Why is PI conducted for admission into a B-school?

Business & Management
#1

One can perform well in a Personal Interview round of a Bschool well only if one is aware about the underlying purpose & relevance of such rounds. A Personal Interview round is conducted to know about a the personality of a candidate. A candidate is judged on his/her technical capabilities through the entrance test.
Apart from technical capabilities, B-schools are looking for candidates who have a willingness to learn and excel if given an opportunity. Therefore such behavioral aspects of the candidiate are checked, that is:

  • Ability to handle the pressure & rigor of a Bschool: While being in a Bschool now, so many questions of my interviews seem logical to me now, these questions were mostly wherein the Panel tried to put me in a situation where I am stressed & it feels like a stress interview, the aim of putting the candidate in such a situation is to check the response, whether a candidate chickens out or he/she just tries being calm & face the situation.

  • Situational Questions: A large set of questions are related to certain situations, they are trying to judge the responses of a candidate in certain situations. These responses say about the potential traits of the candidate.

Every Bschool gives the most improtnce to this round, around 40% weightage is given in score calculation.