BCG 1st Round Interview Charts & Data

Question

When BCG presents charts, data, or any information with graphs, how is it presented to the interviewee? Are you verbally told to see how you digest and intrepret the information in your own way or will they physically hand you the charts, data, etc. on a paper.

Basically, will you have to be a quick writer and excellent organizer of that data or am I overthinking it and they actually give you that info?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,

If it is a relativelt small piece of data (e.g. Rvenue, Price, etc) - they'll just tell you the number

If it is a large set of information they'll give you a printount (Chart or table)

You can use the following approach:

Take a minute to look at the graph
Read the graph title
Look at the graph type and define the type (pie chart, line chart, etc)
Look at the legend (ask for clarifying questions if necessary)
Identify whats going on on the graph. Look for: Trends, % structures,
Look for unusual things (consultants love to integrate these traps in charts) - correlations, outliers, etc
Make 3-4 conclusions from the graph. Think of potential hypothesis on what could be the root cause / what are the consequences
Prioritize the most important for your current analysis and move forward with the case

Sources to learn from (prioritized):

Study "Say it with Charts" book by Barbara Minto
Learn basic statistics (Any GMAT or MBA prep guides)
Check all available MBB presentations and publications. Practice to derive conclusions and check yourself with the actual ones from the article / presentation
GMAT IR part (Official guide and Manhattan prep)
"Consulting Bible" and "Vault guide for consulting" - check the chapters on cases with graphs in these books

Good luck!

Answer 2

Hi Luis,

just had my second round interview at BCG. In the first interview we had a qualitative discussion (the interviewer showed me a deck on the his iPad) about the recent downturn in Germany and what influences the trend and what manufacturers can do to fight this trend.

The second interviewer showed me a table on his computer which I need to complete by doing rough calculations, the %-calculations need to be done by one decimal place.

In the first round I didn't get any tables. All relevant data was shared verbally.

Hope this helps?

Best,

Thorben

Answer 3

Hello!

I wuold suggest you to practice with GMAT.

GMAT unfortunately only gets better with practicing. Good news is that there are many ways of doing so!

There are free exams in the internet that you can use for practice (the one of LBS MBA page, Verits prep, as well as some free trials for courses such as the one of The Economist (https://gmat.economist.com/)

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara