Based on my CAT exam score of 93.47% (percentile), I was shortlisted for Group Discussion and Personal Interview at T. A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI).  Initially the date given to me was April 10, but I got the date changed to 2nd because of my exams on 8th and 10th.  So how did April 2nd go?  That's what I am going to talk about here.  But two things are to be noted: first, the selection process at TAPMI involved seven tests in all, not just a simple GD and interview.  Secondly, remember that the post you are reading is written from a personal point of view.  The official source of any information regarding the admission process is obviously the TAPMI website and their published materials.

TAPMI has apparently shortlisted about 1200 candidates, and the selection process is spread out over 10 days (Apr. 1 to 10).  Finally, they will select around 120 people for the management programme.  For these 10 days, the process goes like this: at 8:30 AM sharp, there is a half-hour presentation about TAPMI.  Then several tests are conducted, which go like this:

• Group Discussion: About 15 people in a group, discussion goes on for about 30 minutes.  The GD is based on a short case (as far as I know, the GDs are all based on cases only, no topic-based GDs).  I did quite OK in this I think.
• Group Discussion Summary Writing: About 10 minutes or so, we have to summarise the GD in about one page.
• 360-degree Feedback: We have to select the top three and the bottom three participants in the GD.
• Personal Effectiveness: The idea behind this is to get a profile of the candidate.  We're each given a paper with 15 questions, the response to each is a number among 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.  The questions all relate to different aspects of perceptiveness, openness, etc. and the number indicates how much or how little that particular quality applies to the person.  We are also given another sheet where we total up these scores.
• Extempore Speech: We're given a list of three topics, we may pick any one among them, think for two minutes, and then we have to speak for three minutes on that.  The topic I chose was "Work Smarter, not just Harder".
• Faculty Panel Interview: TAPMI faculty interview the candidates.  This one, I heard, was more a technical/academic sort of interview for some of the others.  My interviewers though asked me few technical questions - much of my 20 minute interview was on personal qualities.
• Director's Interview: Ah, the final interview.  The final interview may be on the same day or the next day.  Luckily for me it also got finished on 2nd itself.  This interview was a very short, informal sort of meeting with the director of the institute and a couple of other senior faculty members.  This part was actually a lot of fun for me (although could that have been a trick by the interviewers?  Heh).

The entire process took upto around 4:30 PM for me, and I must say, it is very strenuous!  Every one of the tests above is considered for evaluating the candidate and each one requires you to be totally alert mentally!

They said the results would be out on 14th or 15th April.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The institute itself looked really nice to me, the facilities were all excellent.  Classrooms with computers, an extensive library, computer centres with 24 hour leased line internet access, etc.

I just realised that in the last update I was supposed to talk about upcoming movies?  Tomorrow at 6:15 PM on STAR Movies they are showing Star Trek: Generations, which I would highly recommend.  And at 9 PM, the first of their Made in India series (Indian movies that have got international fame) starts with Bend it like Beckham.  Coming soon is Bollywood Calling, which I want to see!