Communication skill is a vital factor than technical knowledge in any corporate/higher education environment. The first impression is the last impression. The way you communicate professionally is directly or indirectly an add-on to the quality of services you can offer later in your professional career. Group Discussion (GD) is a procedure used by corporate companies, educational institutes, and other organizations to evaluate the communication skills of the participant.
Let's see how you can make an impression.
What skills are evaluated In GD?
- How good you are when communicating with others?
- How you behave and interact within a group?
- Are you an open minded person?
- Listening skills.
- How you put forward your views?
- Leadership and decision-making skills.
- Analysis skill and subject knowledge.
- Attitude and confidence.
Process of GD
Initiate: It is not required to have a thorough knowledge of the topic with actual facts and figures but at least the basic information on the topic will be good enough. In order to make your speech interesting, you can begin with a quote which is relevant to the topic or can start with a short and simple incident/story.
Lead: There could be a circumstance where you do not have enough information on the given topic. It’s sensible to wait, watch and listen to what the other candidates speak until you get a chance to move smoothly into the discussion. Take charge and begin your conversation forward. Leading the discussion impact fully is the key.
To Summarize: Summarization is a chance to turn heads of the evaluators. Putting together the entire discussion by highlighting the star points and concluding the results of the discussion is summarizing the discussion. The summary should be short and to the point and no new further points should be added.
Rules to crack GD:
1) Appearance: It is the main thing to be noticed by anyone. Always wear formal outfit and be well-groomed.
2) Eye Contact: Your confidence is seen in your eyes. Hence maintain eye contact with the evaluator and your peers while having the discussion.
3) Avoid Dominance: Always remember that the discussion is not a battle. In the heat of the moment, never lose your speech and decency. You are there to share your views and not to start an argument. Respect others views also.
4) Avoid Interrupting: It is ill mannered to interrupt someone while talking. Everyone has a point and one should respect and let your turn come for you to have your say.
5) Clarity of Speech and Thoughts: Always maintain an optimum speed and volume of your voice. Be prepared in the mind of your views that you are about to present and be clear.
6) Irrelevant Talk: Avoid diverting from the main topic and be on the same track.
Kinds of GD: Based on the content of the discussion there are three types of GD.
1) Topic-Based GD: This is based on certain topics which are practical and real. For Example, Socioeconomic topics, Education related like, “How Plastic is affecting our Earth?” “Is a top degree necessary to become a successful person?”
2) Case-Based GD: It is based on case studies which depict a real-life situation. The group is provided with a case study beforehand and is given some time to prepare for it. The group has to explain the case study to give a solution. In the process of solving, the qualities such as problem-solving, analysis, thinking out of the box is being tested.
3) Article-Based GD: Here, the candidates are provided with an article which could be based on any field like politics, sports, technology, etc. The candidates are given time to prepare for the discussion and are analyzed how the candidate responds to the unknown field/ fact and how confident he/she is in presenting his/her point of view.
Group Discussion (GD) is an important part of MBA and other completive exam’s selection process. Group Discussions are a superb way to display your knowledge in current trends and matters of the globe, how aware you are about things happening around you, and most of all to examine your communication and presentation skills.
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