Hello! I have an online assessment for Bain. They are using Sova as the test provider. Any tips?

Hey there,

The full SOVA tests three different reasoning skills as well as your personality.

Verbal reasoning

Verbal Reasoning evaluates your skill to understand complex information under time pressure. In this format, you have to read one or more paragraphs to answer a multiple-choice question.

Logical reasoning

Here, Bain recruiting focuses on inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning looks at how you handle abstract concepts and unfamiliar information. For example, you might be asked to continue a logical sequence (figures, numbers, etc.).

Numerical reasoning/ math

Numerical Reasoning questions focus on your ability to handle complex quantitative data. They use tables and other exhibits to present data and ask you to elicit specific information and facts in a multiple-choice style question.

Personality traits

The most common format that is reported is based on the SOVA Personality Test, conducted via two types of questions:

• Traditional personality test: Read a number of sentences and decide how much this is true for you based on a scale of: Least Like Me, Little Like Me, Neutral, Somewhat Like Me, Most Like Me

• Situational judgement test: You are seeing a video or statements related to a workplace situation and have to rank responses from Last favourable to Most favourable

Let me know if you have any questions :-)

Cheers,
Florian

Hi there,

The following is the structure you can expect for the SOVA test, which should require approximately 75 minutes:

• Personality test – You have to rate what seems closer to your personality
• Numerical – SHL based. They provide a graph and you have to perform calculations based on that
• Verbal – SHL based. You have to state if the answer is true/false/cannot say
• Logical – More challenging than the equivalent SHL part. You have to identify the pattern in series identifying what’s next

For most parts (excluding the personality test) the related SHL sections should help to prepare.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi there,

The best way is to really find online tests / questions and practice. Regardless as to whether is a new or old test, the principles are mostly the same:

• Time management (need to think quick)
• Business knowledge/context (incl key formulas)
• Critical thinking (answers that are very similar to each other...clues "hidden" in the text)
• Ability to interpret data/charts

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 (feel free to message if you'd like any of these!)

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. Although this may not seem so at first sight since the formats may differ, what is important here -as well as when solving cases- is the core skillset they are tryng to test. This is common, and the most important skills are:

80-20 analysis: capacity to analize, interpret and extract conclusions quickly and in a agile way from a ton of data -of which not all is useful-

Analytic and critical thinking: many ways tested with graphs, charts and tables, that you need to understand and derive decisions or insights from

Mathematical skills: are always somehow present, for which you need to be fast int he basics

The way to get better is practicing as much as possible with similar exercises -those targeted at the same skillset-. Hence, 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!

Best,

Clara