Hi there,

If you don’t feel ready, don’t try to push a crazy amount of preparation in one week. Instead, if possible reschedule the interview. 

This is fine for most firms. They don’t have reasons to interview you if you don’t believe you can do a good job.

Most candidates spend 100+ hours preparing. Yes, you could be lucky and pass the first round by getting exactly the same case you watched the day before on YouTube or guessing the right structure. But that’s a very risky strategy. 

Plus, it is unlikely that you will pass both the first and final round based on luck. And you are rejected, you will have to wait 1-2 years before applying again.

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In terms of how to prepare, I would recommend the following:

1. Define a calendar for your preparation. Identify how many hours you have before your interview and allocate a time slot for preparation in your calendar for each day, working on the points below. Many candidates need 100+ hours to be ready before the interview starting from zero so you can keep that as a benchmark.
2. Read Case In Point or Case Interview Secrets (or finish Hacking the Case Interview) for a general understanding of what a consulting interview is. Don’t focus on the structures proposed in the books, as they are not good enough nowadays (and yes, that’s true for all three, although for different reasons. Feel free to PM me for details on why).
3. Start reading good MBA Consulting Handbooks – you can find several for free online (INSEAD is a good one to start). Read the cases and try to apply your structure to solve them. Whenever you see there is something missing, upgrade your structure with the new insights. Try to read a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
4. After the first 5-10 cases in books/handbooks and basic theory, start to practice live. PrepLounge can be helpful to connect with other candidates for that. There is a relevant part of the interview score that is based on your communication, which you cannot practice at all if you read cases only.
5. Keep track of your mistakes and see which ones you are repeating. If so, try to identify the source of the mistake (feedback from experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioral part and the case part during the mocks. The case part should also cover market sizing, math and graph analysis.
6. Before the interviews, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer  – a great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression. Ideally, get information on who they are and study their profile to have good questions to ask.

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If you want to spend a few hours only instead of 100+ and cover everything mentioned above, I developed a program precisely for that. 

I can also share with you real questions for your target office (I have a db with 1.400+ questions asked in 60+ offices you won't find anywhere else - you can check on my profile if I cover your particular office).

You can check the program at the following link to learn more:

▶ https://www.preplounge.com/en/case-coach/profile/2433#coaching-package

If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.

Best,

Francesco