Online Assessments

McKinsey Solve is a digital gamified assessment designed to evaluate candidates’ abilities holistically. The online game involves two parts, and candidates are asked to play one game in each part. In part I, candidates play either Ecosystem Creation (Coral Reef) or Ecosystem Creation (Mountain Ridge); in part II, candidates play Plant Defense, Migration Management, Red Rock Study, Disaster Management, or Disease Management. We lay out exactly how Solve works, with publicly-available and remastered in-game visuals, a host of tips to crack the games, and provide you with the best guide available on how to prepare.

The McKinsey Online Assessment i.e., Problem Solving Game, Imbellus or Solve, is intended to assess a candidate based on:

• Systemic thinking - Being aware of cause-and-effect relationships and how they will influence potential consequences.
• Situational awareness - Being mindful of current conditions weighing on a situation and deducing likely outcomes.
• Decision making - Being able to determine the best course of action given a variety of options and variables.
• Metacognition - The ability to capture and process large amounts of information.
• Critical thinking - Critical thinking requires a questioning mindset and involves weighing information from a variety of sources and coming to logical conclusions.

The BCG Potential Test is a variation of the same assessment used in many other management consulting firms, such as the SOVA assessment at Bain, or the Problem Solving Test at McKinsey, as a way to evaluate candidates' numerical, logical, and reasoning skills. The objective is to lower the company's recruiting expenditures by reducing the number of candidates who are considered worthy of a face-to-face interview. A candidate who fails the BCG Potential Test in these areas is likely to fail a case interview anyhow, which would be a huge waste of time and money for the organisation.
Included in your BCG Potential Test guide are 4 best-in-class 23-question sample online assessments that are carefully crafted by former BCG consultants and give you the best opportunity to familiarize yourself and prepare for the test.
 
The Potential Test is accessible in two formats: computerised and paper-based; which format is used is determined by the local office. The key difference between both (apart from the fact that one is virtual and the other is physical) is that the candidate has 45 minutes to answer 23 questions on the computer-based Potential Test. The applicant has 50 minutes to answer 53 questions on the paper Potential Test. The computer-based test has questions on a single instance, but the paper test has questions about multiple separate cases. You will, however, be examined mathematically with numerical problems and logically with data interpretation and comprehension questions in both assessments.
 
Important note: This examination has been largely phased out by BCG, as they aim to go towards the chatbot or pymetrics evaluation.

Packed with 30 verbal reasoning questions, 30 numerical reasoning questions, 18 logical reasoning questions, and 40 personality test statements, our Bain SOVA prep package is a comprehensive tool designed to facilitate your preparation for the assessment.