All questions tagged PST ; McKinsey - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi Anonymous,

as general practice for the PST, I would recommend the following approach:

1. Try to find at least 5-6 practice cases online. There are several available for free, if needed you can purchase additional ones
2. Do one of the tests immediately to check your score. As the passing score is around 70% and you have 26 questions, your target score should be around 18. In the first test you are likely to score lower than that - don't worry, that's pretty normal.
3. Identify the type of questions where you made more mistakes. There could be different reasons why you are doing mistakes and there is probably a predominant type of mistake you are doing (eg slow math or weak critical reasoning). You have to identify the reasons for the mistakes and a way to fix them.
4. Continue the preparation with the other tests. After you have identified the main reason for mistakes, you can continue the preparation with the other tests before the interview - I would allocate them at a regular time distance, with an increase in frequency closer to the day of the test.
5. Go again through the questions where you did mistakes at regular intervals. Be sure to keep a "failure" spreadsheet, where you report all the mistakes and classify the reason for them each time.

The key areas you will need to practice are the following:

1. Time management. Commit to a time for each question, and go on if you surpass that time. If you do not set discipline, you will end eating too much time for some questions (these tests sometimes are actually structured to have some questions it is better to skip and review at the end). If time and test allows, you can then go back to the questions at the end.
2. Quick math. I would recommend practicing with online tools on a daily base to improve. It is better to allocate a small amount of time daily rather than to practice intensively few days only before the interview
3. Quick reading. Get a Harvard Business School case or equivalent long one, give yourself 2 minutes and check how much information you can absorb. Then repeat until when you get a sufficient level of accuracy. You can also check speed reading tactics (eg Tim Ferriss ones) and see if they work for you.
4. Graph interpretation. You need to practice on how to derive quickly insides from graph. Take some random graphs, give yourself 30 seconds and check if you can get the main insides from them. Then repeat until when you get a sufficient level of accuracy
5. Critical reasoning. The GMAT critical reasoning section could be a good support as practice

Hope this helps,

Francesco

The PST is a battle against time but the favourable aspect of the test is that it is not negatively marked so it's a no-brainer to attempt every single question.

Bear in mind that it's very easy to get caught up in the moment with a question - you feel like you've invested a lot of time thinking about a particular one and so feel it's worth taking more time again to get it right. It's important to be ruthless. Imagine someone was looking over your shoulder and giving you objective advice about when to move on. Put yourself in that 'mode'. It's too easy to waste time.

Focus on areas where you are naturally good and try to get better. There might be some areas that you are naturally weaker - don't stress too much about these. Get yourself to a level where you feel competent. It's difficult to be top notch in all areas but easier to be fantastic in one and fine in another. There is only so much practice you can do and so it’s more about developing a strategy to ensure you don't lose against time.

Hi, I have an additional PST I can share. If you send me an email at t*****@l***.com.au I will respond with the PST attached. Tania