IIM Ahmedabad, XLRI, MDI, IMT to Conduct Offline Personal Interview for Admission 2024: Check Key Components, Weightage, Final Selection Process

Top MBA colleges including IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, XLRI, MDI, IMT, FMS will conduct offline PI round comprising all the components with high weightage for final selection in MBA admission 2024 instead of online PI conducted last year. Read the Table of Contents below to check and know the details and importance of offline PI round, its key components and weightages, top MBA colleges to conduct offline PI round, Offline PI round tips and questions, how to prepare for Offline PI round among others

The Personal Interview round is conducted by all the MBA colleges for MBA admission after the 1^st stage shortlisting on the basis of written exam scores and applicant’s profile. Two years post Covid, now almost all the top MBA colleges including IIMs have announced to conduct offline Personal interview for MBA admission 2024 instead of conducting online PI.

Table of Contents

1. Importance of MBA Offline Personal Interview
2. MBA Offline Personal Interview: Why the Weightage is Higher than for Online PI?
3. Offline MBA Personal Interview Round: Top MBA Colleges
4. Offline MBA Personal Interviews for IIMs
5. Offline Personal Interviews for Top MBA Colleges
6. Offline Personal Interviews for PGDM Programs
7. MBA Personal Interview Tips
8. Questions asked in Personal Interview round
9. How to prepare for Offline Personal Interview? 10 Tips
10. Offline MBA Personal Interview Vs Online PI Round

1. Importance of MBA Offline Personal Interview for Admission 2024
This year it will be physical Offline Personal Interviews for IIMs and other top B-schools for MBA admission 2024. During the offline Personal Interviews for Top MBA Colleges, you can present your communication skills better than in Online PI. Besides, there is no need to be afraid of getting caught by technical glitches due to poor connectivity, or internet speed as these issues come up only in Online interview.

2. MBA Offline Personal Interview: Why the Weightage is Higher than for Online PI?
All the MBA colleges award high weightage to Offline PI round which consists many components like GD, Extempore, WAT and in many institutes, Psychometric test is also conducted. In the Online PI round, all the other components were missing and only PI was conducted. As such, while the weightage for PI was there, the weightage for other components was missing. Top IIMs including IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Kozhikode, Indore and other top B-schools like FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, SPJIMR Mumbai award high weightage of 40 to 60 percent to Offline Personal Interview round in their final selection process before declaring the final merit list 

3. Offline MBA Personal Interview Round: Top MBA Colleges Restoring the Process Post Covid
Till last year, due to Covid impact, many top B-schools including many IIMs, conducted Online PI round. However, for MBA admission 2024, the B-schools are returning to normal with Offline Personal Interview for MBA Admissions as well as offline classes.

Earlier, given the COVID 19 restrictions, candidates found it difficult to travel to attend face to face interviews. Understanding this concern, most leading MBA colleges had decided to conduct the Personal Assessment Round online. With the impact of Covid pandemic over to a large extent, now there will be Offline Personal Interviews For IIMs, Offline Personal Interviews For PGDM Programs in other Top B-schools. Earlier, Online PI round did not consist of GD and WAT, now both GD and WAT are back in the final selection process with high weightages. So, instead of Online interviews, the Offline Personal Interviews for Top MBA Colleges will be conducted. All the B-schools will be conducting face-to-face interviews for MBA Admissions 2024 except a few who are likely to conduct PI round in blended mode offline as well as online.

4. Offline MBA Personal Interviews for IIMs: PI Centres, Components, Weightage
Offline PI round will be conducted by almost all top IIMs including IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Lucknow with all the key components like GD or WAT. So far, following IIM Offline Personal Interviews have been announced. The process of Offline MBA Personal Interviews for IIMs will be announced soon by other IIMs.

Offline MBA Personal Interviews for IIMs with interview cities, components and weightages have been released by top IIMs. A list of IIMs who will conduct offline PI round is shared below with key details:

5. Offline Personal Interviews for Top MBA Colleges: PI Centres, Components, Weightage
Apart from IIMs, Offline MBA Personal Interview will be conducted by many university colleges, University MBA departments as follows:

6. Offline Personal Interviews for PGDM Programs: PI Centres, Components, Weightage
Top PGDM B-schools have also announced to conduct Offline PI round. The Offline Personal Interviews for PGDM Programmes will be conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur, MDI Gurgaon, MICA Ahmedabad, GIM Goa among others. A list of top PGDM B-schools who have announced to conduct offline personal interviews for PGDM programs commencing 2024 with PI cities, key components and weightage is shared below:

7. MBA Personal Interview Tips
The personal interview is conducted in the way to keep you healthy, positive and less stressful so that you should feel free, friendly and natural before the experts. You are encouraged to remain what you are and it is tried that during the course of discussion, you should not feel nervous. Following are the key Tips to Appear for Offline PI For MBA as shared by experts and toppers studying in IIMs, IIFT, MDI, SPJIMR, XLRI among other top B-schools

