Consulting Case Interview Prep

Memorizing frameworks is not good preparation for a consulting case study interview. You need to be at ease in the consulting case setting. Proficiency with 'case study math' is crucial for that. Use Casebase to learn the techniques, practice the math, and put it all into use with case studies sourced from the leading consulting firms.

From The Wall Street Journal:

"Mel Wolfgang, BCG's head of recruiting in the Americas, interviews about 100 students every year and says he can tell when someone sounds too "scripted."

"It's sort of painful," he says, about hearing such responses."

11 Case Studies

Sourced from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, PwC, Deloitte, and Accenture. Answer checking is automated and explanations are available for each question.

9 Notes

On the theory and technique behind case math. Covers estimation, large number multiplication and division, percentages, fractions, and business terms.

Automated Math Sets

For all the types of math covered in the notes and the math you’ll see in cases. Practice covers precision and estimation. Pace and error feedback after each set.

Performance metrics

A stats page with graphs detailing your pace and accuracy for each type of math set, for both precision and estimation. Also includes graphs on total and recently answered as measures of progress and engagement.

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EXCERPT:

Consulting case interview preparation is wasted time if it takes the wrong form. Today’s most commonly used guides outline elaborate frameworks for the reader to memorize and detail point by point how candidates should present themselves. But when you approach each case and question with a prefabricated answer your responses become formulaic, not insightful. Almost without exception, this is painfully obvious to the interviewer.

As with any pursuit, the best preparation will focus on building a solid foundation. That means developing a close familiarity with the material and calculations you’ll face in consulting case study interviews as well as learning to form and articulate conclusions based on limited information.

This guide was designed to provide that sort of preparation. First and foremost it offers instruction and practice in the type of math that underlies these case interviews. Then, with the accompanying cases you will break down and solve actual interview questions sourced from leading consulting firms.

Many smart candidates botch consulting case interviews simply because they’re unused to performing mental or back of the envelope math. Fortunately, these are easy skills to learn. For the type of math you’ll do in consulting case interviews, semi-regular practice with this guide over a handful of weeks will be more than sufficient.

Each of the lessons in this guide focuses on a type of calculation you will make in consulting interviews. This review draws on existing literature covering mental and rapid calculation, but the lessons are heavily adapted to suit the kind of math found in consulting case studies, where reasonable estimation is valued over minute precision.

As noted earlier, you must also become comfortable forming and articulating conclusions with limited information. The notion that good responses can be memorized is nonsensical. Engineers will see different solutions than will MBAs; what matters is the worth and articulation of the idea. This sort of extemporization takes some getting used to. Our guide can offer practice. Scattered through the accompanying cases are open-ended questions with sample responses.

In this guide are the base set of skills and knowledge - primarily math related - that will help you feel at ease in your consulting case interview. It’s true that being able to do the math quickly doesn’t make you any smarter, but it will foster confidence and free up your thoughts to focus on the real substance of the case.