Online Analytical Tests

Hi,

I believe McKinsey PST is the hardest one, so I recommend starting and tracking your prep using PST materials. If you have good results with PST, other tests are not a problem.

Thus I suggest the following:

Do one full case from the mck website in 60 min. Check your score. Target score is 22 out of 26 correct. If you do 17-18 correct you have great chances to improve it quite fast. If lower - it will take a couple of months

If your score is high:

• Buy Viktor Cheng test prep program - best materials I've seen so far. Works also for express prep.
• Practice your math. Learn how to multiply double digit numbers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ndkkPZYJHo). Learn the division table up to 1/11 (i.e. 5/6 = 83.3). Learn how to work with zeros (E.g.: 4000000 = 4*10ˆ6)
• Do the 2nd test and check the score

If your score is low you need fundamental prep:

1. Understand where you have problems (Math, speed, critical reasoning)
2. Work on them:

• PST-like tests available online, GMAT IR part with the proper time tracking - for speed and math issues
• GMAT CR and IR parts - for critical reasoning issues
• Speed reading if English is not your native language and you need to improve the speed

Best,

Vlad

(edited)

You can start with PrepLounge's PST material, it will give you a solid start (and they are rapidly expanding the current offering, so have another look if you haven't recently); obviously the various companies should also have some mock tests on their websites.

Most tests will challenge you to quickly figure out what information is relevant and make you do some quick math. Beyond this, there will indeed be variations (data sufficiency, triangulation/inference, restatement of hypothesis...). All of this are skills you would need in consulting, so hopefully you find the questions fun and exciting :) good luck!

To share my experience, I know about a test called Raven’s test that I had to complete at home as the first step of the interview process at some firms (in Germany). Usually they give you a time frame within you have to finish the test, but you have to do the test in one go and cannot save results and continue later. So the Raven’s tests logical abilities and you have to find missing patterns in matrices. First you get example questions that do not count and just show you how it works. The actual test consists of 23 matrices and their difficulty increases with time (you have 45 minutes). You can go back to questions and change answers. There are some websites where you can practise these tests, for example here https://www.123test.com/logical-reasoning-test . Good luck!

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 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

Hey! There’s a similar online test to Ravens called Athena. The process is the same as Ravens (time limit, you can skip questions and answer them later etc), but it tests your numerical abilities. You have to answer MCQs and also put in the numbers you calculated for some questions. The questions cover a wide range of business topics and you can use a calculator. You gotta still work on your speed of calculating and reducing your steps as Francesco mentioned, because the time is very limited