BCG Test and Interview at Regional Eastern European Office

A bit late, just saw the thread today, but maybe this will help someone in the future.

I already passed the computer test and a written case for one of the BCG EE offices (for FT post-MBA Consultant, off-cycle lateral).

Computer test was 45 minutes, 26 questions. I think they are still experimenting with it, so different offices, and possibly different candidates for the same office get different number of questions and different level of question difficulty. Some people told me the questions were easy and similar to McK PST, but in my experience, the test was insanely hard and had nothing in common with McK PST. Also, to my surprise, the test was a lot more difficult (and different) than the sample BCG test from one of the Western European offices that you can find online.

First of all, there were 6 pages of text mixed with data for you to analyze in order to answer the questions. Questions themselves were quite lengthy as well. Second, you had to jump between those six screens to find relevant data - very inconvenient. You can't just put them all on the table in front of you like you could do with printed version. Third, in contrast to McK PST, there were very few straightforward questions (maybe 4-5 max). Typical question required to build a logical chain of 3-4 links in length to be able to arrive to the right answer. Fourth, you were actually allowed to use a calculator. However, it would not help you much, since math was simple, and mental math is quicker in this case. Fifth, the test was actually one large integral case. Each question covers a small part, and many are interrelated. If you skip one of the important ones in the beginning, you won't be able to solve some other questions that are related.

Main problem is time pressure, plus, you are PENALIZED FOR WRONG ANSWERS, so guessing is out of the question. You don't really have time to return to questions you skipped and solve them, because you have to spend time to get into a background of the question again. You can't make the best guess, as you would do with GMAT/GRE, which makes you feel uneasy.

I was told that the version of the test I took had a very low cutoff rate - have to get 40% or something like that to pass. IME, this is usually the case for difficult tasks trying to measure high performance outliers. I left 4 questions unanswered (skipped and then ran out of time before I could return), and probably screwed up a couple.

Best preparation might be running GRE/GMAT drills with penalties for mistakes, but they are not really close in difficulty. If you can practice quick reading/reading comprehension, that would help too.

After you pass the computer test, you will get invited to the written case.

For the Written Case you are led into a room that has a pen, a bunch of color markers, a calculator, and a BCG notepad. They give you a printed e-mail from a client that asks you to put together a presentation answering three questions about the project. They hand you a stack of paper with data (29 pages in my case). Data in the form of tables, graphs, articles, interviews, etc. Scattered all over, and you really have to dig through it to find what is relevant. Then you are told that you have 2 hours on your own, and they will be back to hear your presentation as if you are in front of a client. You should draw the presentation on the notepad paper, which they'll copy and give to the interviewer.

2 hours is enough time for the drill if you plan everything well and start quickly. Try to leave about 30 minutes to draw your slides and think how are you going to present them, so 1.5 hour for solving the case. It is very important to make detailed and very structured notes as you go through the data, so you don't have to go back trolling for numbers to the stack of paper they gave you. Not only will it help with presentation design, but also with questions during the presentation. Make sure you carefully analyze all the documents they gave you, otherwise you will miss important numbers and qualitative information.

I had to do a lot of precise math for this case and put it in neat tables, so the calculator was very handy. Presentation is pretty straightforward with interviewer drilling you on everything you have on the slide plus asking additional questions on the fly.

Next round should be a traditional case/fit combo with several interviewers.