When it comes to GD WAT PI preparation, most students get it totally wrong. They spend majority of their time working on wrong things. They focus on being efficient rather than being effective.
That’s why they don’t achieve their full potential and often fall short and engage in cycle of giving CAT & other entrance exams over and over and settle for inferior college when they definitely would have gotten into better college the same year.
In order to work smarter and reap disproportionate results you need to do exactly opposite of what you have thought to be true.
For that you need to understand this Eisenhower Matrix
Before I explain you how to use this matrix to derive maximum out of your preparation and focus on being effective than being efficient, I would like to tell you a story.
In The 80/20 Manager, Richard Koch tells the story of a Prussian army commander and his unique method for utilizing his officers, according to their intelligence and their work ethic
- Officers who are both lazy and stupid – leave them alone, they do no harm
- Officers who are both hardworking and stupid – fire them at once, they create trivial work for everyone else. (Many students come into this category)
- Officers who are both hardworking and intelligent – useful for administration and executing plans. (These are the students who usually get calls from top colleges, they have good academics, they are very sincere etc etc)
- Officers who are both lazy and intelligent – promote them to the highest ranks. They will have the best ideas and will see how to implement them without creating trivial work for everyone else. Great advice for managing your staff. But also great advice for managing your own brains. (Very few students actually belong to this category)
Ref : https://www.perrymarshall.com/32984/which-brain-are-you-using-today/
If you want to be no 4, you need to act like them. Because it’s counter-intuitive approach, most students would not do it because it flies in the face of whatever they have learned over the last few years. Work hard, pay your dues and all that nonsense.
Now, I am not saying that Hard Work is not important. What I am saying is you are not being a Lazy Sloth by following this instead you are working hard on aspects which help you to be more effective rather than being efficient.
Look at this matrix I=Important U=Urgent NU= Not Urgent NI= Not Important
Where you should spend most of your time ?
Important but Not Urgent
1. Identifying & perfecting hooks because if you don’t have anything interesting to talk about during interview or in your SOP, you are going to get irrelevant questions or Current Affairs questions.You need sufficient hooks to divert your interview to your strength points.
You should not give them chance to talk about Current affairs or some irrelevant questions.
2. Focus on questions like Intro, Why MBA, Gap, Grad Score, left the job.These are the highest leverage questions usually students tend to avoid forever or they work on it but in haphazardly fashion. If you work on answering these questions whenever they are relevant.You are working on the most important thing.
Work on them first before moving on to questions which are not that important…because they can’t make or break your interview.
If you want to identify your hooks, learn Irresistible Intrigue Formula here
Along with that I talk about several introspection exercises which will help you develop your hooks inside GD WAT PI Revolution.
If you want help with Why MBA, read this blog post
If you want to Learn how to answer these difficult questions including Why Gap, Why Poor Grad Score, Why did you leave the JOB, I teach a new methodology called A.R.M.S. read about it here
Face the fear. Work on it. Take help. Work on fixing your weakest links first which can be exposed during the GD WAT or PI .instead of working on strengthening insignificant links
3. Another method I teach in GD WAT PI Revolution is Scenario planning where you write answer to a question and create branches on which questions you can possibly get by saying this. Then you create questions on sub-questions. You think of hooks you can use to divert them towards your areas of strengths and interests at all the time.
But you can only do it when you work on identifying and perfecting your hooks.
4. Working on your head-trash
This is very important topic which deserves attention.
I know students scoring meager 94%ile and convert IIM calls (Open Category) and students who score 99.8 %ile and struggle to convert any old IIM calls.
I have worked with several students & I have realized that
Your ability to succeed or fail has far more to do with how clear your mind and emotions and beliefs are, than it has to do with your academics, intelligence.
If you don’t believe you deserve success…no matter of what happens…somehow you will find a way to sabotage your success.
How to uncover lies you believe to be true ?
How to know whatever you believe is a LIE or not ?
If you believe that you are fundamentally wrong , then that’s a LIE you have believed.
Statement 1 : I can’t get into IIM-B because I scored 98%ile and I don’t’ have any experience and I don’t have confidence to communicate my true value.
Statement 2 : I can’t get into IIM-B because i don’t think I can succeed there. There will be probably students from top colleges, I won’t really get good placement and I have to settle for mediocre job so It’s good idea to settle for X college.
In first, you can work on improving your confidence, improving your skills.
In second, you somehow believe that you are worthless. That’s the worst feeling in the world. You can’t probably do anything to fix it.
If you feel you lack skills, you can do something about it..when you feel useless, you will sit and do nothing and accept the results.
