Casebase: Case Interview Prep

"Mel Wolfgang, BCG's head of recruiting in the Americas, interviews about 100 students every year and says he can tell when someone sounds too "scripted."
"It's sort of painful," he says, about hearing such responses."
- WSJ (10/31/2012)

Memorizing frameworks is not good case prep. Being prepared means being at ease in the case setting. Proficiency with 'case math' is crucial for that. Use casebase to learn the techniques, practice the math, and put it all into use with case studies.

~ 11 Case Studies Sourced from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, PwC, Deloitte, and Accenture. Answer checking is automated and explanations are available for each question.

~ 9 Notes On the theory and technique behind case math. Covers estimation, large number multiplication and division, percentages, fractions, and business terms.

~ Automated Math Sets For all the types of math covered in the notes and the math you’ll see in cases. Practice covers precision and estimation. Pace and error feedback after each set.

~ Performance metrics A stats page with graphs detailing your pace and accuracy for each type of math set, for both precision and estimation. Also includes graphs on total and recently answered as measures of progress and engagement.

~Email support and 3-month 100% satisfaction guarantee. Return for a full refund any time in that window.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION:

Case preparation is wasted time if it takes the wrong form. Today’s most commonly used guides outline elaborate frameworks for the reader to memorize and detail point by point how candidates should present themselves. But when you approach each case and question with a prefabricated answer your responses become formulaic, not insightful. Almost without exception, this is painfully obvious to the interviewer.

As with any pursuit, the best preparation will focus on building a solid foundation. That means developing a close familiarity with the material and calculations you’ll face in case studies as well as learning to form and articulate conclusions based on limited information.

This guide was designed to provide that sort of preparation. First and foremost it offers instruction and practice in the type of math that underlies these interviews. Then, with the accompanying cases you will break down and solve actual interview questions.

Many smart candidates botch case interviews simply because they’re unused to performing mental or back of the envelope math. Fortunately, these are easy skills to learn. For the type of math you’ll do in case interviews, semi-regular practice with this guide over a handful of weeks will be more than sufficient.

Each of the lessons in this guide focuses on a type of calculation you will make in interviews. This review draws on existing literature covering mental and rapid calculation, but the lessons are heavily adapted to suit the kind of math found in case studies, where reasonable estimation is valued over minute precision.

As noted earlier, you must also become comfortable forming and articulating conclusions with limited information. The notion that good responses can be memorized is nonsensical. Engineers will see different solutions than will MBAs; what matters is the worth and articulation of the idea. This sort of extemporization takes some getting used to. If our guide cannot offer feedback, it can at least offer practice. Scattered through the accompanying cases are open-ended questions with sample responses.

Ultimately the purpose of this guide is not to supplant practice with a partner, but to complement it. In this guide are the base set of skills and knowledge
- primarily math related
- that will help you feel at ease in your interview. It’s true that being able to do the math quickly and easily doesn’t make you any smarter, but it will foster confidence and free up your thoughts to focus on the real substance of the case.