SOVA test Bain online assessment

Hello!

Most of the online tests are very similar, and test the same skillset. It´s a good thing, since you can prep for them with a very unified approach.

I would strongly recomment you practice it with the Integrated Reasoning part of the GMAT exam.

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/)

Furthermore, you can leverage the MBB tests (https://www.myconsultingoffer.org/case-study-interview-prep/bcg-online/, https://www.psychometricinstitute.co.uk/Free-Aptitude-Tests.asp, and many others)

Hope it helps!

Hey Jen,

1. I have written a detailed free article on the SOVA covering several of your points here: https://strategycase.com/bain-sova-test/

2. Since it is an online assessment taken, there is no reasonable way for Bain to check whether or not you used a calculator. The assessment is made up in a way that coming up with the logic > performing the calculations

3. 60 seconds is the average you can take per question, some will take longer, some shorter. The test does not show time per question but total. It is a good idea to install temporal monitoring to time and pace yourself. Calculate at the beginning how much time you have per question and then roughly stick it to it. However, timing yourself with a phone with a repeated 1-minute timer could be more distracting than actually helpful

4. I think it's a myth but I haven't been able to prove that yet.

All the best,

Florian

Hi A,

I did the test yesterday for the London AC position. It appears that my test was different to the other comments as I had no business case.

Mine was done by SOVA - 75mins, untimed (although time recorded), but instead:

Personality Test e.g. Most likely and Least likey "I naturally lead within a group" - difficulty lies in the fact all the answers are positive - so it's about which trait to prioritise.

Numerical: More like SHL graphs - no word problems at all and no PST similarities.

Verbal: TRUE/FALSE/Cannot Say SHL style

Logical: SHL Guess the next sequence AND "which pattern follows the same logic" (slightly different type of question). Much harder than any practice ones I did for SHL but would recommend jobtestprep abstract tests in any case to practice.

Hey!

This is something very new indeed. I had no idea it even existed so I reached out to guys in London and it seems to be in the model of a PST/GMAT.

As expected, they are looking at your quant skills (math, analytics) but also testing your verbal ability (reasoning, logic, reading pace). To practice, I would suggest to maybe do a GMAT test online (you have many for free just google it) and a few PSTs and you're good to go.

My guess is that as it is something new, they are still testing/calibrating it so I don't believe they will put a significant weight on it for now, but I may be wrong.

Any Bainies in London around to share more information on this?

Cheers,
Ben

Hi Jen,

First, good luck!

Second, think of it as a merge of a case and the GMAT/GRE.

You need to be clear on some key case-related and account formulas (margin, growth, breakeven, etc) as well as be good at critically understanding the question (including nuance to questions) and parsing through complicated text with a fair amount of distraction.

You'll also need to be good at chart/graph reading.

The (old) McKinsey PST, BCG Online Test, Bain SOVA test, etc. are all quite similar so leverage resources across all of them.

https://www.myconsultingoffer.org/case-study-interview-prep/bcg-online/

https://www.shl.com/shldirect/en/practice-tests

https://www.psychometricinstitute.co.uk/Free-Aptitude-Tests.asp

(edited)

I've just taken the test last week so can shed some light.

There are 3 sections and they are untimed, although time will be taken into account (i.e. they won't stop you at any period of time, but how long it takes you to complete the test is still factored in). GMAT preparation is the best I've seen for it.

The three sections are numerical reasoning, logic, and business situation.

According to the Bain webinar, the pass threshold is pretty low.

Good luck!

Hello,

I have had a bunch of candidates lately preparing for Bain & Company online assessment provided by SOVA. I have good preparation material and some questions actually taken from a real test, that can be leveraged to prepare the SOVA or similar test (e.g. PST).

Feel free to text me if you are interested.
Best,
Luca

(edited)

I undertook the same test, here is the format:

The first part of the assessment covers some questions on your behavioural preferences.

The second part of the assessment covers logical, numerical and verbal reasoning.

You will need approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete the assessment.

Hi, SHL is a good standardized test to practice with.

Here some free link to practice with quantitative part of SHL test
- https://www.gradtests.com.au/test/starttest/TestType/2/TestId/45/practice/1
- https://www.wikijob.co.uk/aptitude-test/verbal-reasoning-practice
- https://www.practiceaptitudetests.com/sign-up/programme/shl
- https://www.shldirect.com/en/practice-tests
- https://www.jobtestprep.co.uk/jobtestprep/testPlayer.aspx?atr=1&skinid=9&localeSetting=en-GB&sLanguage=en-GB&test_id=E_FreeSHL_Numerical&mode=timed&template=FreeTestTemplate&endURL=%2ffree-shl-numerical-test-results-page&endURLName=Exit+Test&cancelURLName=Exit+Test&cancelURL=signout.aspx&ReturnURL=%2fmaster-ceb-shl-numerical-test&layoutype=1&layoutype=1&testTitle=Free+SHL-Style+Numerical+Test&adPageID=&itemCode=E_FreeSHL_Numerical

Best,
Antonello