Oliver Wyman Numerical Reasoning Test

Hello, I just applied for an Entry Level Consultant at the firm and received this email saying that I have to complete this 30-min numerical exam in 2 days. Because I am very interested in this firm, I want to prepare my best and I'd love to know more about what kinda numerical questions I should expect.

Thank you very much!

Oliver Wyman Numerical Reasoning Test Help

Below is a compilation of useful information, tips and sample questions to help you on your upcoming Oliver Wyman numerical reasoning test. Hope you find it helpful!

Oliver Wyman Numerical Reasoning Test Format

The test consists of 20 multiple choice questions with a 30-minute time limit.

Tips on the Oliver Wyman Numerical Reasoning Test

* Make sure you test your internet and wifi speed before attempting the test. Loading time between the questions will reduce the amount of time you have to answer questions.

* Negative Marking - You lose 1 point for every incorrect answer.

10 Oliver Wyman Numerical Test Practice Questions

1. Countries A, B and C all became democracies in 2000. Country A holds elections every three years, country B every four years, and country C every five years. In what years will they next all hold elections?

2. We have x red balls and x blue balls in a bag. The probability of getting 2 red balls in succession is 2/9. What’s x?

3. P (Amy winning archery ) is a and probability of Bryan winning boxing is b. 0

4. The president of the USA serves terms of four years, with a maximum of two terms. If a century sees 16 presidents, how many of them served a second term?

5. A roulette wheel has 37 sections, 18 of which are red. If you bet on red and win, you double your money. Fyodor plays 111 games, staking $50 on red each time. How much money, on average, would he expect to win for his $5,500?

6. What is the probability that, in a randomly selected group of seven people, one person will have been born on each day of the week?

7. The average customer call to Phoneinc takes eight minutes, and operators work one of three eight-hour shifts. From 9pm-5am, 10% of calls are received, and from 5am-1pm 100 operators are on shift. If half of all callers ring from 1pm-9pm, how many people call Phoneinc in one day?

8. Nigel has $6.20 to spend, and wants to fill his bag with vegetables. Aubergines cost $0.50, courgettes cost $0.20, he has room for 22 pieces and wants to spend as much as possible. How many courgettes should he buy?

9. It takes Nora two hours to paint a wall 5m by 8m, and Zack three hours to paint a wall 4m by 9m. Together, how long will it take them to paint a wall 10m by 12m?

10. The company has annual sales of $600,000, of which 5% is profit. The CEO wants to increase the profit margin to 10%, but costs are set to rise 15%. By how much must sales increase?


If you're looking to prepare for a numerical test, JobTestPrep has everything you need to know for Mathematical Reasoning Test interviews, including a myriad of questions with thoroughly explained answers.


 

It's purposefully too difficult (or long, really) for the allotted time, and tests you primarily on numerical reasoning. As far as I can tell, its a feeble imitation of the McKinsey PST. I can't imagine it has a major impact on their decision to interview you, unless you indicate a complete inability to function with numbers.

 

honestly, I don't think you can really prepare for it? I didn't really prepare, just brushed up on some geometry formulas. Looking back on it, the best thing to do is probably to learn or brush up on old math, like probabilities and area formulas and crap.

 

How do you know you did 17? Is that because it said "Problem 17" on the top right? If so it probably means you did only 12.

I don't think I received anything that said I submitted x questions after I hit submit after time ran out.

I wonder because I took it awhile ago and haven't received a response. I think I answered 16 or so and skipped like 2 or 3.

Anyone know what a good score is?

 

No it didn't say problem 17.

on the top right there were 2 numbers:

the first ones titled number of problems submitted: 17 and the second one it says :number of questions skipped 5.

so what is the deal?

 
antoniao77:
@qweretyq: out of the 16 answered, how many you think were right?

also was it for analyst or associate poistion?

GMC from undergrad

I think I got all of them right, maybe 1 wrong. I was surprised at the difficulty of the time constraint, because I am usually good at fast math and this kind of stuff (I have scored high on AMC, McKinsey test etc)

I still haven't heard back from though so maybe I didn't pass

 

I'd guess that skipped questions aren't considered "submitted", but I have no real idea. It just seems less simple to have a category for all questions you looked at and for the ones that you skipped vs having one for questions you skipped and one for questions you answered. Occam's Razor-esque.

 

Is there any difference between the financial services track online test and the general management test? Is the general management test GMAT format as well (i.e. probability, geometry, etc.)?

Thank You

 

I'm pretty sure if you do your research about the test, they value quality over quantity when answering. It has tons of questions making it incredibly hard to get it all done and correct. Search on the site and general internet (glassdoor maybe?) to further prove my beliefs. There is a lot of forum discussion elsewhere about it. You can get a negative score too fyi.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

I'd say it's the opposite of a blanket email. Most people who get invited to the test will get an interview, so they're not inviting everyone. I don't think the score threshold is too high. If I remember correctly, there's 30 questions, and I had classmates who said they got 20 questions, you're golden.

 

If I recall, you were allowed to use a calculator on that test...?

By three methods we may attain wisdom: Reflection - which is noblest, Imitation - which is easiest, and Experience - which is bitterest.
 

