My preparation plan - Your opinion

Question

Dear PrepLounge community,

I want to ask for some educated advice on the preparation plan I have drawn up for myself.

The situation

I'm invited for interview days at Roland Berger (Munich) on February 24, and BCG (1st round) on March 23/24.

My preparation so far

Since November I've been preparing part-time for case interviews. The “Case Interview Fundamentals” course from Crafting Cases served me as an introduction to the world of case interviews. Up to that point, I had not had any contact with interview formats for strategy consultants.

Hours spent on preparation since November: ~80-100h
Case Interviews with partners so far: ~ 10

The upcoming journey

Last week, I finished university and am now able to dedicate 100% to interview prep. I've worked out a plan to structure my preparation process for the next few weeks (see table below). During my past preparation, I have noticed that structuring and estimations are my major weaknesses. Therefore, I think these two elements shall be emphasized in my upcoming preparation.

Short summary of the preparation plan

In sum, ~6 weeks á 56 hours prep time
Total hours dedicated to case interview & personal fit prep: 352h (152h till RB interview; 200h more for BCG interview)
Total # of cases planned: 42
Total # of drills planned: 211

My specific questions

Do you think the time dedicated to interview preparation as indicated on the spreadsheet is reasonable?
Are the weights allocated to each preparation method appropriate?
Do you think the resources (Cases, Drills, Videos, Casecoach) are appropriate/sufficient?
Am I missing important features of a good case interview preparation?

Maybe some of you are more experienced and have deeper insights as to whether there are other factors I've not considered so far which may have a significant impact on my success. I'm thinking about effects such as “case blindness” or “overdrilling”, i.e., focusing too much on quantity and ignoring other important aspects of successful interview preparation. However, I do my best to account for such side effects by having an open mind, using various sources of information, and also generating business acumen (see screenshot for more details).

I would really appreciate any feedback on my preparation plan. Perhaps this might be helpful to other candidates in applying for consultant positions as well.

(I hope the info on the screenshot can be read, maybe you need to zoom in a bit)

Thanks in advance!

P.S.: I know some of you will advice me to consult a coach for the best possible preparation. However, currently this is not an option for me. Therefore, advice specifically related to the prep plan elaborated so far would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Hello,

Congrats on securing the interviews. Now the ball is in your court to crush them and get the offer.

I think you have great initiative in coming up with a plan proactively and being thoughtful and determined about about what you need to do.

Commenting on a plan like yours as it is unfortunately not that straightforward and we may not be able to give an effective perspective because

It's hard to judge a plan without understanding your baseline
What if, to start with, you are already ‘blind sided’ in your self assessment by certain weak areas (i.e. you think you are not weak at a particular area, but actually you are)
The manner of your drills and what it involves is not clear as well. Doing effective drills are always great, but doing drills that aren't as effective may not be as great. How would we know
Thus, what I (and other coaches here) can comment on is maybe a few things around practice volume based on what ‘averages’ we've seen, or a few other pointers which would be matching what the interview evaluation criteria lists down (e.g. business acumen is different from creativity)

That being said, a couple of call-outs you can consider as you are going through your plan

From a volume POV, if you feel that you won't get burnt out by your plan, then its fine. I have known people who have prepped 8 hours a day, and I have known people have have prepped 1 hour a day. But it really depends on where they (and you) stand capability wise and what needs to be worked on
I hope that your numerical drills involve more than just mental math - being able to calculate things quickly is a different skill from being able to think quantitatively, structure your calculations and even organize them clearly in written form
Market sizing as a standalone question is becoming increasingly rare in interviews; rather, this is tested sometimes as part of a larger case. What is definitely more important is the ability to resolve ambiguity from first principles and be hypothesis/issue driven
I assume all your case practices will be with a case partner. Please make sure that you have quality case partners. It does not need to be a coach but if not a coach then it should be someone who has at least passed the interview and/or ideally worked in consulting for a few years and/or is an actual interviewer. Otherwise its easy to land in a blind-leading-the-blind situation

All the best!

Answer 2

Hi there,

Speaking openly/frankly I don't think you'll get great answers from us here. It's not that we can't give good advice, it's that there is so much behind what you've written. To really process what you wrote and to really provide a good answer would take 20-30 minutes. Not to mention needing to actually ask you followup questions, talk things out, etc.

It's like sending a personal trainer your gym workout and then asking them to provide feedback. (A program has to be designed gorund-up for the individual)

Remember, time is a finite resource and people will generally allocate their time to where it is most compensated.

That said, here are some quick thoughts:

I love how organized you are! Organization and hard work are key to success here and you have both in spades!
Remember to case others in cases that you struggled in (you can learn by casing others not just being cases)
Remember, quality over quantity - 56 hours/week is a LOT
Remember to take breaks
Here are some of the major mistakes I see from candidates: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/pitfalls-case-interview-preparation

Answer 3

Hi there,

I think this is an interesting question that may be relevant for many people. I would be happy to share my thoughts on it:

In my opinion, your preparation plan looks quite extensive and well thought out.
However, I would highly advise you to watch out not to over-prepare which could lead to case study fatigue or becoming too “robotic” in your approach to case studies.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to address your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 4

Hi there,

Judging by the elaborate plan you developed, I get the sense that you are putting a lot of effort into your preparation :) So that's a great sign. But it's impossible to tell whether it's enough to bring you where you should be without actually seeing it in a live case.

It's a bit like defining for you a plan to run an ultramarathon in 6 months from now without knowing whether you can even walk for 5 miles.

So if coaching is not an option for you, then yes, your plan is the best bet.

Best,

Cristian