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How to determine which cases are appropriate?

Hi all,

There are a lot of case questions out there: casebooks, PrepLounge cases, etc.

Is there a "best practice" criteria I can use to determine if a case question is indeed appropriate, i.e., provides a high quality simulation of a real-world MBB case interview?

As everyones' time is limited, what is to ensure (or at least bump up the probability) that we invest time in "worthy" cases?

Looking forward to a fruitful discussion :)
Thanks!

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Top answer
Deleted user
on Feb 25, 2018

In my opinion best cases are ones provided by consultancies themselves for preparation and cases given by former interviewers at the firm you are interested in (shameless self-promotion :D ).

Second tier options are MBA consulting prep books (HBS, INSEAD, Duke as personal favorites).

Third tier are the traditional books (Cheng, Cosentino, etc), which are good in terms of giving an initial understanding of types of cases and potential frameworks but cases themselves are a bit removed from today's reality.  

Hope it helps,

Andrea

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Deleted
Coach
on Feb 25, 2018
NOT AVAILABLE

Hey anonymous,

I completely second Andrea's view. If you really want to practice good cases try to reach out to friends in consulting and ask them to create cases based on their actual projects experience!

Most of the uni case books also have cases draft by sponsored MBA students.

Best,

Bruno

Vlad
Coach
on Feb 26, 2018
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

The good cases are the cases that:

  1. Were on a real case interview
  2. Were given by a person who can provide a qualified feedback

I recommend the following approach:

1) Find the partners who are more experienced than you and have done 30+ cases. Ask these guys if they know any cases from the real interviews. If you have to give the cases yourself and don't have any real ones - start with giving the casebook cases for the first couple of times. 

2) After you collect some real cases from the other candidates, start looking for the Candidates who already had the first round at MBB and passed it. Again, ask them for the real cases they had and share your cases

3) Practice with the guys who work / worked at MBB and ask them for some real cases as well

And of course, you can always ask the experts here for help.

All the best!

Vlad

on Feb 26, 2018
Thanks much Andrea, Bruno and Vlad!
on Feb 26, 2018
Follow up question to Anonymous's thread: consultants working today at MBB will agree to provide real cases they are using in interviews?
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