To help MBA aspirants crack the WAT-GD-PI round of IIMs, PaGaLGuY has accumulated first-hand experiences from MBA aspirants who have already gone through the IIM interview process, ft. CAT’18: 98.82%iler, Nishita Bajaj.

Nishita completed her Electrical Engg from Dhanbad, possessing an impressive academic profile with a GPA of 10 in 10th and 94.83 in 12th grade. In the following years, she earned a BTECH with a 9.25 CGPA and accumulated 2.5 years of professional experience—receiving a 98.82 percentile score on the CAT’18. She used these impeccable academic scores to get interviews with some of the best business schools in the country, including IIM A, B, L, I, and K.

Learn about Nishita’s interview experience at IIM A & B below:

Interview for IIM Ahmedabad

The interview process had 2 steps: Document Verification and Personal Interview. The venue for the IIM-B interview was at Hotel Monarch Luxur, Bangalore. The document verification started right on time and was followed by AWT – It began at 1:50 PM and was over by 2:10 PM.

AWT (Duration: 20 minutes)

Students in the panel: 6

Topic: “All news anchors are the same. There is no real news anywhere. They invite guests to their shows and ask aggressive questions like ‘in a country where leaders like Gandhi Ji laid their lives for the country, you are talking about potholes’. They try to sensationalize every issue. Govt. should control the media as soon as possible.

Analyze the above argument. Assumptions made. Whether you agree or disagree with the author & provide a proper explanation. Which evidence will strengthen or weaken this argument?

Personal Interview

The interview panel consisted of 2 panellists: 1 male (35-40 years) and 1 female (30-35 years).

My interview started with questions about my education:

1. Have you heard of Kirchhoff’s law?
2. Find the current in each branch of the circuit (one of the panellists drew a circuit on paper)

It was a simple question, and I could answer it well. Next, they asked me to state something about myself that was not mentioned in my resume. Since I had indicated in my introduction that my father was in a transferable job, they asked me about some of the places I had visited. I told them about a few places in Jharkhand, such as Koderma, Patratu, and Ramgarh. This led to the next question, where I was asked what Koderma is famous for.

The interview then shifted to Vinoba Bhave since I graduated from Vinoba Bhave University. I was asked who Vinoba Bhave was and any of his famous movements. I did not know the exact answer (like Bhoodan Movement and Sarvodaya Andolan ), but I did mention that he was recognized for his contribution to education. The interview focus then shifted to my education, where I was asked concept-based questions on calculus, such as:

1. What are integration and differentiation?
2. What is the integration of X?
3. Is it also summation? Is every integration summation?
4. What is differentiation used for?
5. What is the difference between distance and displacement?
6. What is the difference between speed and velocity?
7. What are the quantities with directions called?

I was able to answer most of these questions and fumbled through some because of my nervousness. The interview focus continued to be academics, and the next subject they picked up was statistics. They asked me some concept-based questions again on the subject.

1. What is a normal distribution?
2. How will you explain it to a layman?
3. What will be on the X-axis and Y-axis?

The panellists then shifted the focus to my work experience at TCS.

1. What was your role in TCS?
2. Why a separate project (since I had answered the first question that I was in a PMO role and was responsible for managing resources for various projects and maintaining records.)

The panellists kept shifting focus from academics and work experience to questions about me. They asked questions about my hometown, interests and current affairs (I had stated during the interview that I liked watching the news).

1. Jharkhand (my hometown) is a significant exporter of which items?
2. Do you know the history of coal mines? Any place you know and why is it famous?
3. What kind of news do you like?
4. What is the highest designation in the Indian air force?
5. What kind of music do you listen to (as my hobby was singing?
6. Any favourite singer whom you follow? (I answered Nusrat Fateh Ali, so the next questions were based on this)
7. Any two of his songs that you like?
8. He was from which Gharana? Have you heard about Gharanas?

After I answered all the questions with reasoning to the best of my ability, I was offered candy and asked to leave the meeting. The interview lasted for about 20 minutes. Although I did not clear the interview round, it was a great experience.

Interview for IIM Bangalore

Time slot: 1 PM

The interview process again had 2 steps: Document Verification and Personal Interview. The venue for my interview at IIM-B was Mumbai. The document verification started right on time and was followed by WAT.

Students in the panel: 6

WAT Duration: 30 minutes, 10 minutes for thinking and 20 minutes for writing

Topic: “The modern activity-based learning system largely replaces traditional rote learning (memorization techniques). Compare the two of them and discuss the merits and demerits of each”

Personal Interview

The interview panel consisted of 2 Panelists: Age Group 45-50 years. It started with questions about my native place:

1. Jharkhand is a land of mineral resources. Is it a boon, bane, or both?
2. Why is the state not developed that much and facing the issues you mentioned?
3. Major mineral resources factories in your hometown?
4. Have you been to Bokaro?
5. What will you do to make your area develop?
6. Can you tell us about the political scenario in Jharkhand?

The next round of questions was based on my work experience. Most B-school interviews start on this note if you have prior work experience as the panellists try to understand the exact role of the candidate. Some of the questions asked were:

1. Where are you working? What is your profile?
2. Why MBA?
3. Why not continue in your current job? 
4. How does your typical day/ month at work look like?
5. Why did you switch jobs even with a pay cut?

Since I had listed music and reading as my hobbies in my SOP, the following few questions were based entirely on music.

1. What is your favourite kind of music?
2. Which singers do you like the most?
3. Which books do you like to read?
4. Since Panchatantra is your favourite book, do you remember any stories from it?

I was also asked some current affairs questions since I liked watching the news. Some of these questions were slightly on the lighter note, while others were meant to know my opinion on specific topics like:

1. Do you know the wealthiest person today?
2. Do you know Elon Musk? What’s he in the news for these days?
3. Elon Musk recently said, “MBAs do nothing but work on spreadsheets.” Do you agree with his statement?

The interview then switched to academics, with concept-based questions. I was able to solve the majority of the math-related questions. Some of the questions required me to present reasons in order to answer accurately. They asked me to take a candy and leave at the end of the interview. Overall it was a positive experience, and this time I was significantly more prepared because I had already attended the IIM Ahmedabad interview. I felt more confident and had learnt from my previous practice interviews.

My key learning from the interviews for IIM A and B are:

• Selections of IIMs reflect sophistication, and it is reflected even in the interview process. 
• PIs are primarily focused on work experience and hobbies, which you had listed in your SOP, and none of the questions is random. 
• The interviewers usually take cues from your answers to base their follow-up questions. So, it is important to answer each question carefully, anticipating the next question.
• You should be well-versed in your native town and be ready to answer questions related to your hobbies, work experience and academics.
• You should be able to support your answers with logical reasoning.
• It is ok not to know all the answers, but it is not advisable to fish for answers or take wild guesses. If you do not know the answer to a question, you may say so to the interviewers. 
• Always maintain a cool demeanour in the interview.

Nishita Bajaj converted her IIM Bangalore call along with FMS Delhi. 

Please note that the information presented here was compiled from several IIM hopefuls’ contributions to public discussion forums. Thus, there may be some room for debate.

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