IIM-A accepts CAT scores to shortlist candidates for its flagship two-year full-time Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP). Regarded as one of the most difficult programmes to get into, PGP is aimed at equipping students with leadership and managerial skills of utmost level. The final selection at IIM-A is determined by the CAT scores, overall profile, work experience, and performance in screening rounds.
Selection Process
The admission procedure for PGP follows the given order:
- Shortlisting (based on CAT score and overall profile)
- Analytical Writing Test (AWT)
- Personal Interview (PI)
Analytical Writing Test (AWT)
Analytical Writing Test involves an issue/ situation, and the candidate is asked to present their opinions/ arguments/ reasoning on it. Generally, any AWT topic consists of a short paragraph, followed by a set of guidelines.
Candidates are given 20 minutes to write on the given AWT topic. For PGP admissions 2022, some of the AWT topics were:
- Food delivery partners are not treated fairly with low wages, etc. Customer says “I can’t do anything, Company is responsible for it”. Find the flaws in the argument, in support or against the statement.
- When you lose trust in someone, you lose the will to be a part of their life; your sympathy and attachment for them go down; you distance yourself from them. Contrarily, when there is trust, you make more efforts; your dependency increases and you are more dedicated towards that person/ group.
- Scenario related to stock market
IIM Ahmedabad - Interview Experiences
Interview Experiences
A group of 3 panellists asked the candidates about their career goals, academics, work experiences, hobbies. On average, the interview went on for 20-40 minutes for each candidate. Generally, the panellists went into details about every aspect. Here is an overview of the interview experiences of four candidates at IIM-A:
Interview 1:
Background:B. Tech (Dairy Science), Fresher
Questions:
- Which college are you from?
- When did you come to Ahmedabad? You have studied in various States. Describe your experience and the major challenges in these States?
- Do you know about the drugs issue in Punjab? What are the causes?
- Tell us about some recent news you came across.
The candidate was also asked academic questions related to his graduation and a few questions on related internship.
Interview 2:
Background: B.A. (Psychology)
CAT Percentile:99.52
Questions:
- Tell me about yourself
- Why did you drop out of engineering?
- What do you want to do after MBA? Would you start your business immediately after MBA?
- What was your favourite subject in psychology and what do you like about it?
- What are minima and maxima? And how do you find them? (Gave a function and asked to find its minima).
For about 10 minutes, the candidate was probed on the research paper he published recently.
Interview 3:
Background:Fashion Technology
Work Experience:working for 21 months in Fashion industry
Questions:
- You work in a creative field. Explain about your role in brief.
- What is the difference between Fashion Design and Fashion Technology?
- Is any principleof Fashion technology applicable to your work? So, how do you incorporate technology in Fashion? Did you use any of these?
- Do you know about Patola in Patan? What will you do to help the weavers who face competition from Chinese companies? The machine-produced cloth is much cheaper; do you think it is a competitive product?
- Is there a relationship between the price and demand of the product? Can you show it in a graph? Why is the line curved towards the end in the graph? Can you give an example?
- You mentioned Sensex in your AWT, so what is the difference between Nifty and Sensex?
- Can you explain in formal language how a listed stock gaining in one index, affects its probability of performance on another.
- What is PE Ratio?
- What are your hobbies? But isn't painting related to your work only, what's different? Name a few painters you know. What is Salvador Dali's movement called? How is it different from Picasso's?
A little discussion was done on crypto and NFTs.
Interview 4:
Background:Bachelors in Economics, Working Professional
Questions:
- Tell us about your work? Why did you leave your previous job?
- Why not continue with CFA while on job instead of doing MBA?
- What are your hobbies? How did you developan interest in it?
- What are views on the IPOs of Paytm, Nykaa, and Zomato?
The candidate was given a linear algebra question to solve. Detailed questions were asked on work profile and hobbies.
Interview 5:
Background:B.Tech (Software)
Work Experience:Software Developer for 30 months (Citibank)
CAT Percentile: 99.95
Questions:
- What do you do at Citibank? How has your career progression been?
- Explain some concepts of OOPS. What is the difference between compiled language and interpreted language?
- Why are your grades low in UG?
- What were your favourite subjects in B.Tech?
- What is BCNF? What is normalisation?What is a deadlock? What is a Kernel?
- Why MBA?
- Who is the CM of Haryana?
- Name five rivers of Punjab.
The candidate was given a question on probability.
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