Meaning & purpose:- Group discussion is  a forum where people sit together, discuse a topic with the common objective of finding a solution for a problem. The members are  expected to arrive at a common consensus. while discussing. It is important that the intention of the members is to facilitate the exchange of views.

you should be aware that in a GD, all the members of the group will participate and  you have to listen to the views of the other members of the group. It is a discussion and the speaker will be interrupted by the  other members of the group while speaking. At this point, the speaker should modify what he says , based on the points that other members of the group make while the discussion is in progress. He  has to continually keep evaluating the situation. Also each participant tries to grab the  chance to speak or to focus the attention of the group on himself/ herself .

You might wonder "why should i participate in a GD? well group discussions are arranged in order to measure certain traits of the participants which are otherwise difficult to identify and time consuming to assess. It is commonn that a number of people who can communicate their ideas well and discuss effectively wih others in a one-to -one situation become tongue- tied in a group situation. They will just not be able to present their ideas or discuss their ideas with the other members of the group. Agroup discussion will identify people who have such skills and people who do not. It is very necessary for potential candidates to have such group communication skills .The course work at most premier institutes requires group projects to be undertaken. Acandidate without the ability to communicate the ideas effectively in a group situation will be a misfit in such an environment .

Further when you are apponted at any level in an organisation , you do not work in isolation of other. Decision making is done afeafter discussiong the relevant issues with  others- be it superiors peers or subordinates . In a number of such cases you will need to interact with more than one person at the same time- very akin to GD type of situation. Unless you are equipped with not be able to do justice to your role in the organisation. Hence, it is important to know  the nuances of a GD.