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Material for BCG Potential Test?

BCG BCG Potential Test Online Tests

Hi,

has anyone taken the BCG Potential Test (the one similar to Mck's PST)? If so, what material do you suggest to use for preparation? If someone has some material to share, this would be very useful!

Thanks a lot for your help,

Gianpaolo

Hi,

has anyone taken the BCG Potential Test (the one similar to Mck's PST)? If so, what material do you suggest to use for preparation? If someone has some material to share, this would be very useful!

Thanks a lot for your help,

Gianpaolo

 New answer on Nov 19, 2020
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Hi,

Depending on the role and country it will be either GMAT type test or a more sophisticated case type test. I've uploaded both examples:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zor4m49eyx5qxal/AABeUN6mtiGkWhEklRjszX2Oa?dl=0

Here are the general recommendations:

  1. Try to find as many people in your country as you can who have done the test. Ask them for the topic, industry, and questions they remember. For example in one of the countries there was a test about airlines and reading a couple of articles / company reports / wikipedia articles with industry terms could significantly improve performance
  2. Try to practice tests with strict time-management. McKinsey PST from the official web site and all mck and bcg -like tests you can find online
  3. Additional recource can be GMAT Integrated reasoning from the official guides and apps if you feel that you are not p[erforming well
  4. As far as I remember calculator is allowed on BCG test. Make sure you know how to simplify calculations and use it fast. If not - work on fastening your math

Best,

Vlad

Hi,

Depending on the role and country it will be either GMAT type test or a more sophisticated case type test. I've uploaded both examples:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zor4m49eyx5qxal/AABeUN6mtiGkWhEklRjszX2Oa?dl=0

Here are the general recommendations:

  1. Try to find as many people in your country as you can who have done the test. Ask them for the topic, industry, and questions they remember. For example in one of the countries there was a test about airlines and reading a couple of articles / company reports / wikipedia articles with industry terms could significantly improve performance
  2. Try to practice tests with strict time-management. McKinsey PST from the official web site and all mck and bcg -like tests you can find online
  3. Additional recource can be GMAT Integrated reasoning from the official guides and apps if you feel that you are not p[erforming well
  4. As far as I remember calculator is allowed on BCG test. Make sure you know how to simplify calculations and use it fast. If not - work on fastening your math

Best,

Vlad

20 Book a coaching with Vlad

Hi Vlad, thank you for the useful tips! can you please send the password to the dropbox link you posted? — Boris on Apr 07, 2018

Hi Vlad, same here, please provide password for the dropbox link. Thanks! — Jakub on Jul 08, 2018

Hi Vlad, can you please provide the password to the dropbox link you posted? — Mohamed on Aug 01, 2018

Hi Vlad, can you please provide the password to the dropbox link you posted? — Jing on Sep 13, 2018

Hi Vlad, Could you please provide the password as well please? — Anonymous on Oct 10, 2018

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Hi Gianpaolo,

I would recommend the following:

  • Practice as much as you can on Potential test simulation. Besides the Med-Lines linked by Vlad, Igotanoffer has several others you can purchase online
  • Once completed the BCG test simulations, move to PST practice. You can find a good number of PST test online for free. PST is different from the Potential test (the structure is not the same, in the Potential test you get penalized for wrong questions while in the McK PST you don’t, etc), but it is definitely closer to that than pure GMAT questions.
  • Do all the simulations with a time constraint. Then, after each test, report all the mistakes you did in the test. You will likely find mistakes have something in common (eg, wrong math; too much time wasted on some questions; wrong interpretation of graph; etc). Then work on these categories one by one. Many people do these simulations concentrating only on the final score and don’t spend time categorizing the type of mistakes, thus not improving their performance.

You can find some additional tips on the BCG potential test at the link below:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/any-tipps-for-bcg-potential-test-487#a1002

Best,

Francesco

Hi Gianpaolo,

I would recommend the following:

  • Practice as much as you can on Potential test simulation. Besides the Med-Lines linked by Vlad, Igotanoffer has several others you can purchase online
  • Once completed the BCG test simulations, move to PST practice. You can find a good number of PST test online for free. PST is different from the Potential test (the structure is not the same, in the Potential test you get penalized for wrong questions while in the McK PST you don’t, etc), but it is definitely closer to that than pure GMAT questions.
  • Do all the simulations with a time constraint. Then, after each test, report all the mistakes you did in the test. You will likely find mistakes have something in common (eg, wrong math; too much time wasted on some questions; wrong interpretation of graph; etc). Then work on these categories one by one. Many people do these simulations concentrating only on the final score and don’t spend time categorizing the type of mistakes, thus not improving their performance.

