IIM Admission 2020: KA Althaf Shares His WAT-PI Experience of IIM A, IIM B and IIM C

After clearing interview calls of IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta, KA Althaf from Kasargod plans to join IIM Bangalore. He shares his WAI-PI experience with Shiksha. Read on.

It is neither easy to get interview call from the top IIMs, commonly known as ABC, nor easy to crack them. KA Althaf, a BTech in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology Karnataka who scored 99.73 percentile (VARC 98.03 percentile / DILR 99.39 percentile / QA 99.36 percentile) in CAT exam 2019, converted IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta admission calls with much ease and confidence. Read below his WAT-PI experiences at IIM A, B and C.

IIM Ahmedabad AWT Topic

Date: February 28, 2020

Venue: Bangalore

AWT topic: “Gujarat State education board mandated that all the students respond to the attendance call by saying ‘Jai Hind’. This was done in order to inculcate the value of patriotism since childhood.” To what extent do you agree or disagree? Write down the stated and unstated assumptions. What will strengthen or weaken the argument?

Summary of what I wrote

There are a specific set of rules to approach the AWT, which I followed. I mentioned the stated and unstated assumptions from the argument given and proceeded to weaken the argument by challenging the assumptions. I concluded by mentioning assumptions that would have strengthened the argument.

IIM Ahmedabad PI Experience

Total Duration: 20 minutes

In my slot, I was 2^nd in line to give the interview. Since the staff did not allow candidates to carry their document folder in the interview room, I chose three certificates that would create an impactful first impression. The panel consisted of two IIM A professors. I greeted them with a smile and was asked to take a seat. They scanned through my certificates and appreciated my achievements. Before proceeding, the panelists warned me that the interview would be an opinion-intensive one and that I had the liberty to ask them to stop if I felt uncomfortable. Below is the list of questions I was asked, including the follow-up questions based on my response:

Q: What do you think is the importance of the National Anthem?

Q: Why do you think we need it?

Q: Suppose a school decides to forego the practice of singing the National Anthem during their assembly or any such event. Do you think the school is not patriotic?

Q: What according to you is patriotism?

Q: Do you think you are a patriot? Explain.

A: The discussion lasted for 10 minutes. I tried my best to be politically correct and avoid making any radical/extremist opinions. The conversation with the panelists was engaging. Whenever I had a difference of opinion, I politely disagreed with a smile. I made sure that I had an open mind during the conversation and listened to what the panelists had to say without interrupting them.

This was followed by a few GK questions –

Q: Where is Brahmaputra River?

Q: Where does it originate and name the states through which it follows?

Q: Which are the seven sisters?

A: I was able to answer the first two questions (thanks to a newspaper article I had read two days prior to the interview). However, I could name only six out of the seven sister-states.

Q: Do you think engineering entrance coaching institutes are necessary in India? How do you think it is affecting the personality development of the young generation? What do you think can be done to tackle this issue?

A: In the five-minute long discussion that followed, I stated the positive and negative aspects of coaching institutes and concluded with my personal opinion, not in favor of coaching institutes. The panelists tried to weaken my stand, but I stood my ground.

Q: Could you please explain us what you do at Bosch?

A: I explained my job profile and my responsibilities.

Q: You are explaining the method. Tell us about the process.

A: I further tried to explain to the best of my knowledge. However, they were not convinced with the answers I gave.

Q: Explain the difference between a process and a method.

A: Process is a series of steps to produce a result. Whereas, method is a way of doing something.

Q: Draw the organization structure of Bosch.

A: I was able to draw it and the panelists were convinced. This was followed up by a few questions on the hierarchy which I answered.

The panelists concluded the interview and offered me cookies. I accepted, wished them a good day, and left the room. The entire interview lasted for 20 minutes.

Status of WAT-PI: Converted

IIM Bangalore WAT Topic

Date: February 10, 2020

Place of Interview: Bangalore

WAT topic: Deep discounting practices employed by e-commerce platforms are beneficial or harmful?

