IIM-L ucknow Interview Experience

IIM Lucknow was my 1st and only shortlist I had till now.
Venue: Hotel Monarch, Bangalore
Time: 2PM

All the group members were called into the Hall in the ascending order of their Test Registration Numbers
Essay/GD Topic: Rules are meant to be broken.
Essay Writing - 20 mins.
Immediately the Sheets were collected by the panelists. And we were asked to start the Group Discussion.

My Opinion on GD:
It was a real fish market. I have never been part of such a weird group till now. The group behavior was so bad that even the one Panelists scolded the group. At any given point of time, we could find at least 3-4 people trying to make their point. The topic is so generic that no one went out of ideas. Everyone was trying to bring in their own ideas. No one ever thought of carrying forward the ideas made by others. No one took the leadership to control the group and guide it in a right direction. A couple of times, i felt that I should control the group. But i was afraid to take the risk/responsibility. At the end of GD, i realized that at times HIGH RISKS YIELD HIGH RETURNS and it's worth taking those risks :) (Wish i had realized it on time)

I was the 9th guy to go in for the interview ( last but one)
Time was around 5
There were 2 panelists Conducting the Personal Interviews (PI). I walked into the room and said "Good Evening" to the Panelists.
P1- An Old man (around 55s)
P2- Middle Aged (around low 40s)


P1: Why did you take a 2 year back between +2 and Engg
Me: 1-year long term coaching for IIT and another year for my Preparatory Course at IIT Madras

P1: What is a Preparatory Course
Me: Explained the funda behind Prep Course

P2: An idea why people are called Scheduled Caste and Tribes?
Me: No idea (with a loser's smile)

P1: Sterling Commerce India, What's your Job Profile like?
Me: Sir, its a Software firm.

P1: Since all engineering graduates are landing up into software, why do we still have branches Chemical, Civil engineering? Do you think we can scrap all these and have one common Computer Science Engineering branch?
Me: No sir, India is a developing nation and the opportunities are growing.

P1: Name some chemical engineering firms in India
Me: BHEL (Dr. Reddy's Labs and BioCon came to my mind first. I wanted to divert them from Chemical Engineering).

P1: You mean BHEL is a core Chemical Engineering related firm
Me: No sir, but there are Chemical Engineering related concepts being employed over there. If we consider BHEL Tirchy, it's specialization is on Boilers and Heat Transfer. Though Heat Transfer is common to Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, the Corrosion effect and Pressure related concepts are from Chemical Engineering background.

P1: So how do you classify BHEL? (Mechanical/Chemical)
Me: Its a mix of both.

P2: So you are from Chemical Engineering. Can i ask you some Questions related to Chemistry
Me: Yes Sir ( do I really have a choice there)

P2: Is sulphate an Cation or Anion?
Me: Cation

P2: What is an Cation?
Me: Cation releases Electrons. Anion takes electrons. And I'm sorry Sulphate is an Anion

P2: What about Nitrate?
Me: Anion

P1: How many elements are there in Mendeleev's Periodic table?
Me: 104 ( i knew it was wrong. But i was confident that even they wouldn't know the correct number. Luckily, they didn't stress on it :) ). Basic difference between Mendeleev's and Modern Periodic table is that the earlier didn't have a column for Noble/Inert gases.

P1: What are Inert gases and why are they called Inert gases?
Me: Inert gas elements are those elements which have their outer most layer electrons complete/full. So they are not capable either losing or gaining electrons.

P2: What is IUPAC? Have you heard of it anywhere I-U-P-A-C?
Me: Sir, i know its related to Chemical Engineering. But i exactly don't remember it.

P1: Who is the Dy. PM of India?
Me: Sir, there's no Dy. PM

P1: Sure?
Me: Yes sir.

P1: So we never had a Dy. PM?
Me: Mr. L K Advani was the Dy. PM, under A B Vajpayee's regime

P1: What is Sonia Gandhi then?
Me: She is the President of Congress party. And head of UPA.

P1: What is she in parliament?
Me: I think she's just an MP sir.

P1: Anything else?
Me: No sir ( I didn't remember that she's also the chairperson of the National Advisory Committee).

P1: Who is the Chairman of Planning Commission?
Me: Mr. Man Mohan Singh, Our Prime Minister

P1: Who is the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission?
Me: I think it's Montek Singh Ahulwalia, but I'm not sure of his post ( whether he's the Dy. Chairman or not).

P1 and P2: I think we are done and you may leave.

I said THANK YOU SIR and came out. I think they took around 12 mins. I feel it was an OK interview. Basically it went very smoothly. The panelists were really nice. Though i fumbled couple of times, they didn't try to put me under pressure. It was a smooth sailing for me.

That's the end of my dream run. And the results will be out on 10th April.... Exactly 2 weeks from now.
Hope everything goes according to my LUCK-NOW