5. Essay Practice
If you have to write Essay and become good at it, you have to focus on identifying your weak spots. Whether it’s content, whether it’s finishing it in time constraint, whether it’s developing the content etc etc.
That will help you to correct your approach. Instead of writing random essays on random topics, this approach will help you much better.
6. Practicing/Rehearsing Answers. This is something very important. If you rehearse the answers, record yourself and watch it, see it yourself or show it to your friends who can give you candid feedback, you can experience a lot of improvement in your performance.
Instead of just writing answers and assuming everything will be fine, you are making yourself vulnerable in front of your friends so that you can improve. You will also know which pointers you need to remember whenever you are preparing for Interview instead of just cramming the answers.
7. Researching using Linkedin, talking to current/past students and asking them insightful questions to help you answer questions like Why MBA, Specialization, Why that B-school, and learning about what future holds. This is utmost important because most students live in the world of I think, I feel, I suppose instead of doing the hard work on what’s the reality, what’s realistically possible.
8. How to make sure, you get the results you want by using Six Sources of Influence,
Harness all these 6 factors to make the desired change. I have a whole lesson dedicated on how to use this for your GD WAT PI prep inside GD WAT PI Revolution
Here is how to use this
9. Investing into right resources.
Some students have this habit of saving money, going for classes which attract bottom feeders who thrive on free information and don’t want to pay for any stuff
If you do that, you will waste ton of your time. Instead spend good deal amount of time on finding right people, right resources which will speed up your progress. I include Refresher which covers more than 250 topics which will help you with current affairs so you don’t have to google for 100 articles unless you want to go in depth.
In Interviewer Seduction Formula, I provide sample answers for each question which helps you give a perspective on how others think thus reducing the time required for you to come up with answers.
I have also included SOPs you can model which will help students model the SOPs (not copy them)
I have also included Case Studies of Past students who have gone through different challenges and emerged out successful.
Money buys speed, if you don’t invest in yourself, your progress will be much slower.
If you want to choose right course/coaching class for your needs, read this blog post
Urgent and Important
- Submission of SOP/Form. This can become urgent only if you don’t write or fill up your form on time dragging it to a deadline.
- Applying to certain college. This is sometimes necessary something urgent but if you know it in advance which colleges you are applying tothen you don’t have to do it at the last moment.
- Reading Pagalguy and referring relevant experiences of students from where you had received calls. It can be necessary sometimes however most students tend to waste a lot of their time here.
Urgent but Not Important
Busywork : The work makes you feel busy but it doesn’t give you the results you intend to get. Here are few examples
1. Watching random news. This is never useful strategy if you want to prepare for Current Affairs especially if you are doing it without any purpose, you might spend a lot of time there and still get nothing useful.
2. Emails/Calls : Most of the calls/emails are never important. If you are using Gmail, there are certain filters which will help you sort out important mails from mails which are not at all valuable
Most calls are never urgent, if you ever realize that, you will spend your time in working on right things instead of getting interrupted by these calls.
3. Meetings/Interruptions : Office meetings which tend to take a lot of your time, Interruptions like whatsapp, social media, are hardly important.
Not urgent/Not important
- Web browsing
- Social media
- Pagalguy : Reading SOPs, reading nonsense and wasting time.
Almost all SOPs on pagalguy are waste of time, those who really write great SOPs will never ever post their SOP on pagalguy because they know that everyone is going to copy that so those who post are by definition mediocre ones.
Takeaway :
1. Focus on doing right thing instead of doing things right.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
When you are working on right things…Non urgent but important things…You are being Lazy but Intelligent…You are being effective…You will likely to perform much better in GD WAT and PI, even compared to those who are Hard Worker and Intelligent…Despite working less because they are efficient…you are effective…
2. Domino Effect : What one/two/three things I can do today that will topple the domino ?
You do this once you wake up in the Morning. It sets the tone of the day. Instead of checking whatsapp, Facebook, Emails to start your day, start with the activity/activities that will topple one domino after the other.
It can be writing your journal, it can be exercise, it can be a walk, it can be anything which sets the tone of the day.
If you start your day with news, social media, email, you will be completely frazzled even to start any meaningful activity.
It’s called Keystone Habit
This way you will maximize your chances of converting your best calls…You won’t have to work so hard just to get by…instead every area of your life will be improved…you will be in B-school of your dreams…instead of wishing and hoping….
Choose wisely, convert the best.
If you want to kick-start your GD WAT PI Preparation, check GD WAT PI Revolution
Featured Image Courtesy : Ukandoo.com
