcom team announced it within half an hour =)

4.      How did you overcome your nervousness(if any) during the interview?

In my case, my nervousness always aids my performance. So I channelize it positively and it helps me perform better.

5.      What role did your background play during the interview process

I did my B.Sc Visual communication and I am sure it gave me and edge in the ‘diversity’ factor. While everybody spoke about their engineering projects, I spoke about the documentaries I shot.