Summary of what I wrote

I took a binary approach to tackle the WAT. I split my essay into four paragraphs. In the first paragraph, I introduced the topic and mentioned how the advancement of internet and technology helped e-commerce platforms gain momentum. In the second paragraph, I explained how the customers are benefitted due to deep discounting practices. I described how the growth of e-commerce led to huge foreign investments and employment opportunities with the help of some statistics and examples. In the third paragraph, I introduced a contrasting opinion by mentioning how the brick and mortar industry is affected by this. I also mentioned how the overall economy of India is affected as offline retailers generate 95 percent of the business. In the fourth paragraph, I concluded by expressing my opinion on how this would affect the economy of India in the long run.

IIM Bangalore PI Experience 

Duration of the Interview: 20 minutes

There were two professors and one alumni in my panel. One of the professors opened the door and welcomed me inside the room. He was polite enough to hold the door open till I entered. I greeted everyone and was asked to take a seat. I handed them the documents but they kept it aside, wanting to just speak one-on-one. 

Q: So Althaf, you are from NITK. The girl who came before you was also from NITK. Do you think she is your competition?

A: Since we are all competing for a limited number of seats, I believe that she is my competition.

Q: You were a second ranker at NITK. What medal did they give you?

A: I got a silver medal.

Q: Why not gold? We at IIMB, give gold medal to toppers.

A: I guess NITK follows the Olympic medal system. We all exchanged laughs after this.

Q: You work in the Common Rail Injectors department at Bosch, correct? Now, imagine I am your grandmother who does not know the basics of automobile engineering. Explain to me how an injector works and explain your work responsibilities at Bosch.

A: I requested them for some time to think. This was my opportunity to think out-of-the-box to deliver a creative response. I drew an analogy between the functioning of the human body and the working of an automobile. I explained that an injector is like our mouth that feeds the engine, which is like our stomach that takes in food (fuel) and synthesis it for the energy required. I detailed how my job resembles that of a doctor by comparing the field complaints we receive from customers to the diseases that plague human beings.

The panelists appreciated the creativity in my response.

This was followed by a few technical questions –

Q: When was BS6 introduced?

Q: What is the difference between BS4 and BS6 in terms of emission?

Q: What is the limit for NOx emission?

Q: What is the difference between Euro6 and BS6?

Q: Why can’t we adopt the technology for Euro6 in India? This would save cost and time.

Q: Can we replace a BS4 injector with a BS6 injector and reduce the emissions?

A: I was able to give satisfactory answers to all these questions because they were related to my field of responsibility at Bosch.

Q: What is the shareholding pattern of Bosch?

A: I explained the shareholding pattern of Bosch, the history of MICO and how Robert Bosch entered the Indian market.

Q: How much share does the public own?

A: I am not able to recollect the exact share of general public but the free floating shares are around 33%.

Q: What is the difference between a public limited company and a private limited company?

A: I responded with a smile, “I am sorry Sir, I don’t have much knowledge on this. I will go back and read up more on this”.

Q: You have mentioned a few significant projects at Bosch in your application. Were these individual projects or a group effort?

A: Since I joined Bosch fresh out of college, I had new perspectives on the tasks assigned to me. Bosch was kind enough to give me opportunities to pitch in my ideas. My teammates were extremely supportive and guided me whenever I hit a roadblock. It would not have been possible for me to drive these projects if it wasn’t for my team. I believe that these projects were a group effort, not individual effort.

Q: Althaf, we are done with the interview. Do you have any question for us?

A: I asked them a question and we discussed it for the next 2 minutes.

The panelists concluded the interview after this. I wished them a good day and left the room.

Status of WAT-PI: Converted

IIM Calcutta WAT Topic

Date: March 4, 2020

Place of Interview: Bangalore

WAT topic: Academic pressure, expectations pushing kids to the brink. How can you tackle this issue?

Summary of what I wrote

I split the essay into four paragraphs. In the first paragraph, I introduced the topic. In the second paragraph, I explained the issue with some facts and statistics. I also discussed the root cause of the issue. In the third paragraph, I further expanded on some of the measures that could be adopted to tackle the issue, one of them being the “Happiness curriculum” that is followed at government schools in Delhi. In the fourth paragraph, I summarized all the paragraphs, with a subtle warning at the end.

IIM Calcutta PI Experience

Total Duration: 12 minutes

In my slot, I was 1st in line to give the interview. The panel consisted of two IIMC professors and an IIMC alumnus. One of the professors opened the door and welcomed me inside the room. I greeted them with a smile and was asked to take a seat. I handed them the documents and one of the professors went through the file. The panelists were friendly and reassured me that they just wanted to have a conversation with me.

