Should I focus on drills or continuing to do cases?

Both!

Just like a soccer team, you need to do running, dribbling, shooting drills, but you also need to scrimmage!

Make sure you're doing the right drills and the right cases with the right people though.

This is very much a game of quality as much as it is quantity.

Here are some tips:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/pitfalls-case-interview-preparation

Hi there,

dedicate some time to do drills in the areas in which you want to improve specifically. Stay targeted and focused for a limited period of time (you can always do more if needed). Then revert back to full cases to test how your skill set has improved and how you now manage to incorporate the quant stuff into your structures.

You will ultimately have to solve holistic cases so you should always approach your preparation in this context. Hence, it would not be wise to “stop” doing live cases.

Best of luck

Hi,

From what you described, I would suggest that you focus on improving quant through targeted drills. 

It does not necessarily mean that you totally stop live cases (as you can still use live cases to test your skills holistically), but sometimes by repeatedly doing full live cases, there are alot of other things you have to think about and work through during that session, that may not necessarily be quant related.

If practice makes perfect, then you definitely achieve more volume more efficiently by doing drills rather than live cases (this assuming that you are doing effective drills correctly).

All the best!

Hi there, 

I wouldn't stop practicing cases altogether, but I do think it's common sense to focus on skills that you need to improve. 

However, more practice might not solve the problem. It might rather make more sense to get some coaching help to get an understanding from an expert whether your technique of approaching these questions is right. 

What I've found with most candidates is that they don't have a methodology of approaching exhibits (for instance) and as a consequence their response is often not structured or insightful enough. 

Best,

Cristian

Hi there,

Definitely, work on your weaknesses to get them to an acceptable level. If in your case this is math, then go for it and use focused drills and courses to improve.

However, do not neglect your strengths as you need to polish them to be "offer-worthy." Also for your strengths, you could go through structured drills.

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there,

I think this is an interesting question that may be relevant for many people. I would be happy to share my thoughts on it:

• I would highly advise you to continue practicing with peers since it is the most realistic way to prepare for your upcoming interviews.
• While it is certainly meaningful to work on your weak spots separately as well, you may as well use case practice with peers for this. For instance, you could tell them in advance that you'd want to focus specifically on getting the exhibit analysis and calculations right, and that they should be a bit lenient if you take a little longer for them.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hello,

You should focus a bit on doing drills, however, then you have to go back to doing cases too, to be able to apply what you have learn during drills.

This is an iterative process and until you are able to easily APPLY in live cases what you have learnt through drills - you must keep going.

All the best!

Rushabh