McKinsey Imbellus Problem Solving Game - How to prepare?

Hi,

Whilst you don't have to be a gamer to perform well, the game will certainly test your problem solving ability and your ability to navigate in challenging circumstances.

Which skills are tested?

The game records all of the candidate’s actions (e.g., every movement of the mouse, time spent to choose an action) and uses machine learning to assess candidates’ way of thinking. It’s as much about how close candidates come to the best solution as about how they tackle the problem through. During the game McK assesses 5 cognitive abilities that are critical for a career in consulting:

• Critical thinking: the ability analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment
• Decision making: the ability to select the best course of action among several options
• Self-awareness: the ability to self-assess
• Situational awareness: the ability to be fully aware of your surroundings at all times, allowing you to react effectively
• Systematic thinking: the ability to understand different parts of a system and how they work together through cause/ effect relationships

How to cultivate these skills?

Let’s break down each skillset and find ways to improve.

Critical thinking could be broken down into the following subskills:

• Think about a topic in an objective and critical way
• Identify the connections between ideas and working out whether the evidence provided supports those ideas or not
• Evaluate a point of view to determine how strong or valid it is
• Recognize any weaknesses that there are in the evidence or argument
• Notice what implications there might be behind a statement
• Provide structured reasoning and support for an argument that we wish to make

In order to improve your critical thinking I would suggest using mind mapping technique. It exploits the fact that our brains process information visually much more effectively than they do when it’s presented in a written document.

The idea behind mind mapping is that you start with a central theme or idea, typically drawn in a box in the middle of the page, and then from that you create branches, which lead to other ideas, or to supporting evidence or ancillary information.

Decision making could be broken down into the following subskills:

• Establishing a positive decision-making environment
• Generating potential solutions
• Evaluating the solutions
• Deciding
• Checking the decision

In order to improve your decision making skills I would suggest that you start applying it to your everyday life situations and start developing small decision making frameworks for each situation (e.g. going to the shop)

Self-awareness could be broken down into the following subskills:

• Monitor Your Performance
• Seek Out Feedback and Then Use It

The best way to improve your self-awareness is to reduce your EGO barrier and blind spots. You can read Ray Dalio Principles for more details.

Situational awareness could be broken down into the following subskills:

• Identifying the baseline for the situation you are in
• Recognizing any variations to the baseline

In order to improve your situational awareness I suggest that you take typical life situation and:

• Monitor the Baseline. At first, this will require concentration effort. But after a while, you will find that you can monitor the baseline subconsciously
• Fight Normalcy Bias. This requires you to be paranoid for a while as you develop your skill. Look at every disturbance to the baseline - this will allow you to stop ignoring or discounting any factors

Systematic thinking could be broken down into the following subskills:

• Identifying all the elements in the system
• Understanding the correlations between the elements

This skill could be largely improved by solving business cases.

ALSO I suggest that you should start investing your time into playing different computer/mobile game, where you can practice applying these skills.

Hope it helps!

Anton

Hi Chi,
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). 

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

Hope it helps,
Antonello

Hello Chi,

I have had the chance to follow several candidates taking this test and I have written (together with them) a detailed guide on how to successfully approach Imbellus test.

The guide includes:

• Detailed hands-on strategy to ace the Imbellus
• Excel model with an algorithm to solve the first scenario 
• Hands-on example and practical tips to crack the game

On top of that, you will receive an interesting paper on Imbellus valuation metrics and a coupon code for a session with your purchase!
 

Feel free to text me if you are interested. You can find a screenshot of the excel model below.
 
Best,
Luca

Hi there,

There are some great prior answers here!

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/imbellus-mc-kinsey-6041

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-imbellus-test-6802

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-imbellus-is-it-gono-go-6792

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-imbellus-game-7063

Hi Chi,

This is probably too late for you, but hopefully useful for someone else.

I did an in-depth study on the Imbellus. Most of the comments I found online 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 candidates 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 
• Give you a proven template to build the food chain in Scenario 1

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 it.

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

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