• Speak carefully: Use simple and communicative language in an effective manner. Any wrong use of figurative and idiomatic language in conversation might get you deviated and put you in trouble
• Take the Panelists to your Domain: It depends on your skills how to mould the interview to your desired direction. The opportunity is to be created by you while presenting the answers to their questions.
• Impress with Your Body Language: Note that you are constantly watched. So, remain upright when you sit, walk or stand. Keep a neutral expression. Don’t clench your fist or teeth. When speaking, lean slightly forward to say you are involved in the conversation, but do not rest your hands on the table.
• Don’t Bluff: Never try to mislead the interviewers by guessing and concocting an answer. You will be caught in your own web and will lose whatever credit you had earned earlier. If you do not know the answer, politely say that you do not know. If still your opinion or guess is sought, present your thought with a rider that it is what you think.
• Don’t Copy Anyone: Be natural and don’t go for copying someone. If you do, it will be like a mask through which your interviewers can very well judge you.

8. Questions asked in Personal Interview round
Personal Interview Questions for MBA in final selection round begin with some introductory questions and gradually go deep into other areas. The offline MBA PI round may have a duration of 8 to 30 minutes. However, this time duration depends upon how interesting you are during the PI process. Personal Interview Questions for MBA admission are more or less simple and broad, how you answer them is very important. Shared below are some of the questions asked in Personal Interview round:

Why MBA, Tell us about yourself, Tell us about your Strengths and Weaknesses, What do you think is your best achievement, Where do you see yourself in next five years, Tell us about your career goals, Why do you want to specialize in marketing/ finance/HR?, Tell us about your hobbies and interests, Who is your role model?,  To whom you would give credit for your success and why?, Is there anyone who inspires you?,  How would you differentiate between a good manager and a good leader?, Which is your biggest challenge so far?, How do you think you will contribute to the batch and the institute if we select you?, What expectation do you have with this MBA programme?, What does Criticism mean to you? How do you deal with it, Have you ever demonstrated leadership? Share the situation, Which other MBA colleges have shortlisted you for final selection?, Which one do you propose to choose and why. There could be Questions on Current Affair Events & your opinion on them, Questions on Extra Curricular Activities, Questions related to your City/State

9. How to prepare for Offline Personal Interview? 10 Tips
PI round is the key to success in securing final admission to the desired institute as the maximum weightage is awarded to this round. Some of the key tips on how to prepare for offline personal interview as shared by experts and toppers are:

1. Keep Yourself Updated: Regularly read the news papers, watch TV news, diarise whatever you find important. You are supposed to know each and every thing. The only strategy is to gather maximum that you can.
2. Brush Up Your Academics: Go through your academics well and revise especially the things in your specialization domain.
3. Know all About Your Native Place: Read, know and feel your native place well. You must be aware about the history, Geography and all the important things like famous places, personalities, specialties about your city.
4. Delve Deep About your Work Experience: If you have a work experience, you must be well aware about your role and the entire chain of system wherein you contribute with your team.
5. Know your Personality: Analyse and rehearse upon your strengths and weaknesses. You must be able to highlight your strengths effectively and for it must prepare well. The weaknesses should not reflect your inability to do the work, or to improve.
6. Awareness About Your Interests & Hobbies: You will be asked about your interests and hobbies, so make sure that you know all about them. One of the candidates interviewed at IIM Calcutta claimed that he had interest in playing Badminton. All the questions about past & present players, tournaments, winners, shuttle cock weight, court-size, service gallery size and other things were asked, although he answered each of them satisfactorily.
7. Brush Up your GK: Past and present events must be well known to you. Reading is not enough, you must have an opinion framed on it. To be successful in PI round, no doubt, you have to be well prepared not only with the Current GK for interview but also with the Business GK and the social GK surrounding your local area issues for interview.
8. Join PI Preparatory Sessions: It is a good idea to attend good preparatory sessions for PI round and also attend mock PI sessions to prepare for Personal Interview round. Getting in touch with the seniors, alumni of the B-school in regard to the nature of questions and what is expected from the candidate is also a good idea. They know how to prepare as each B-school has its own preferences. You can also get good guidance from them.
9. Be Careful While Writing Statement of Purpose: Your statement of purpose is also a good source of questions for panellists in PI round. So apart from doing lot of other activities to prepare for PI round, you should focus on your SoP and keep ready your answers on the points that you have filled up in SoP.
10. Be Positive Through Out: Even if you have all the negative thoughts about some action, policy matters – present them in a balanced manner with a positive thinking for future. Do not criticize too much the policies of the Government, B-schools, Corporate bodies etc. If you have some suggestion for their betterment, you can put them forth in brief, if required.

10. Offline MBA Personal Interview Vs Online PI Round: Key Difference
Although the Offline MBA personal interview and online PI has same weightage, there are some difference that MBA aspirants must keep in mind.

With the above article, it is very much clear that all the top MBA colleges are likely to conduct physical PI round instead of earlier online Personal Interviews for MBA admission 2024. Besides, alongwith the PI, other components in final selection round like GD and WAT are also restored. We hope you found this article quite helpful. MBAUniverse.com will share more updates shortly on other aspects including how to prepare for Offline PI process.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on Personal Interview Process