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As I am preparing for my McKinsey interviews, are there any formula “cheat sheets” available to become more familiar with useful formulas to use during the case interview, etc?
Top rated Case & PEI coach/Multiple real offers/McKinsey EM in New York /12 years recruiting experience
There is no one formula cheat sheet. The entire point is to have you prepare for a new type of problem in an interview. Practice is key, and the following are some mathematical concepts that would be helpful to have.
Interest rates
Compound margin
NPV
CAGR
The "Rule of 72"
Additionally, practice the following to ensure efficiency and ease:
Fast multiplication, especially for larger numbers
ex-McKinsey EM & Interviewer | 7/8 offer rate for 4+ sessions | High impact sessions + FREE materials & exercises
Consulting math in general is really quite simple in terms of “formulas”. It´s just a matter of dealing with the stress when, let´s say, subtracting two large numbers with appropriate rounding and keeping track of decimal places.
What you will need is two things:
Practice structuring i.e. establishing your “own formulas” based on the case problem. It´s all basic arithmetic but still plenty of ways to go wrong with too little practice
Practice your consulting/mental maths (plenty of tools online) and learn how to communicate clearly your approach as you´re executing
1400 5-star reviews across platforms | 600+ offers | Highest-rated case book on Amazon | Uni lecturer in US, Asia, EU
Hey there,
My suggestion would be to practice case math drills and keep notes on the different formulas you encounter. At a certain point, you will see how they are used and repeated across cases.
That way you learn and internalize formulas and their practical application rather than learning formulas by heart without context.
After +5 years of candidate coaching and university teaching, and after having seen hundreds of cases, I realized that the economic-related knowledge needed to master case interviews is not much, and not complex. However, you need to know where to focus! Hence, I created the guide that I wish I could have had, summarizing the most important economic and financial concepts needed to solve consulting cases, combining key concepts theorical reviews and a hands-on methodology with examples and ad-hoc practice cases.
It focuses on 4 core topics, divided in chapters (each of them ranked in scale of importance, to help you maximize your time in short preparations):
Economic concepts: Profitability equation, Break even, Valuation methods (economic, market and asset), Payback period, NPV and IRR, + 3 practice cases to put it all together in a practical way.
Financial concepts: Balance sheet, Income statement/P&L and Performance ratios (based on sales and based on investment), +1 practice case
Market structure & pricing: Market types, Perfect competition markets (demand and supply), Willingness to pay, Pricing approaches, Market segmentation and Price elasticity of demand, +1 practice case
Marketing and Customer Acquisition: Sales funnel, Key marketing metrics (CAC and CLV) and Churn, +1 practice case
Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the guide, and I hope it helps you rock your interviews!
Bain London PE practice / ex-Interviewer and recruiting lead at Bain / I will coach you to rock those interviews
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