McKinsey Solve Game - post game thoughts + mini rant

Question

Hello,

I did the McKinsey solve test yesterday and have mixed feelings. For context, I am applying for the Undergrad Summer BA intern role.

I would really love to understand how they score the game. I read about the “process score” but would love more clarity if any.

Here's a mini rant about how I feel I did.

For the ecosystem section, I am not sure if I was able to successfully place an ecosystem. I have a feeling 7 of the 8 species survive. This was because I ran into 2 dead-end situations before coming to my current selection. Going through the cases also meant I lost a lot of time. I don't know how the game tracks thought process of candidate through cursor movements and clicks but I wish it does. I had even drawn those parts out on a paper as I was worried about the dead-ends. I had watched YT videos and read resources so I was aware about such situations. Can anyone throw some light on the scoring for part 1 of the game. Given I had to try out the combinations and ended up using too much time I wasn't able to get all right 8 species (I am confident of 6/7).

For part 2, the Redrock study - I found this part easier. I like calculations and felt the game features and UI definitely supported me here. I felt like I had good pace for investigation, analysis, report and cases - and hopefully did things right as I felt good about this section.

As someone trying to break into Consulting as a CS undergrad (not a target major, but a top public Uni), I had higher hopes from part 1 so just feel a little bad.

I'd appreciate any replies from anyone that has more knowledge of the game and its scoring mechanism.

Since I'm going anon for this. I'll also mention that I was able to get a referral for the BA intern role - but not from a Consultant - how would such a situation play out?
I am going to proceed with my Case prep for now :/

Answer 1

Hi there,

Your feeling about the game resonates with almost everyone who is going through this. From what you mentioned, it still sounds like a good performance (but always hard to tell from the outside).

The thing is: No one knows exactly how the algorithms score the process. This is a trade secret of Imbellus and McKinsey. The few people who could talk about this would not be allowed to share anything for obvious reasons.

As for the referral, who did refer you?

All the best,

Florian