The trouble with GDs is that you can never be sure what kind of group you'll be saddled with. Sometimes it's a cool group where everyone is interested in keeping things decent and having a healthy exchange of ideas; at other times you have some domineering all-India-radio types whose mouth doesn't close till the 15 mins are over. In the second case, they ruin the GD for themselves, and for everyone else. So, IMHO, luck plays a larger role in the GD than in the interview, and that makes it a more arbitrary method of gauging someone's ability.
It's supposed to test teamwork, but you don't really have to work with 8 strangers in a company, do you? It's a crowd, not a group, if the members don't know each other. The members are at each others' mercy, and the moderators analyze their behavior like zoologists dispassionately observing some new species.

Both GD & PI are equally important and they test different facets of candidates!!(The perfect diplomatic answer )

Gd tests your team skills( read manners and general etiquette) and PI some other stuff which is completely dependent on what type of person/s is/are interviewing you.
You say that u r not good in GD. In this case u can get a chance to defend urself if u r allowed to speak at the end or during PI if you have the same panelists.

Having a good GD can assure u a seat !
Thats no exaggeration. Institutes are interested in ur overall profiles and a good gd carries forward their interest. I had a good GD and not so interesting Pi. Infact the panelists seemed disinterested and i made through!
Ina Gd if u can display ur creativity, coherence of thoughts and dynamic attitude u score a lottttt!
Pi remains as tool for confirmation by the panelists.
Team work which is such an important part of a managers profile, can be best displayed through a GD.
Neither is to be given lesser importance though!

In my personal opinion most of the people are eliminating themselves by opening their mouth in a GD......and the other aspect is that most of the time they are discussing the aspect which is most obvious.....they are not even beating around the bush they are just bushing around....

If u r under the impression that group is jst bushing around,, u shud giv some fresh suggestion so that group has something worth to discuss.
If the group is REALLY like that ,, it does nt discuss anything,, whole group has a strong chance of being rejected...

And never be in the impression that its all so obvious,.. what is obvious to you, might nt be obvious for others. Aim of GD is to discuss all points , obvious as well as not so obvious, along with ur opinion.

snainwal Says

In my personal opinion most of the people are eliminating themselves by opening their mouth in a GD

this is only if u r too verbose,, or very rude.. which i dnt think is the case with u.
so dnt worry u will never be eliminated bcoz of speaking,,, opposite may be true.

And regarding listening skills ,, it do counts .. bt not more than speaking skills. If u r nt giving ur opinion, how wud the panel know that u r listening .. not only hearing.

Having said that , Its very clear that PI is much more important,, bt u cant ignore the GD.. it has its own weightage and u CANNOT clear it by not speaking.

In my personal opinion most of the people are eliminating themselves by opening their mouth in a GD......and the other aspect is that most of the time they are discussing the aspect which is most obvious.....they are not even beating around the bush they are just bushing around....

i sure hope that PI is the real thing.......
Anyways does letting others speak count as a positive aspect....cos surely they are looking for good listeners too.....

my personal experienxe was at MDI and at A....
does gd versus pi also depends upon the institute

i hope i do good in gds at other places.....

Hey

Well i thnk dat PI carries more wt'ge but u have to do at least smthng in GD.In my case its alwayz that GD went well n I can't say anythng bout PI .Hope god is also a PG member n give u more GD skills n me PI

strictly my onw opinion:

GD : You need to proove you are not bad at it.

PI : You need to proove you are GOOD at it.

You cant afford to screw anyone of these.

But a
good PI and an avg GD is anyday better than a
good GD and an avg PI.

Mohit

I second that!

I think in general,

GDs for elimination
PIs for selection

Hi

Can anyone help me on this one.....
What matters more.....
The GD or PI.....

my GDs always suck and My PIs always rock....
so what matters more.....

can i expect to get to an IIM on basis of my PI...

i too agree with the above post,as in gd the the moderators give equal attention to all the candidates.whereas,in pi u r one-to-one with the interviewer and have a better chance of getting through if u can prove that u have the stuff that they want.

Hi

Can anyone help me on this one.....
What matters more.....
The GD or PI.....

my GDs always suck and My PIs always rock....
so what matters more.....

can i expect to get to an IIM on basis of my PI...

strictly my onw opinion:

GD : You need to proove you are not bad at it.

PI : You need to proove you are GOOD at it.

You cant afford to screw anyone of these.

But a
good PI and an avg GD is anyday better than a
good GD and an avg PI.

Mohit