Bain & Co. SOVA test insights (European offices/Zurich)

Question

Dear community,

I am currently preparing for the Bain & Company SOVA test. After screening google for websites that offer some sample tests I noted the following: Although all websites offer verbal, numerical, and logical sample tests which are advertised to be close to the real test, they all differ quite a lot (e.g. in terms of difficulty and overall structure). Also, some sample tests include types of exercises which differ from what SOVA offers as practice examples.

This leaves me with 2 questions:

1) Has anybody taken the test and can recommend a specific website as being close to the real test?
2) How does the practice test offered by SOVA differ from the real test? Any surprises?

Any insight is highly welcome! Please indicate for which office you took the test as they might differ.

Best
Justus

Answer 1

Hi Justus,

First of all, congratulations on the invitation from Bain!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your questions:

First of all, the Sova practice test seems to have exactly the same format as the Bain Sova pre-interview assessment, so I would highly advise you to look for those exact exercises. For example, SHL offers many practice tests, some of which appear to have the exact same format.
Moreover, the Bain Sova pre-interview assessment doesn't seem to differ from country to country, except that in some countries you don't have to do the verbal reasoning section.
Lastly, contrary to what other coaches have said, the personality test also seems to have exactly the same format as the Bain Sova pre-interview assessment, i.e. you have to rate several statements on a scale from "least like me" to "most like me".

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming Bain Sova pre-interview assessment and Bain interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 2

Hi there,

The test generally consists of 2 larger modules, a reasoning section and a personality section.

The reasoning comes with

Verbal
Numerical
Logical

problems, e.g., statement questions, math question, visual puzzles.

The personality section comes with situational judgement ("This is the situation, how would you handle it?") and personality trait questions ("On a scale from 1-5 I consider myself to be ...").

Each individual section comes with 15 questions and there is no time limit (which does not mean you can take as much as you want).

I created a guide for the test and iterated it directly with client feedback on the question style and difficulty.

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 3

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