GD can be classified in three types:

1. General Topic:
A current general topic/an English phrase/an important deal or incident which shaped economy or made history/block buster movie or novel/extra ordinary personality is given (in other words, anything under the sun). There are two subgroups -

a) No individual time: Here examiners give you a general topic and give you a time of 1-2 mins to think/jot down about it. Then mayhem begins. First 2 or max 3 are able to speak well then it’s a full fish market. How to tackle this situation? - Will come this at later.

b)Individual time: Here examiner gives 2 mins of time to each individual to express themselves after the thinking/jotting down time. This can be done both in:

(i) Random - As per Name (less chance), roll number, Seat no (high chance), you are asked to express your self.

(ii) Ordered way - As per seating arrangement starting from left or right.
At the end you might be asked to write down 3-4 most important points which you felt were the best contents discussed in the GD. It may or may not be your points.

2. Case Study:

A case study parchment from a sealed envelope is passed to each examinee. It may also happen that a case study is read aloud once or twice. Usually the topic is like - "There is a company of certain repute (whose background in given), it did well and prospered, then after some generations, competition went high, some problems surfaced, it has incurred losses and it’s in dire straits now. Now some consulting company is called up, you are a part of the team, what steps will you take to revive the company?" ; It’s just a general example how is this presented.

** The sub groups remain the same here too**

3. General Discussion:
It’s the most interesting lot and least seen. Here a topic is put forward and the examiner coolly has discussion on those topics with each examinee. There are chances that there will be more than one topic. The answers are cross-examined, passed from peer to peer, new ideas are shared. It’s a healthy discussion, where the examiner tries to fathom the knowledge of the examinee for a particular topic(s). Usually the number of student is not more than 4-5 in each group. It’s like a Group interview.


Group Discussions II - How to go about GD


Group Discussions III - GD Starting Blues and What if topic is difficult