Sometimes we tend to complicate things just because they are important. We feel they must be complicated just because they are important. It happens all the time during the CAT preparation process as well. Even the best CAT Coaching institutes tend to encourage this because somehow it adds the perception of value being added to the CAT coaching experience of an aspirant.
To my mind, invariably, simple works best. And a simple and logical approach also ensures the best probability of success.
It works as well during the CAT/aptitude assessment stage as it does at the PI stage. And the PI of course makes up for the greatest weightage in the final selection at IIMs. And almost all the Top MBA colleges.
The PI indeed, as almost everyone knows, stands for Personal Interview.
We call the Personal Interview Personal for a reason. It is about YOU!
The panel wants to know YOU, the person, YOUR story, YOUR learnings, YOUR attitude, YOUR goals.
Not being able to convincingly answer any of these is far worse than not knowing a mathematical theorem or not knowing the President of some country in Africa.
The panel already has your CAT/aptitude score, your past academic record etc. They have the numbers.
The colleges that want to test your general awareness do so via separate sections – that again need not be measured via a separate time consuming panel based interaction.
Think as to why do 2-3 eminent people spend so much time with an individual and why is the weight of PI the highest in the selection process?
They want to see the person lies beneath and beyond that data and whether that person makes the best fit for that B-School.
The P in the PI is YOU. The PI is all about YOU. It’s that simple – and that’s where your maximum focus should be.
About the author: Deekshant has sleep-walked through several 100 and 99.9 %iles in practically every section of the CAT. That he is a cricket fan and he writes okay is evident from most of his posts. 1000s of our students swear that he can motivate almost anyone to double his/her percentile through very simple yet powerful inputs. And that’s why every MBAGuru student has direct access to him via mail and Telegram. Oddly, he somehow also finds the time to write songs professionally. And yes … almost missed this … he is an alumnus of IIT Delhi & IIM Cal 