Be a forceful part of the group

Updated on: Tuesday, September 28, 2010

After you’ve cleared the Civil Services written exam, the Group Discussion (GD) is the next challenge that you need to ace. But the GD is also a tough nut to crack as one needs to prepare thoroughly and have a high degree of confidence. So, begin by examining your spoken skills. Ask yourself or your close friends if you fumble for words or if you stutter while answering or if your thoughts are running coherently. Spoken English can be best handled through the listening process. So watch English movies and serials, the discussion and analyses on the English news channels. Read the newspapers and a couple of magazines and as far as possible try and speak in English through the day. Find a partner and practice. Says Professor Prafulla Agnihotri, Faculty, IIM-C, “I always tell my students to converse in English with at least one person through the day. Find a peer and consciously take a decision that you will be conversing only in English. That will make you perfect.”

A typical GD has about 10 to 12 participants and lasts for 20 minutes or so. “In order to make an impression, talk for more than two minutes. This means you will have to make around four to five relevant points during the course of the discussion,” says Professor Agnihotri.

Beginning a discussion provides the speaker with an edge over others in three ways. First, it demonstrates his/her leadership skills. Second, he can grab the attention of others and third, the speaker can make a content-heavy point as he can pick and choose from all that he has to say,” says Shekhar Niyogi, education and career consultant, Education Unlimit-ed. Speak simply and keep your sentences short particularly in the body of a discussion where you discuss a topic in depth. “If a participant makes a content-heavy point here, especially with some facts and numbers, then everybody else will listen to what he has to say,” says Agnihotri.

And finally, summarise the discussion well as that will test your listening and communication skills.

Be a forceful part of the group

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