Get Active in Our Amazing Community of Over 448,000 Peers!

Schedule mock interviews on the Meeting Board, join the latest community discussions in our Consulting Q&A and find like-minded Case Partners to connect and practice with!

How to prepare for McKinsey SHL Test?

McKinsey Online Tests shl shl numerical reasoning SHL test
Recent activity on May 01, 2018
6 Answers
20.0 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Apr 30, 2018

Hi everybody, I am qustioning if you know where to find additional material to prepare for the SHL test that MCK requires to do before starting the selection process.

Than you

Overview of answers

Upvotes
  • Upvotes
  • Date ascending
  • Date descending
Best answer
Anonymous updated the answer on May 01, 2018

Hi Anonymous,

As covered by other answers, McKinsey has started using SHL for some offices (I know for sure Italy and London), as a pre-screen test before inviting candidates to the PST.

Agree that practice is key. Beyond some of the resources suggested below, a very useful practical tip to practicing SHL tests: the tests are the same as the ones used at almost all the investment banks (in London, at least), so to practice you can just apply to all the banks and receive multiple tests in real conditions. Most banks send the tests immediately after applying, so very little wait time. The tests also reuse a lot of the questions, so I had friends that after applying to 15+ investment banks knew all the questions by heart.

Hope this helps!

(edited)

Was this answer helpful?
8
Francesco
Expert
Content Creator
replied on May 01, 2018
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.000+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success (➡ InterviewOffers.com) | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching

Hi Anonymous,

McKinsey indeed started to use CEB SHL in some offices since 2016 (Italy is one of them) for general recruiting. I would not recommend using PST to prepare for the test since the two of them are pretty different.

The McKinsey SHL test is normally divided in two areas. Please note that some countries have different time/questions so you should clarify with HR the numbers below to prepare accordingly.

  • Verbal: 30 questions, 19 minutes to solve them. This is designed to assess logical, verbal and comprehension skills.
  • Numerical: 18 questions, 25 minute to solve them. This is designed to assess your analytical and graph interpretation skills

The best way to prepare is to practice on several tests, understand why you are making mistakes on a particular area and work to improve that particular part. Below you can find a free simulation, on graduatemonkey and jobtestprep sites you should also be able to find additional resources (notice the questions/minutes may be different in the tests from the one you will have to do in your country thus you should adapt accordingly).

https://www.wikijob.co.uk/content/aptitude-tests/test-providers/practice-shl-tests

Best,

Francesco

Was this answer helpful?
Vlad
Expert
replied on Apr 30, 2018
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

For some specific roles like New Ventures, etc. McKinsey indeed uses SHL tests.

PST test is not the best benchmark here, so I don't recommend using them as a proxy to assess your performance, however, they are pretty good to prepare for solving the test in a short amount of time.

The additional resource can be GMAT Integrated reasoning from the official guides and apps

Best!

Was this answer helpful?
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or fellow student?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 = Not likely
10 = Very likely