I don't want you to reveal all of the details but would you consider it easier or harder than the questions in the Wordpress link earlier in the thread?

Congratulations on the interview

 

Did you go back to the website and reattempt the test? Similar thing happened to me. I went back to the test portal and it told me that I had logged out mid-test and told me to retake it.

 
baffled_engineer:
Did you go back to the website and reattempt the test? Similar thing happened to me. I went back to the test portal and it told me that I had logged out mid-test and told me to retake it.

It didn't actually logged out, it just redirected me to a blank page. After a few secs I noticed it was taking me nowhere so I just refreshed the page and my next question loaded, but since the clock was still ticking I lost a considerable amount of time...

 

lol onthegrind i got the exact same score as you and did not receive an interview. like i said, its much less important than gpa and prior internships, as stupid as that may be.

 

Hi there! Is anyone here applying to the London office? Do you know if it also takes a week to hear back from the online tests? Just finished mine but the email said the results will be out by Nov 15 the latest so I'm not sure how long I should wait. Many thanks!

 

I just did the online test. Same, I consider myself pretty good with numbers but I only got through 17 (skipping 4-5). I don't think I've done enough :( The Verbal was much easier though, got through like 23 of those questions.

Mine was for the London office and yeah the email inviting you to do the test said you'll hear back by the Nov 15 at the latest. I reckon they'll just take their time on this. Did you get an email after you took the test?

"So who lost the hundy?"
 

I read somewhere 'half points' are enough, not sure if that means at least 15 & 15 or 30 accumulatively. I hope for 30. Did you also get the test invitation on Sep 19?

 

Hi everyone, I've applied for an entry level consultant role at OW and got an invite for the OW test. Besides the link above, is it helpful also using the GMAT as prep tool?

 
MforMonkey:

Does anyone know if the online OW verbal reasoning test is multiple choice (right/false/cannot say)?

The reasoning part is multiple choice answers. It's just like the LSAT Logical Reasoning section, but a bit easier.
 

Has anybody heard back after the online test? I get the feeling that they are just waiting til enough people have taken it and then will take the highest x% of scores. Seems like the cutoff point is generally around being able to answer 10-12 questions, I've seen comments from people with these scores that have passed and that haven't.

Also, does anybody know if they pay for tickets for foreign candidates to fly internationally? Heading to London from New York. It would be a pain to wait to hear back til Nov 15th with interviews a week away and then having to buy my own ticket.

 
cheme-ib:

I heard back a week after I took the test. That seems to be their rough timeline for reviewing test results along with the rest of your application.

We're you invited for an interview? I was just in contact with an HR person there, she made it sound like they were only going to notify people on Nov 15th (this is for the London office). Regarding ticket subsidy, she said they may do a phone or video conferencing interview instead... Still kind of a pain to wait 2 months to find out if you even get an interview.

 

I took the test on September 24th, applied to the London office. I consider myself to be pretty good at math- I got perfect scores on all my standardized tests thus far - and this test destroyed me. Like, literally. I didn't even finish answering half of the questions they asked. It was awful. I'm pretty bummed cause I did spend a few days doing solid preparation, using GMAT books, but the test is just so difficult that I'm not sure if it was worth all the effort. It is one test that truly separates the sheep from the goats. I will have to see whether I get invited for an interview. I really hope they still say yes. Sigh.

 

I'm not applying for OW, but my girlfriend was, and I was looking over her shoulder while she was taking this test.

I thought that test was insanely hard. I work at MBB and thought the McKinsey PST from when I was recruiting was way easier.

 

Personally, I'd disagree strongly with Ampharos's comment. I found the PST to be much harder. You're really talking apples and oranges. OW's test contains pure math problems, whereas McK's PST requires you to analyze text and make a lot of inferences in addition to a decent amount of quant questions. I found that the nuanced and subjective nature of McK's test made it a lot harder, at least for me. Ended up doing well enough on the tests to get final rounds with both firms this year, but I had a pretty decent amount of wrong answers when going through practice tests for the PST, whereas with OW, I'm very confident I got at least 90% of the answers right with no prior practice.

 
Ampharos:

I'm not applying for OW, but my girlfriend was, and I was looking over her shoulder while she was taking this test.

I thought that test was insanely hard. I work at MBB and thought the McKinsey PST from when I was recruiting was way easier.

I have taken both as well, and I agree with @Ampharos. To me, the test at OW was much harder. The fact that you lose points for each missed question makes you think about the test differently. You can just guess on the PST. I will say, however, that the McK PST was more stressful, if only due to the fact that there is a proctor and you are seated next to your competition.

 
Gloups:

does anyone know if for the online tests we can skip questions and come back to them after?
thank you

No option to go back to questions. Not a big deal though in my opinion, the amount of questions is much more than you could complete in the time given, so don't hesitate to just skip questions if they seem like trouble.
 

Hey no this is wrong. You can come back anytime during the time you are taking this test. I skipped some of them and came back later. Before you take the test, there will be 5 practice questions.

 

thanks! and do you know if we can take the practice test independently of the real test? (or if we need to complete it just before starting the real tests) thank you

 

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