Anyone take a technical test and gotten rejected afterward?

Could be the reason, could not be the reason. People lie all day every day in this business.

If you're confident you did well then they are probably lying and there's some other reason. You're an associate: you should know not to take anything said at face value at this point.

I had a very simple excel test that didn't even involve creating a model, and I'm very confident I got all the questions correct. Got rejected not sure why.

It really depends on how competitive the process is. 

I’ve gone through processes that I felt really good about and have gotten cut (they never provide a reason). On the flip side, I’ve made errors on modeling tests that I catch too late and have still moved forward. In today’s environment, you have to make sure everything is perfect.

It may have nothing to do with your modeling test. Firms have the luxury of being hyper selective on background now. I’ve heard acquisitions/originations roles won’t consider anyone without a background in acquisitions/originations. There are enough people with acquisitions backgrounds from top shops and so they won’t even consider those with brokerage backgrounds or those with AM experience. They may interview you but ultimately cut you at some point despite strong interviews and case studies.

You should have emailed the principals (/partners) 

I’ve yet to hear of someone having a flawless model and being cut from a process just because of the model. You also could just email the person you spoke with directly and ask if it’s really eating away at you.

Sometimes they use the previous round of interviews combined with the modeling test to eliminate people. Maybe others also had flawless models but they liked their interviews slightly more than yours. They had everyone including you do the models in case the people they liked better in the interviews fucked up in the modeling. It is no effort on their part to have you do the modeling test, even if they didn’t prefer you over others.

This is what I'm guessing. Totally possible I made an error or they didnt like the format, but leaning towards other candidates doing well so the test not being the dealbreaker. Either that or something else unrelated to the test. Who knows but still annoying.

Highly doubt it was because of the model, or at least not exclusively because of the model

I’m went through a case study excel test just over a year ago - I spent a ton of time on it and knew I nailed it. After submitting it, I sent to some mentors in the industry and got unanimous feedback that I killed it and should expect the offer.
Not sure what happened but I was told it was because of the model which I don’t think was fully truthful. I think they ended up hiring a couple people for the program