You can find some additional tips on the BCG potential test at the link below:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/any-tipps-for-bcg-potential-test-487#a1002

Best,

Francesco

(edited)

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I would recommend you to practice GMAT for BCG

1) Keeping your math trained with GMAT exercises is always a good idea. Free resourced can be found online, for example:
http://www.mba.com/global/the-gmat-exam/prepare-for-the-gmat-exam/test-prep-materials/free-gmat-prep-software.aspx
https://www.mba.com/exams/gmat

https://www.mba.com/-/media/files/mba2/assessments/2018/gmat/gmat-handbook-2020-07-10.pdf?la=en&hash=9DCAD3E9A43EEE7B520C84327FBEC6F399A72D82


2) Also tests that usually are for investment banks (with graphs analysis) are a useful. Free resourced can be found online, for example:
https://www.tptests.com/Candidate/practice/Instructions

3) Official BGC Potential test examples: https://www.bcg.com/careers/path/consulting/practice-interview-cases.aspx

In case you have already started your preparation for case interviews and good at reading charts, analytical thinking, and mental math, then BCG potential is an additional of probably an hour as what you should plan for.

Basically, to prepare you can use some mock potential test, and after every test just look into solution to see where you have gone wrong. 3-4 mock test it would be enough for you to prepare for the potential test.

Does it make sense to you?

Cheers,
GB

I would recommend you to practice GMAT for BCG

1) Keeping your math trained with GMAT exercises is always a good idea. Free resourced can be found online, for example:
http://www.mba.com/global/the-gmat-exam/prepare-for-the-gmat-exam/test-prep-materials/free-gmat-prep-software.aspx
https://www.mba.com/exams/gmat

https://www.mba.com/-/media/files/mba2/assessments/2018/gmat/gmat-handbook-2020-07-10.pdf?la=en&hash=9DCAD3E9A43EEE7B520C84327FBEC6F399A72D82


2) Also tests that usually are for investment banks (with graphs analysis) are a useful. Free resourced can be found online, for example:
https://www.tptests.com/Candidate/practice/Instructions

3) Official BGC Potential test examples: https://www.bcg.com/careers/path/consulting/practice-interview-cases.aspx

In case you have already started your preparation for case interviews and good at reading charts, analytical thinking, and mental math, then BCG potential is an additional of probably an hour as what you should plan for.

Basically, to prepare you can use some mock potential test, and after every test just look into solution to see where you have gone wrong. 3-4 mock test it would be enough for you to prepare for the potential test.

Does it make sense to you?

Cheers,
GB

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Hello!

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/)

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

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/)

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

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Hello A!

BCG test includes 23 questions and you will be given about 45 minutes to complete it. This means you will have two minutes to solve each question on average.

The BCG online case is very similar to a regular case the only difference being that your direction in the business case is guided by the questions being asked. So it will be similar to an "interviewer-led" case format. There are a lot of resources online for case solving and all you need to do is Google. If you want to sharpen your case skills in general I would recommend Victor Cheng's Case Interview Secrets by Victor Cheng and his book.

However, since the BCG Online Case is also a single-choice test, you can also use this format to your advantage. You’ll receive+3 points for correct answers and -1 for wrong answers. Currently, the inofficial cut-off score is below 70-75%.

Message me if you have any other specific questions and all the best!

Best,

André

Hello A!

BCG test includes 23 questions and you will be given about 45 minutes to complete it. This means you will have two minutes to solve each question on average.

The BCG online case is very similar to a regular case the only difference being that your direction in the business case is guided by the questions being asked. So it will be similar to an "interviewer-led" case format. There are a lot of resources online for case solving and all you need to do is Google. If you want to sharpen your case skills in general I would recommend Victor Cheng's Case Interview Secrets by Victor Cheng and his book.

However, since the BCG Online Case is also a single-choice test, you can also use this format to your advantage. You’ll receive+3 points for correct answers and -1 for wrong answers. Currently, the inofficial cut-off score is below 70-75%.

Message me if you have any other specific questions and all the best!

Best,

André

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