McKinsey Imbellus Game (experience share only please)

Hey!

I took the test sometime in February. I'm not sure if I can offer that much of good advice as I didn't prepare beforehand. It is supposed to measure the skills that you should already have. Anyway, my advice for the first part:

I got the coral reef situation, it had lots of data with species and plants. I started by looking at all of them and checked which category was the biggest in terms of temperature. When I selected that I looked between species and plants a lot and note down the calorie intake. The amount of data can be overwhelming and I actually changed the strategy after 5 minutes in the game. You should spend most of the time on this case (I think the game suggests half of the time), read through the data, write down some important information (for example a lot were useless and didn't have an impact on the question).

The second part was the maze game - I think it was similar to traditional chess games as you could select your move after your opponent. I guess even some strategic games on the Internet could be relevant in this case. What was important was to think of every move and that the game continues AFTER you finish your moves (which I didn't know and messed up the first part). So basically it'll count how many moves the opponent needs to destroy whatever your protecting (I think it was some sort of plant), e.g. if you get 6 moves then the game can continue until 6, 8 or even 50 if your strategy was really good. Having said that out of my three round one was really high, one was quite low (as I didn't know the games continue) and one was quite okay.

I found from my local Mck office that you need to be above 75th percentile to pass (at least in Warsaw). I also was told I scored one of the highest score recorded in the game which was really surprising - as I mentioned above I did not prepare and took the game with just some paper notes after reading the instruction provided. Honestly, the best way to prepare (if you want to) is to play those strategic games online as it actually felt a lot like games I played as a kid.

PS: Make sure you have a good computer, my old Macbook Air really heated up after a few minutes.

Hi there,

I did an in-depth study on the Imbellus. I can tell you that most of the comments you will find are something like this:

• You cannot prepare – it tests who you are
• Play a lot of videogames
• Don’t waste time
• Be yourself
• Be 80-20
• Take notes well
• Enjoy yourself

Not sure what you think, but I don’t believe that’s very useful. Nor did the several people I coached who had to do the test.

So I worked hard with the people that actually did the test and created a guide with everything you need to know on the Imbellus.

This guide will:

• Show you the perfect strategy for each of the 4 Game Scenarios
• Explain every single part of the Game with ad-hoc pictures
• Detail the exact steps to improve in the 5 Skills tested in the game
• Provide you insider information from previous applicants who succeeded in the game
• Reveal the must-know answers to the most common questions on the Imbellus
• Offer you a ready-to-use Excel template to maximize results in Scenario 1 with a detailed tutorial 

This guide will cover every single part of the Game, so you can be 100% confident the day of the assessment, without worrying “I should have prepared better for this”. You won’t need any additional material to prepare after this.

Here is a screenshot of the guide:

You can download the guide instantly here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/mckinsey-imbellus-game-secrets-48

As an extra bonus, I am offering for a limited time the Consulting Industry Cheat Sheet (worth $29) for free with the guide. You will get access to key insights of the 17 most common industries in case interviews.

If you need additional support or have any questions on the guide please feel free to PM me, I am happy to provide extra tips for free.

Best,

Francesco

Hi! 

You probably already took the test, but I thought I'd add to this thread!

I took the assessment two days ago. I just found out that I passed and scored really well. I didn't practice anything at all, I just made sure to read all the articles I could find about the assessment to understand what they're looking for.

The first part I got was the island ecosystem creation game, which took me around 30 mins. I took another 5 mins just to check my answers and make sure the numbers all added up. This is not new information, but I definitely recommend starting from the top with predators and moving down the chain. Make sure you read the instructions clearly and watch out for the consumption rules in the system (it's all outllined in the game). You want the chain to be the most optimal. Don't change your animals around too much. You kind of have to commit, the software records everything. 

My second part was defending a plant from invaders. I found this way more challenging, so I would heavily recommend dividing your time 50/50 between the ecosystem creation and this part. I ran out of time in my last round. As others have already said, remember that each round of play is supposed to last beyond what's shown. The game would show 5 or 6 moves, but will extend to 15 and beyond if your strategy is good. It's hard to explain if you haven't seen it, but you'll know once you begin. Don't hectically click around. 

My biggest advice would be to really get into the game and forget that it's a test. You could also watch youtube videos of gameplay if you have a lot of time, but I didn't find that extra helpful. 

Hope this helps! Good luck to everyone taking it :)

Hello!

It´s much better than the old test used to be.

It's a gamified test

Divided into 2 games, 1h to complete both of them:

1st one is a game about keeping an ecosystem balanced

2nd one is a defense game

It´s fun and there is not really a "way" to prep for it.

My advise would be to be fresh when you do it and pick a right enviroment -during my BCG test in their office there was construction in the patio and the screen was even shaking-.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Did you end up taking the test ? anyone else ?

Dear A,

You will be given 1 hour to make your test.  To get more information, just keep in mind the following tips for the Digital Assessment.

1. Focus on the process

2. Follow time tracking. It is easy to get lost in the details and the sheer complexity of information overload the test presents. 

3. Look into the key skills that are being assessed by Imbellus and if you find any weaknesses - then work on them in advance.

4. Get ready to make 80/20 decisions based on incomplete information. Likely you won’t reach the best answer within 60 minutes, however, you should reach a good answer, demonstrating a clever problem-solving strategy along the way. 

5. Take notes of your observations on the mechanics of each scenario so that you can analyze it. 

6. Get comfortable to calculate with pen and paper math. 

7. Enjoy 

Hope it helps,

André

Hi,
it's a gamified test for which different environments are been developed. It's pretty easy and no preparation is needed: only pay attention to time and instructions. It's usually divided into 2 games and you have 1h to complete both of them (you can decide when passing to the next game).
- In the first one you are going to create a balanced ecosystem based on the rules of the environment you choose (e.g. in a mountain scenario you fix a point with certain values of elevation, humidity, wind, ... and then you have to choose animals and plants that can survive each other and in the environment).
- In the second game, you have to defend an object (usually a plant) from the enemies (usually rodents) with the help of slowers (barriers) or killers (predators). I developed some good strategies to handle it, feel free to text me.

Here the introductory McK video about it: https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/mckinsey-digital-assessment

Hope it helps,
Antonello