Generally, a GD is a methodology used by an organization to gauge whether the candidate has got certain personality traits and/or skills that it desires in its members. A group of candidates is given a topic or a situation, given a few minutes to think about the same, and then asked to discuss it among themselves for 15-20 minutes. Companies conduct group discussion after the written test so as to check on your interactive skills and how good you are at communicating with other people. The GD is to check how you behave, participate and contribute to a group.
A Group Discussion or GD, as it is popularly known, judges the personality of a person. It assesses the behavioral traits of a person his or her leadership skills, social skills, team skills, problem-solving skills and presence of mind.
If we analyze the two words Group and Discussion. ‘Group’ means a number of individuals and ‘Discussion’ mean exchanging information on a certain topic and coming to a concrete conclusion.
While entrance exams test the candidates for their academics and knowledge of subjects, the GD will test one for their soft skills and their ability to cope with various situations.
GD also serves as a mass-elimination tool. When there are many candidates applying for limited seats, the GD can act as a benchmark to select the best among the lot.
So that’s why we can segregate GD topics into three parts namely Basic, Intermediate & Advanced:
Basic – These topics are meant for participants with basic knowledge of English communication or general knowledge or process or product knowledge. That’s the reason these topics are suitable for the first time speaker of English language or who has minimum comprehension and presentation skills.
E.g:- Love marriage Or Arranged marriage, Is Mobile a bane or a boon? Etc.
Intermediate – This level is appropriate for participants who have an intermediate or medium level of understanding, comprehension and presentation skills of English as well as subject knowledge.
E.g:- Are women better managers?, Impact of advertisement on children etc.
Advance – Advance topics of GDs are made according to high intellectual and critical thinking level of participants. These topics are mainly given for job selections which require top-notch skills of reasoning and presentation skills.
E.g.:- Management vs Employees, Professional or Personal at workplace etc.
Hence, we can say that Group Discussion is an invigorating discussion where a topic is analyzed and discussed, and in the end, the members come to a fair conclusion. It involves teamwork, but at the same time, it portrays individual personalities.