A Guide To Learn English Language

group dis­cus­sion

It is that time of year when stu­dents look take Group Dis­cus­sion (here­after, we will call it as GD) in their stride as a part of admis­sion process. GD as it is com­monly termed as, is often treated like an insur­mount­able myth to many, while it still is a cake piece for many. Through this series of arti­cles we would look into approach­ing GD with a fresher approach. Remem­ber orig­i­nal­ity and insights will always fetch you brownie points in a GD.

Before we begin to see how roles inter­play in GD, let’s under­stand the objec­tive and the out­come of such an exer­cise. Nor­mally 8 – 10 can­di­dates are grouped into a lead­er­less unit. They are given a spe­cific sit­u­a­tion (case study, topic etc) to ana­lyze and dis­cuss amongst them. A panel judges you by your par­tic­i­pa­tion in the whole process. What pos­si­bly can be the eval­u­a­tion cri­te­ria? Why the groups why not an extempore?

From exam­in­ers per­spec­tive, they are look­ing to take the right can­di­dates. Note that Right Can­di­date is the oper­a­tive word here. If we can under­stand what a right can­di­date should con­sti­tute we would go a long way in actu­ally ful­fill­ing it. The panel is look­ing to check for peo­ple who can think on issues with a cut­ting insight not only to tear it open but also pro­vide a solu­tion to it. More often than not, the sec­ond part of the argu­ment “pro­vide a solu­tion” is ignored by many stu­dents. Dis­sect­ing a prob­lem which has no solu­tion is like dig­ging up a dead end– FUTILE!

We are con­stantly liv­ing in a world of pro­gres­sive per­cep­tions. Every­one is form­ing per­cep­tion about the other by their traits. Often, the basis of this per­cep­tion is how peo­ple think. Speech always should com­mu­ni­cate how you think. But due to var­i­ous lan­guage bar­ri­ers aris­ing out of non-nativity, social back­ground etc words fail to por­tray the thoughts. Remem­ber GD is all about how do you think and por­tray it. GD is not a speech or debate to check your pre­pared­ness, it’s about think­ing aloud.

group dis­cus­sion snapshot

Few more things before we move along. Con­trary to the ordi­nary belief a GD group is care­fully pre­pared in most cases. It tables around can­di­dates of var­i­ous back­grounds and var­i­ous think­ing cul­tures. Remem­ber you are unique with respect to the back­ground you hail from-connect to it. Some­times you can directly cite exam­ples from your life whilst at other times you can draw a par­al­lel to your daily lives. Think out of the box, out of the crowd! With this under­stand­ing we are ready to dig deeper into var­i­ous nuances of GD.

If we jot down the points to be taken care of based on the pre­vi­ous premise, we would find the fol­low­ing aspects:

• Abil­ity to work in a team
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills
• Lead­er­ship skills
• Rea­son­ing ability
• Look­ing to take initiatives
• Assertive­ness
• Cre­ativ­ity
• Flex­i­bil­ity
• Abil­ity to think and act independently

We will look into each of these points in detail in the next arti­cle with a focus on under­stand­ing the exam­in­ers requirements.