CAT Personal
Interviews (PI)
The day of the interview: Do's and
Dont's
When schools consider their offer of admission to you, they will evaluate you on a number of factors. Once you have been shortlisted from your CAT preparation, you will have a Group Discussion (GD) and a Personal Interview (PI). Here are some do's and don'ts when you are preparing for your Personal Interview!
| Do's |
| Do join LearnHub's CAT Preparation community. It'll help you out with anything regarding the CAT admissions process! |
| Do have confidence and enthusiasm. |
| Do be yourself. Act natural. Interviewers have a knack for knowing when someone is pretending to be something they're not. |
| Do watch your body language. Never touch your interviewers except for when you give them a handshake. You don't want to invade their personal space. |
| Do make a good impression. How are you going to stand out from the thousands of other candidates? |
| Do be enthusiastic. |
| Do leave the interview on a good note. Even if you had a great interview, your last moments with the interviewers is the memory which will linger in their minds once the interview ends. You want to leave the room on a positive note. |
| Do be clear and logical. That way, you will demonstrate your ability to explain ideas to others in a way that is comprehensible. |
| Do be concise. |
| Do define your goals well. Your goals should be fairly measurable and realistic. |
| Do brushen up on your general knowledge. Interviewers may test your conversational skills and general wisdom by asking you questions on various topics. |
| Do know what your strengths and weaknesses are, and be able to illustrate examples of each. Also make note of how you are correcting your weaknesses. |
| Do be prepared to talk about academic and job experience. They will want to know more about why you are qualified for entering their school. They will want to know how serious you actually are about your studies and career. |
| Do show composure under pressure. Think before you speak and reply with well thought-out, meaningful responses. |
| Do show energy through your body language and tone of voice. Sit up straight, lean forward slightly. |
| Don'ts |
| Don't offend your interviewers. Be careful not to make any opinionated statements which may offend a person there (especially when dealing with sensitive topics such as religion). |
| Don't rely simply on your qualifications or exam scores alone to do the selling for you. No matter how qualified you are, you need to show them that you are qualified - no piece of paper alone can prove that. |
| Don't use poor language. Make sure you address your interviewers with respect. |
| Don't be ambiguous. Having unclear objectives is a given and will get you nowhere. Be specific and list something measurable which you can achieve or attempt. |
| Don't lie. You might find yourself in a trap you can't get out if you do. It's best to be honest. |
| Don't forget to listen. If you spend too much time thinking in your head, you might not realize they have asked you a question and that you weren't listening! |
| Don't worry if you are soft-spoken. It does not imply you are weak. Just make sure you exude a sense of strength and authority while still being soft-spoken. Use knowledge, humor, and effective communication to show your leadership skills. |
| Don't punish yourself mentally if you find you have become stuck on answering a question. It may throw you off for the rest of the interview. Just breathe and keep on going. |
| Don't give up! Even if you stumble on a word, you shouldn't let that get in the way of interviewers knowing how great you are. |
More resources
For more information on preparing for your Group
Discussion, visit the lessons
CAT: How can I prepare for a great
Group Discussion (GD)? and
CAT Group Discussion: Do's and
Don'ts.
References: absingla,
menlophoto
