Group Discussion

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While the written examination requires students to be sharp in basic verbal, analytical and mathematical skills, the GD evaluates public – speaking skills and knowledge of academic and current affairs. Students are excepted to be aware of the economy, corporate and business trends, and the stock market trends and have a good grip of the subject of specialization in their bachelor’s degree.

Structured data collection

No amount of prepackaged reading material can provide all the knowledge one needs to possess. Knowledge can be acquired from several sources – newspapers, periodicals, television, panel discussions and even the World Wide Web. Keep abreast of happenings around by subscribing to a newspaper of general interest, a business daily, a magazine like THE COMPEWTITION MASTER, and surf the Internet regularly.

For each article you read, try and form an opinion of your own, which may or may not be in agreement with what is being said by the author. Substantiate the opinion with reasons based on facts. This exercise of analyzing situations is extremely useful while discussing issues in a group.

Acquiring knowledge alone is not enough. The acquired knowledge needs to be retained as well. Students in the past have adopted a practice to maintain a file clipping of major business and political happening on a day-to-day basis. Such a file can be referred to for refreshing memory before the D-day.

Public Speaking

Confidence in public speaking is a key attribute. Interact with peers regularly and organize mock group discussions at least once every other week. Pick up lead stories from a daily to discuss and let a couple of people from the group act as observers to give a feedback on performance at the end of the discussion. As the Internet assumes a leading role in modern –day economy, this year could see a substantial number of questions and discussion topics entered on information technology and e-commerce.

Rules to follow in a GD

Be an early bird: While sitting in a GD, try and be amongst the first three to speak up. Do not wait too long to make your entry into the discussion, it may be too late and someone else may have already voiced your ideas.

Quality counts: The most vocal necessarily do not make it through a GD. Attempting to hog the limelight by not allowing other members to contribute to the discussion would only earn negative points. It is the quality of contribution and not the quantity that carries weight. Originality of ideas leaves a positive impact on the examiner. It may be easy to rephrase what another person has said, but such glib talk seldom appeals to the observers.

Healthy Argument: During the GD, do not try and pull your peers down by raising your voice or gesticulating .Enter into a healthy argument within the group if you disagree with someone else’s opinion. Disagreement should not be taken personally since everyone is entitled to his / her own opinion.

Be attentive: Never try to change your stance during the GD. Do not be a fence sitter. Have an opinion and substantiate it by reason.

Be sure about what you say in the GD and remember it. The panel may toss a question or two on some statements you may have made in the GD during the interview.

The normal time allocated for a GD is around 30 minutes. As soon as time is over, one of the observers would end the GD. Sometimes, each candidate is asked to sum up the discussion very briefly. Hence be attentive right through the discussion and be prepared to summarize if asked to do so. If you so desire, keep a small pad with you to jot down bullet points that may emerge out of the discussion.

Opening and closing: Opening a discussion is a high risk- high return strategy. In most GDs, the opening speaker is the person who is likely to get the maximum uninterrupted airtime. The reason is simple – most other participants will still be trying to understand the basic issues in the topic, or are too nervous to speak and are waiting for someone else to start. Therefore, the evaluators get the best chance to observe the opening speaker. Now this is a double – edged sword. If the opening speaker talks sense, he/ she will get credit. If, on the other hand, the first speaker doesn’t have too much sense to say, he/ she will attract the undivided attention of the evaluators to his shortcomings. He/she will be marked as a person who speaks without thinking and merely for the sake of speaking. Also, he /she may be marked as someone who leads the group in the wrong direction and does not make a positive contribution to the group.

So, remember, speaking first can make or mar your GD performance depending on how you handle it. Speak first only if you have enough sensible things to say. Otherwise, keep silent and let someone else start.

Try and summarize the discussion at the end. In the summary do not merely restate your point of view; also accommodate dissenting viewpoints. If the group did not reach a consensus, say so in your summary, but remember, do not force a consensus unless asked to by the evaluators. Forcing a consensus could end up working against you.

Entry Strategies: Identify the way to enter the discussion. In a loud GD where there are three or four aggressive participants and where a number of people want to speak at the same time, it becomes difficult for most others to get a chance to speak, at the same time; it becomes difficult for most others to get a chance to speak. This is the most frequent problem encountered by participants. There is no foolproof solution to this problem. It is crucial that you speak. Some guidelines on interjecting in a loud GD are given below. You will have to decide yourself which one is appropriate.

Enter the troughs: Every GD has its highs and lows. There are times when the noise level is high and times when it is low. You could wait for the lows and time your interjection then. However, there have been GDs where the one waiting for lows, could never speak.

Interjecting in a discussion with questions: Normally, people tend to take on a doubt or a clarification even if they are in the middle of a discussion, just to show that they know the issue in and out. The question attracts attention towards you and gives you an opportunity to speak. Now the ball is in your court. Fire another question or start putting your thought across.

Enter after a person who has made a point: The success of an interjection depends not only on assertiveness but also on the receptiveness of others. If you interject when someone else has just begun speaking before he /she has made the point, it is unlikely that he/ she will let you have your way. On the other hand, if you wait till he/she has made at least some of his/her points, he/she will be more amenable to letting you speak. But don’t wait too long.

Enter with a supportive statement: A useful way of starting your interjection is by supporting a point that has just been made. People will let you speak if they think you agree with them or if you praise them. Try starting by saying something like, “I agree with that point and I would like to add…”

Alternatively, praises the person who had just spoken by saying “; I think that is very important point…” In all probability, he/she will let you speak. Once you have the floor, you could either extend the argument or you could switch tracks by saying “however, before we spend more time on that issue we should be discussing…”

The most natural way of entering when you find that others are not listening is to raise your voice. To be effective, however, you will have to combine this tool with some of the others mentioned, as it is unlikely to succeed on its own.

You can add quality to a GD on one of the following ways:

Blunders in GD

Many intelligent and deserving candidates often commit blunders during the group discussion. It makes sense to understand there problem areas so that you check them. Some of the most common blunders are:

Aggressiveness: The most common visible feature is forcibly trying to lead the GD. This is reflected in unnecessarily dramatic statement, banging on the table, engaging in a one – to one discussion with some other student, bitterly criticisizing or passing, judgment on another participant, raising the decibel level, maintaining a snobbish attitude, etc.

Negativity: The choice of words having negative connotations invariably points to the negative attitudes of the candidate. Just don’t use them. Negativity is also conveyed through body language (even if you are using positive words). For example, folding your arms across the chest, having a cynical expression of word for even the good points proposed in the GD, nervous gestures of your hand on your mouth etc. The best way to handle this problem is to simply change your attitude and become more positive.

Unfocussed Behaviour: Lots of candidates try to quote data to things they know having absolutely no relevance to the given topic. Clearly, their aim is to try and impress. This doesn’t work because the examiner will quickly understand the trick and the desperation. Trying a jargon-dump is another trick that fails.

Wrong facts: If you’re not sure about data, qualify it with, “I think,” “if I remember it right”, “approximately,” etc. The GD is not a test of your memory but of your understanding and conceptual thinking. An extension of this blunder is trying to ridicule another candidate for being the correct details, just say it and get on with it. Let the panelist do the judging.

Being highly individualistic: Individuality is a virtue. But remember that as future managers, your social skill is under evaluation. If you just can’t do anything in a group situation, you are choosing a wrong career. Either learn to work in a group or rethink your strategy.