Blacked out in McKinsey math question - how bad is it?

Honestly, it's not good. Especially with McKinsey (they can really be sticklers on the small things).

A very important point here: Did their "nudge" trigger you? i.e. thanks to their nudge were you able to move forward or did you remain stuck? If their nudge gave you the spark that let you move forward, you could be ok. If you remained stuck, then I'm sorry but it's pretty bad!

Next time you get stuck, try the following:

1) State that you're now figuring out where to take this next (that's fine)

2) Recap the objective and the pieces of information you need (and have) to answer the question/hypothesis.

a) Hopefully this triggers something or b) You get a signal from the interviewer on a particular segment (they might probe you and say "is that all we need from bucket x?"

2) If this doesn't work, start to probe in different areas (i.e. do we know x? To double-check you already said y doesn't apply, correct?) etc. etc.

3) If really desperate, you can say something like "Has the client experienced this before or have any ideas they've come up with?" or "Have we observed something similar to this problem in the past that we can leverage?"

Hi Anonymous,

If it's a single issue and in this and other cases you could demonstrate your ability to handle numbers well, then it's probably not a big deal. Especially if it was a short black-out and you found your way back into the case quickly.

Of course this is just a general statement without having been part of the situation and without knowing any more details!

Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind and give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote below!

Robert

Hi,

It's a bit difficult to judge it without context or knowing the question, how you reacted, how the interviewer reacted.. could you be a bit more precise?

For sure, that's not a good thing! :)

Sometimes this means you do not progress and at other points it is okay. A lot of it has to do with the question, the type of error, your reaction to it, your listening skills and ability to course correct. As others have said this is hard to do without more context 

Wish you all the best,

Udayan

They might overlook it if you did phenomenal on the maths in the other interview. If not then your chances of going through are very small

Hi, It's hard to assess without knowing the interviewer's feedback and the context. One single error in a whole interview can be acceptable with a strong performance. Let's cross our finger :)

Best,
Antonello

Dear A,

I don't think this is a good sign. And also here is not enough information to judge the situation. 

Anyway, I wish you good luck and finger crossed. 

Best,
André