It is again that time of the year when thousands of bright, young Indian minds are preparing hard to cross the final hurdle called 'group discussion/interview' in their quest to acquire that most sought after degree of all - MBA, or its equivalent.

It struck me that a blind adherence to so-called 'tips' has a contrary effect and ruins the prospects of many a promising candidate in the GD/interview stage, who otherwise stood a bright chance. So the advice I offer in this article is drawn from group discussions that I attended while selecting students for IIM-C.Most business schools divide the candidates into groups of 5 to 15 members and conduct a group discussion among them, followed by a personal interview with each candidate separately. In a typical group discussion, a situation or issue - it could be business-related or a more general topic - is provided to the group as a short write-up, and each candidate is given five or ten minutes to read the situation and formulate his/her thoughts or views. Then, the group is asked to discuss the issue for a period ranging from15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the group, and preferably come to some conclusions. In the case of IIM-C, each of the candidates is provided, at the end, an exclusive and uninterrupted time of about a minute to sum up and present his/her views and conclusions.

Unfortunately, in practice, most group discussions end up resembling a busy fish market, which has prompted some business schools to group discussion as an evaluation component altogether. To a large extent, the cacophony and chaos in the group discussion is a result of some of the myths propagated by coaching institutes in the form of their so-called 'tips'. The first of the myths is that the person who initiates the discussion is demonstrating leadership qualities. If only leadership was this simple! In many groups, this results in a mad rush by many candidates to initiate the discussion all at once. The leadership qualities actually come to fore during a group discussion, if at all, not by starting first, but by the way a candidate with leadership potential is able to rally the group together, often to his/her views and inspire the group's confidence in him or her.

The second myth is that the person who speaks most during a group discussion is the one who would score the highest. It is precisely this belief that drives many candidates to compete vigorously and grab as much air-time as possible, rendering the group discussion into a hopeless fish market. In the worst scenarios, two or three candidates end up speaking simultaneously without listening to each other.

Communication or discussion is necessarily a two-way process that involves both speaking and listening, in fact more of the latter. Speaking without paying attention to the views of others often shows up the candidate in a very bad light and adversely affects his/her chances.The third myth is that group discussion primarily evaluates the oratory skills of candidates. Due to this belief, some candidates even launch into mini speeches during the group discussion with a view to impress the panel members. While evaluators certainly expect good articulation from aspirants, they are not necessarily looking for oratorical skills. To understand how to do well in a group discussion, it helps to keep in mind the basic purpose of the group discussion in the evaluation process. Through a group discussion, panelists assess if a candidate can really think on his/her feet, formulate views on an issue in a short time, express himself/ herself precisely and clearly, and argue his/ her points persuasively in a group. The evaluatorswill also try and observe how each of the candidates behaves in a group - whether the person is willing to listen and take into account others' view points, his/her body language, and whether the candidate is reasonably considerate and tolerant of others. Articulation and cogency can be developed by aspiring candidates with preparation and practice. With regard to behavioral aspects, all that one can do is to behave naturally and be himself or herself. Put-on behaviour usually doesn't work and a genuine change of attitude towards others is necessary for it to manifest in a positive and sociable behaviour.

Next comes the more important of the two components of evaluation - the personal interview.The personal interview could last from ten minutes to an hour or more, and a typical interview panel consists of two to four members. Some of the older IIMs usually draft some of their alumni into an interview panel, in addition to at least two professors. The oft-asked question by aspirants with regard to the personal interview is, "What is typically asked in the interview?"

This, of course, has direct implications on how to prepare for the interviews.The only short answer I can think of, after numerous discussions with a variety of Indian business school interviewers, is "Anything under the sun!" The questions can range from your graduate-level core subjects and high school mathematics to your hobbies, politics,economy and general awareness on social issues. This must sound very daunting to you, as this would make preparing for these interviews almost impossible. However, I would say this makes life a lot more easier for you. Here is why With the mushrooming of coaching institutes and their burgeoning revenues, tremendous effort goes into finding out the various questions asked in the interviews every year. In fact, candidates are even paid to remember the questions asked of them and report them to the coaching institutes.

After collating a bank of questions, the coaching institutes proceed to prepare 'appropriate' (canned or ready-made) answers and coach the candidates enrolled with them. An example of one such question would be, "Why do you want to do an MBA?", and most candidates have a ready answer to give. Herein lies the problem. Most business school professors, intelligent as they are, hate to hear such stereotyped, routine,'canned' answers, recited almost parrot-like by many of the candidates. So, the panelists keepchanging their questions every year, and more importantly, they are looking for some original answers. They are looking for candidates with originality, candidates with genuineness, candidates who can 'think' on their own, not recite someone else's answers or ideas.This is not to say one should disregard the various question banks that you might have with you. Rather, this is to emphasise your own 'thinking' and original answers from your end. Thinking, however, is hard work and requires you to constantly ruminate and mull over many possible questions and your appropriate answers.

Again, it helps to keep in mind the purpose of the personal interview in the overall evaluation process. A candidate reaches the interview stage only if he/she has scored high in the written test, making it already clear that he/she is quite sharp.The panelists now want to understand through the interview process, given the limited time they have, what kind of a person the candidate actually is. Is he or she a warm, witty, smart, alert, curious, mature, thinking person whom they would like to have in their school, or is he/she a boring, uninteresting person? Has he/ she followed a mechanical, learning-by-rote method to reach here, or has he/ she demonstrated genuine interest/ passion in some of the core subjects or hobbies or other activities pursued so far? Does he/ she possessan original, thinking mind, or does he/ she find it difficult to stand without the crutches of training provided by some coaching institute? These are some of the issues interviewers from good business schools are typically concerned with.To cut a long story short, what would be my final advice to you? It does not matter if you forget a long list of prepared questions and answers, if you forget to carry a pencil, pen, eraser and so on - but please do not forget to carry your brains and wits with you and put them to use. That is all you will ever need.

 ( Raveendra Chittoor is Assistant Professor of Strategy, ISB, Hyderabad )