Q: Are you nervous Althaf?

A: Not at all sir, you made me feel comfortable from the moment I entered the room. I am excited to be giving this interview.

Q: Althaf, tell us about yourself.

A: I started “reciting” a well-prepared answer and 25 seconds into the intro, they cut me off and asked me the next question.

Q: Do you drink?

A: No sir, I do not drink.

Q: Why not?

A: My religion abstains me from consuming intoxicants. Moreover, it is a personal choice.

Q: Isn’t success intoxicating? Your life has been successful till now, wasn’t that intoxicating

A: The successes I achieved until now have enabled me to have a good life. Success would be intoxicating only if I let it feed my ego. As long as I treat my successes the way they are meant to be, by not letting them get to my head and cloud my judgements, I would not consider success intoxicating.

Q: Fair enough. Which are the four religious scriptures in Islam?
A: I am sorry; I do not remember all the four. Tawrat, Injil and Qur’an are three of them. The Qur’an has superseded the older scriptures and we thus follow it now.

Q: Consider a hypothetical scenario wherein your subordinate comes inebriated for a very important client meeting. How would you handle issue?

A: Sir, I would advise him against attending the meeting and ask him to come back to work the next day, once he is sober. I would also strongly warn him to not repeat this in the future.

Q: He was trying to jeopardize your company’s name in front of your clients, don’t you think you should fire him?

A: Sir, I would not fire him, as laying-off people is not my call. It is the responsibility of the higher management and the HR to take action against him.

Q: Althaf, you are giving a very theoretical answer. Tell us know what YOU would do.

A: Yes sir, it is a very theoretical answer. But, this is what I would follow anyway because theories are meant to be followed. I don’t have the authority to take such an extreme step against my subordinate without consulting the higher management.

Q: Fair enough. Let us think about a bottom-up scenario (The other panelist asked “Did you just say bottoms-up?” and everyone started laughing. I laughed with them). Imagine your manager comes inebriated to a client meeting which he is supposed to handle. How would you handle this?

A: I would politely request him to allow me to handle the meeting because as his teammate, it is my responsibility to have his back in the time of need.
This was abruptly followed by a few questions on academics. They handed me a notepad and pencil and asked me the following questions.
Q: Write Bernoulli’s equation.

A: It was fairly easy question and I was able to write it.

Q: Draw P-v graph for this equation (‘P’ along y-axis and ‘v’ along x-axis)

A: I stated my assumptions and drew the graph (Plot 1)

Q: Draw h-v graph for this equation (‘h’ along y-axis and ‘v’ along x-axis)

A: I stated my assumptions and drew the graph (Plot 2)

Q: What will happen to the P-v curve if ‘h’ is doubled. Draw on plot 1.

A: I explained how the curve will change and drew it on Plot 1.
After this, the interviewers glanced through my application and asked me the following questions.

Althaf, you’re a chemistry enthusiast (I had mentioned in my application that I had won third prize in National Level Chemistry quiz competition). Name your favourite chemical.

I thought for 10 seconds, looked around and said “Water is my favourite chemical”.

Q: Relate yourself with water

A: I paused and thought again because my response to this would make or break my interview. “Water is adaptive. It takes the shape of the container you put it in”.

Q: So basically, you don’t have a personality of your own?

A: I responded with a smile, “That is not what I meant; what I meant was that I am very adaptive and no matter what situation you put me in, I will be able to come out of it with flying colours. I was completely thrown out of my comfort zone when I left India for a 3-month internship at Quebec, Canada. However, I was able to adapt to their culture, food, weather and people in a short span of time, making it one of the most memorable experiences of my life”.

Q: We believe you are aware of the current coronavirus situation in India. What do you think is the way forward?

A: Yes sir, I am aware of the situation and in fact, Bangalore encountered its first Coronavirus positive case yesterday. I believe social distancing is the way forward to tackle this issue. Public places such as theatres and malls must be closed. All the companies should adopt work from home practice. And last but not the least, follow good hygiene habits as suggested by WHO.

The panelists concluded the interview. I thanked them for giving me the opportunity and wished them a good day, and left the room.

Status of WAT-PI: Converted

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