How to prepare for a MBB written case

Question

Bain, for example, now gives out one-hour written case and asks candidates to review a client's deck and comes up with a deck on recommendations. I have made many slides at work but hardly remember a time I completed a recommendation deck for clients in an hour. What is being evaluated here and how do I attack this giant time-sensitive written case? Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Hi,

Bain Written Case is much easier than BCG since most of the slides a partially pre-filled. It has 2 parts:

Case information you have to go through
Slides with the missing info you have to complete

I have uploaded a sample here (message me to ask for a password):

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zor4m49eyx5qxal/AABeUN6mtiGkWhEklRjszX2Oa?dl=0

Since each question in a written case has an exact correct answer, the success criteria is the number of questions answered correctly.

The best way to prepare is the following:

Check if the calculator is allowed. If not - you have to train mental math. I posted the main tips here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/tips-to-do-big-multiplications-in-my-mind-726#a1422
Practice solving the cases - basically preplounge website is about it
Practice reading cases fast and prioritizing the information. You can use 2 sources:

Written cases in the internet (You can find some of them in google or in case books)
Harvard cases - either buy or try to download somehwere in the web. You can find a couple of MIT cases here for free: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/Pages/Case-Studies.aspx The main problem - these free cases don't have any pre-defined questions.

Good luck!

Answer 2

It is mostly just a time management issue: you still need to display the same qualities as in a traditional case interview, but now also have to add 2 more things: (1) parse through a huge amount of data - most of which may not be relevant or useful, and (2) you need to prepare your presentation itself

I recommend you give yourself a very strict timeline. For example, assuming 1h to prep: 5 minutes to read the question and prepare the framework, 10 minutes to scan the data; 20 min to prepare the argumentation, 15 minutes to create the slides; 5 minutes for the wrap-up; whatever is left to review and get ready to give a verbal presentation

Answer 3

Hello!

Written case interviews are indeed becoming very fashionable nowadays as a way to interview!

In this case in particular, and given that you only have 1h, I would focus on 4 slides, 5 tops. More would probably make them be less well.

Remember that the skillset tested is the same than in the "usual" cases, hence, all the practice you may have done totally plays in your favor.

One important point to add is the need to be very 80-20, structured and to the point, since the prep time is very short, so we need discipline with the analysis to have enaugh time to prep the communication strategy.

There are many many entries in thsi same Q&A regarding written cases, hence, I would recommend you to look with the keywords "written case"

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara