Now that the XAT is over, the time to dive fully into WAT-GD-PI prep has come. But how does one go about it? It all seems like a vast sea with no beginning and no end. A single post covering all three — WAT, GD & PI — will be unwieldy, to say the least, so I will do a series of posts that will help you kick-start your prep for the second stage.

What is the common thread tying WAT, GD & PI?

On the face of it, it might seem like WAT, GD & PI are different beasts altogether and besting each one of them requires different skill sets. Well, at some level, they can be equated to the different formats in cricket — Test Cricket, ODIs & T20s (not in any order) — while the format is different and there are specialists in each format, the core skill tested are cricketing skills.

Over the years, the core skill tested in each of GD, WAT  and PI is your awareness of Current Affairs.

That GDs and WATs test GK and Current Affairs is something that need not be stated. But even in PIs, interviewers want to test how aware you are of the world around you. For example, they might ask

• names all the districts in your home state as you travel from North to South
• names of CEOs of leading companies in your sector
• your view on recent political events in your state or sector
• your view on events of national importance or policy

Your knowledge of people and essential trivia about what you call your hobbies (it is trivia because it is just a statistic, but it is essential because you have mentioned something as your hobby)

So what you need to first understand is that at some level the second stage is closer to preparing for the Civil Services, albeit a very watered down version.

In this post, we will deal with how to go about preparing for the WAT.

What kind of topics crop up in GDs & WATs?

The topics for GDs and WATs broadly fall into three categories:

• Economics/Policy
• Issue-based/Topical
• Lateral-Abstract

Economics/Policy-based

These are the kind of GD-WAT topics you do not want to encounter in the second stage, since their focus is on important policies or legislation that have been in the news in the past year. For example, what were the big policy-based debates in the last year?

• Tariff Wars: Is Geopolitics the New Economics?
• The AI Investment Boom: Yet another bubble?

Some institutes, such as IIFT, tend to favour topics based on economics and policy.

Issue-based or Topical WAT-GD Topics

Every year, there are a few issues/events that capture both public and media imagination, generate a lot of debate, and hence become topics worthy of discussion in a WAT or a GD. The IIMs and other premier b-schools would like to see how prospective students view this issue, what sort of perspective they have and how well they can put forth their arguments.

What have been the significant issues over the past year? To name a few

• War War War: Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Venezuela?
• The future of work in the age of AI?
• India and its neighbours: Surrounded by problems?

It is important to note that the topics might not always be presented straightforwardly. The topics above would need you to know not just about what is happening nationally but also about what is happening internationally, both in terms of issues and in terms of politicians.

While these are specific issue-based topics. Other topics are based on broader debates of a more topical nature. For example,

• Can India overtake China in terms of  GDP?
• Economy versus Ecology
• Should capital punishment be abolished?
• Entrepreneurship and India

Lateral-Abstract WAT-GD Topics

And then some topics do not test your knowledge of current affairs or policies. For example,

• It is better to trust a woman’s instinct than a man’s reason.
• If there was one invention/discovery from the past(recent or distant) that you would have liked to have made, which one would it be and why?
• A true traveller is never bothered about the destination and is not intent on arriving.
• Space.

How and where does one start preparation for WAT-GD-PI?

Well, if there were a pill or an injection or a book that would deliver all the information you would need neatly packaged, I would give that to you.

But from this point on, the point after you have cleared the written test, your success in life will not rely on your ability to reproduce things from books or the ability to solve problems that have nothing to do with the real world. The road to success is not paved with MCQs and past papers; it will be harder to win.

So I would want you to start your WAT-GD-PI Prep by putting in the effort to gather information/opinion/analyses from various sources.

And if there is one place to really get in-depth information about the Indian economy, industry reports, policies, and future roadmaps, it is this.

https://www.mckinsey.com/in/our-insights

You might have to create an account to download PDFs, but do it.

Please understand that you will face similar GDs three months into your study at a B-school when faced with Summer Placements.

You need to stop being a student or a techie and start thinking like someone who wants to enter the world of business management and build a great career. And that will not happen if you are not curious enough to read all the McKinsey articles.

For articles on issue-based topics, you can look at The Print, Scroll, Open, and Caravan.

So start your WAT-GD-PI preparation by

• Reading the newspaper inside out every day, including the Business, World News & Editorials sections.
• Researching the policy-based topics listed above
• Reading articles from the sources mentioned

Prepping in the age of AI

I learnt a curious thing when I was planning a trip to Georgia, a week apart from one of my closest friends. His list of places to visit and things to do was based purely on the seemingly comprehensive summaries that his new trusted friend for everything, ChatGPT, came up with. My list had places and things to do that he had not even heard of.

The reason is that ChatGPT will only choose sources with higher views or page ranks and only skim the surface for information. This means that a great blog by someone with great taste but not necessarily insane views will definitely get ignored.

No matter how well you do your prompt engineering, there is nothing that matches putting in a lot of hours from various sources when it comes to topics on which you have no clue. And it is precisely because you have no clue that the average stuff that AI will throw up will seem spectacular.

Also, please note that all applicants will end up using AI to prepare. The average level will thus go up for sure, but most applicants might end up clustering around the same few ideas. Those who have gone beyond summaries and bullet points will end up doing a much better job.

AI can be a great office assistant, a good teaching assistant, and an average teacher.