While group discussions are important at the psychological level, a group task adds a functional and practical aspect to the evaluation of aspirants for colleges or organizations. In it, small tasks are assigned to a group of aspirants, where the aspirants need to take particular roles and bring the tasks to a satisfactory conclusion.

For example, an organization or a college might ask a group of aspirants to make paper planes in an organizational setup, where each aspirant takes a role such as that of the CEO, marketing  executives, quality assurance executives, operation executives etc. With effective communication, the group needs to make paper planes and sell them to the moderators.

Many colleges and organizations conduct group discussions as a part of their admission processes. They are conducted during campus recruitments in colleges and internal promotions in organizations too.

Colleges like TISS and some of the Symbiosis colleges are famous for their group tasks. Certain government organizations also conduct combinations of group tasks and discussions.

Mainly five things are evaluated in group tasks:

• Whether you understand your strengths and weaknesses and can choose your roles accordingly.
• Whether you can understand your role in a group in short notice and justify it within the usual limitations.
• Whether you can communicate inter-group and intra-group effectively and get work done within deadlines.
• Whether you can speak in English at the basic level and convey your ideas appropriately.
• Whether you can show certain leadership and management traits if the situation arises.

1. The moderators of a group task are not part of the exercise. So, do not look at them during the exercise, unless they talk to you or ask you questions directly.
2. It’s important to focus on the task at hand – and your performance can be enhanced if you can sort out the inter-group and intra-group communication.
3. Avoid one-on-one conversations, vengeful answers or criticizing your group members or taking all credit yourself.
4. Remember a group task is an evaluation process – focus on how the moderators are evaluating your performance and not on proving your point.
5. Only lots of practice under the tutelage of experienced mentors can help you sail through a group task.