I have a question for those of you involved in hiring - is it common for job applicants to get every part of the modeling tests right?
No matter how much I practice, there are always just some parts that I don't have time to do or I rush through things and make a couple mistakes. Would you say that these tests are to test general understanding of concepts or do people really ace these?
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Dm me
It isn't common for candidates to get everything right, especially for entry level roles. Don't sweat missing a few things here and there.
Most entry level modeling tests are designed to test your understanding and application of basic RE concepts, as well as to assess your current technical ability and to gauge your teachability on Excel (and sometimes Argus if you have prior experience). If you truly are constantly going through practice runs and emulating the same conditions you would face during a live test, you should be fine come the real thing.
This for sure at the analyst level. It's also usually under a time constraint so even for associate roles you're not expected to get things 100% perfect, and hiring managers also understand that under a tight time constraint its tough to make a model perfectly dynamic.
That’s great to hear, I feel like completing a modeling test perfectly in an hour to two hours is pretty tough…
It is way more about thought process and concepts than being perfect.
I just gave a test to an associate. Missed 2 things:
Management fee of 3% (used 4%) and the hyper amort on the debt (did it as IO).
When I fixed those two things, all of the forumlas flowed correctly. Not perfect, but given the time constraint and the fact that the forumlas linked/flowed correctly, that is a pass in my book.
If this candidate doesn't get an offer, it wouldn't be because of the modeling test.
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