Osama Yaqoob, a GMAT student at Brightlink Prep, who scored a 610 on his GMAT exam recently got accepted by the LUMS MBA program in 2016. He has agreed to share his interview experience and questions below in his own words.

I had my LUMS MBA interview on 21st April 2016. The interview process started late due to the lunch break. We were five individuals who had to be interviewed that day and each one of us was given a topic to write an essay in around 15 minutes. My topic was “law violates the rights of an individual to think what risks to assume”. I had no clue about the topic and wrote whatever came to my mind.

After the initial testing all of us were transferred to another room where we kept waiting for our turn,
my heart pounced once they called my name, I knew that massacre would start now and those predators would slay me off. I was expecting 3 people in the panel but to my utter shock there were 4. However after I entered the room they welcomed me and gently asked to take a seat. I was quite relieved by their attitude and felt confident enough to start the interview process. The questions were

1) Introduce yourself: I generally introduced myself by explaining that after A-levels I got the opportunity to study abroad and upon my completion of my bachelors I was offered a job in Pepsi.
2) They quickly asked me “what is 28+34: I took 4 second and told 64” They asked me are you sure and I was like yes I am sure. ( Although I was wrong, they did not mention that you are wrong)
3) Which date did you take the GMAT? I said I gave two attempts, first one on 15 december and second one on 26th feb (They rechecked it from the application they were having in front of them and nodded after confirming).
4) Tell me about you biggest achievement so far: I told them what I had wrote in my essays
5) They asked Pakistan what is the GDP; I promptly replied 272 billion and they were like where did you see this figure from? They said USD or PKR; I wasn’t sure so I said pkr. They were like are you sure and again I was like yes sir I am sure about it.
6) What are four P’s? I replied that there are actually now 7p’s. Product, place, price, promotion, people, process and physical evidence. They seemed to be quite satisfied with my answer.
7) What is cycle time? I apologized for this question
8) What is the population of Pakistan? I said according the last official report it is 16 crore however now according to the stats it is estimated to be 19.1 crore.
9) Write on the board how many zeros in one crore: I wrote 9 zeros and they were again like are you sure I was like yes sir I am sure about it.
10) They asked how many millions in one crore, I promptly replied 10 million and they again asked how many millions in 19 crore and again I replied 190.
11) They asked me what per capita income is: I gave them the wrong answer and one of them said “beta trust me it is not that you are talking about”. I excused them and asked them to give me a chance to explain it again and in the mean time I recalled what per capita income is and explained it to them.
12) Do you know anything about supply and demand curve? After I nodded they asked me to give example of an elastic and inelastic product. I gave them example by explaining the graphs I knew about elastic and inelastic demand.
13) What were your 3 favorite modules in the undergrad? I had more knowledge about marketing so I put that on the top of the list, secondly operations management and the third I said human resource management.
14) What is Maslow Hierarchy of needs? I knew 3 steps of Maslow Hierarchy instead of 5
15) What is happening in the globe? I told them about panama leaks
16) Since you have graduated from England. Tell us any current news in England ? I told them about referendum and told them about a 2 Muslims brutally killed in London Camden street after returning home from mosque (this London Camden thing was totally a made up but they accepted what I said)
17) Started asking me about question related to human resource. What is difference between job description and job analysis! I was not sure about this and tried my best to explain and one of the guy politely said “k nahi ata tau directly quote kar do k nahi ata”. I did not get confuse when he said this because I knew that I was leading the interview.
18) Questioned me about ethics! What if you are working in coke for 10 years and you have been a very good employer but your manager never let you flourish and is basically a bad manager. I told that I would try to show my progress to the senior manager whom this manager is reporting to so that the company shall recognize my performance and give me a chance to progress.
19) They manipulated the question and asked that under same conditions you get the offer from pepsi with very good pay and benefits and in return pepsi asks you to give the secrets of coke, Would you? I clearly stated no because that is unethical and i would not want to take any unethical step in my career.
20) What is happening in United states, I had no clue and quoted that I apologize for this.
21) Asked my university rank: They seemed to be quite interested with my transcripts
22) Is it university of Plymouth or Plymouth University? I said it is University of Plymouth… They again asked me why is it university of Plymouth and not Plymouth University. I answered because in most drop down menus when applying for universities or job you see mostly university of Plymouth and not Plymouth university.
23) They asked me we will google it now. Here I think I was a bit overconfident when I said sir I do have phone right now with internet if you want to avail this facility.
24) What if we reject you? I said I will apply next year… What if we still reject you? I will apply the following year. What if we still reject you? I said gently sir I will still apply to Lums.

The interview lasted around 20-25 minutes.