The Personal Interview round of one of the high scorers in CAT 2015, Saumya was recently held at Mumbai for admission to PGP 2016-18 at IIM Indore. Saumya has high hope to convert the call as she performed well both in WAT and PI round which were held last week only. Saumya belongs to the category of few selected MBA aspirants who wish to join management programme only at one of the older IIMs. Saumya is also hopeful to get shortlisted by FMS Delhi whose shortlist is about to be announced. She has also been shortlisted by IIM Kozhikode but the B school does not fall in her preferred domain.
Saumya is a working professional and has engineering back ground. She has scored a decent 96+ percentile with good and balanced high sectional percentile in each of the 3 sections in CAT 2015.
WAT & PI at IIM Indore: 50% weightage
While computing the final composite score to generate merit list and admission offers to PGP 2016-18 batch, IIM Indore will award 50% score to Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) round and will divide this high weightage into 35% marks to PI and 15% to WAT round. Saumya before going to face the WAT & PI well understood the importance of this round and made sure that nothing was left to chance.
The PI round: Must read
The personal interview round of Saumya could be yours also. To gain the first hand knowledge and to update yourself on what is going on during the PI round in IIMs, it is a must read to understand and refresh yourself on various relevant points to face the PI session.
The real PI account and the subsequent tips enable the candidates to know their strengths and weaknesses and can help them to boost their confidence level. The PI sessions at IIMs are the good sessions that enable other candidates to get ready for the final admission round and perform well to convert the call.
WAT & PI in forenoon session
Saumya was supposed to report at the PI venue at 8 AM. She reached at 7.45AM. The document verification process started exactly at 8:00AM and concluded at 8.30AM. There were 6 members in the document verification panels. The documents were verified with utmost care. In case of incomplete documents, the students were asked to fill a Proforma containing the assurance from the candidates of the date by which the document would be submitted by them to IIM Indore office.
The excerpts of the personal Interview are shared below for the benefit of MBA aspirants going to appear in final admission round at the IIMs and other top rated B schools.
WAT followed by PI
With the document verification process coming to end at 8.30AM, the process for Written Ability Test (WAT) began at the venue. Saumya was asked to write on the WAT topic ‘Would India contribute to pollute environment with its Make in India mission’.
Time allotted was 30 minutes to write the well worded essay on the topic. Good piece of writing is expected to be of around 300 to 400 words with well thought of process presented in coherent form.
PI round began at 9.15
Personal Interview was divided among 5 panels. Saumya was allotted panel 3. She waited for 8-10 minutes outside the interview room after which she was called for the PI round.
Saumya opened the door softly, asked for the permission before entering the room and moved in smartly upright. She stopped at a greeting distance from the table behind which 3 panelists were seated watching her movement carefully.
The PI panel comprised a calm looking Lady panelist; one senior male panelist and one younger male panelist. While the Lady panelist did not ask many questions, the senior looking panelist asked a series of questions on her subject Electronics while other panelist asked a round of questions on Economic terms, Current Affairs and banking.
Saumya: Good morning Ma’am, Good morning Sirs
Lady Panelist: Good morning Saumya, please take your seat
Saumya: Thank you Madam
Lady Panelist: Saumya, tell us about yourself
Saumya: I have positive attitude and devote good volume of energy to achieve my goal. Most important among other qualities is that I believe in my abilities.
Lady panelist: Why do you want to pursue MBA?
Saumya: Because I love my job. At present, I have been working as a management trainee with TCS for last 6 months. I put my back to accomplish my work to my best. I believe in my ability which inspires me to learn more and do the task better.
Lady panelist: Why go for B-tech when you wish to pursue MBA? Why not go for BBA and then MBA?
Saumya: I strongly believe that it is the most fruitful and right career combination.Take for example Mr. Raghu Ram Rajan a B Tech and then an MBA. B Tech enables one to learn how to study. And now when I have all those technical things, I want to learn new skill sets on management and grow further in my career.
Senior Panelist: Which is your favourite subject?
Saumya: Digital Electronics
Senior panelist: What is the difference between QUAM and PSK?
Saumya (Explained PSK but didn’t know about QUAM): Sorry sir, I haven’t heard about QUAM.
Senior Panelist: Say if I have to call students from another room, which modulation would be most cost effective?
Saumya: Explained all modulation techniques AM, FM, PM and answers convinced the panelist.
Senior Panelist: What is the difference between Digital and Analog receiver?
Saumya explained the difference well that convinced the panelist.
Senior Panelist: Draw the Analog Receiver (handed a piece of paper to Archana)
Saumya drew the Analog Receiver which satisfied the panelist to large extent.
3rd panelist: Who is the Finance Minister of India?
Saumya: Mr. Arun Jaitley
3rd panelist: What are his responsibilities?
Saumya: He is responsible for all the financial and budgetary plans. Finance Minister presents Budget in the Parliament, looks after its implementation and frames Fiscal policies for the economic betterment of the country.
3rd panelist: What is the difference between Fiscal and Monetary policy?
Saumya: Sir, Fiscal Policy is related to revenue and expenditure of the Government while Monetary policy is to regulate money supply in the economy.
3rd Panelist: You have a biased coin with the probability of getting a head as 1/3 and tail as 2/3. What is the probability of getting at least 5 heads in 10 toses.
Saumya: Sir, it is 1-(1/3)^5
Lady Panelist: Any question you wish to ask from us.
Saumya: No Madam, thank you. It has been a great learning session for me.
According to Saumya “When I came out of the interview room I had mixed feelings. Any how I thought that I had convinced the panelists to a good extent.”
Saumya after reviewing her performance is hopeful to convert the call.
Related Article
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more tips and updates on PI round 2016
