When Should I stop doing cases

Hey there,

1. How to get ready for every case

• The key reason why candidates fail their case interviews and don't improve with practice is because they never learn the right approach and techniques to begin with. They might go through 30-40 cases, just repeating the same mistakes over and over again. There is often no strong baseline.

• So even if your timeline is compressed, make sure you understand and learn the basics for each part of the case (structuring, charts, math), which is

  • A replicable step-by-step for each part of the case interview

  • The right thinking techniques around the individual parts (e.g., what's a framework, what is evaluated, how can I ensure I think about it the correct way, what are some shortcuts to get to the answer quickly, etc.)

  • Simple communication templates to help you communicate your insights as well as ask for data in the right way to drive the case forward

• There are several approaches you can take, such as hiring a skilled coach, reading the right materials, or enrolling in relevant courses. For example, while some chatbots may suggest a list of books, my book, The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview, provides direct guidance tailored to modern case interviews. It covers all the essential points mentioned here, and more, while also offering a detailed preparation plan. You can find it on Amazon

• Avoid generic advice and framework memorization approaches. This will only hurt your performance and waste a ton of time (why -> check out the first post here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-goodrelevant-is-the-case-in-point-book-for-case-prep-1984)

• Once you have that baseline it's time to practice and internalize the skills to create the right profile, polishing your strengths and lifting your weaknesses to a robust-enough level

• Practice drills alone (structure, chart, math) and practice full cases with other excellent candidates that know the right habits and approach. It is crucial that you are practicing with really good peers, otherwise, it's a waste of time. Practicing drills on your own is a huge effectivity and efficiency booster since you can go over many more questions in a shorter amount of time compared to practicing with peers. Do both in parallel! You want to spend your time where it is most useful, e.g., if you struggle with math focus on math drills, etc.

• Focus on quality over quantity. Doing 50+ cases does not mean much if you are not applying the right habits to score high and do a detailed debrief after every case to improve. You want to move from bad to good for your weaknesses and good to great for your strengths --> use the feedback from your previous experience and tailor your prep accordingly

• Consider booking at least an initial coaching session to get a detailed and objective evaluation of your performance + learn the right habits for every case regardless of context and framework + get a tailored preparation plan out of the session that will set you up for an effective and efficient prep.

• For your prep, tailor the cases to the firm you are applying to. McKinsey cases for instance are quite different from BCG and Bain

• Don't forget the fit interview part. Prepare answers for all the typical fit questions and stories (3-5 hours) and rehearse them a couple of times (5 hours)

2. When to stop

Stop doing cases when you can solve every case and drill thrown at you with relative ease. If you follow the above - depending on the starting level - this should be happening between 50 and 100 hours of practice.

All the best with your prep!

Cheers,

Florian

Hi!

Well done on completing ~25 cases, this is great progress! 

If you feel like progress has slowed, you might want to take a step back to reflect on which parts of the cases you are doing great at vs. where you feel you can improve (e.g., maybe rate each case part from 1-10 in terms of your preparedness). Once you've done this, focus on mastering the parts of the case where you ranked yourself lower (e.g., if it is math, focus on doing only the math part of a few cases to improve only that).

Once you can rank yourself at target across each step in the case (framework, math, brainstorming, etc.), you can feel more ready to tackle any types of cases that would come up in interviews. You can then regularly revisit past cases to keep yourself sharp without having to do endless new cases, helping you build long-term readiness for future full-time applications.

Good luck!

1. How can I ensure I'm ready for any type of case?
If you are already practicing with current or former consultants multiple times, and you're doing well, you can safely assume that you're ready for 'any' type of case

2. When should I stop doing cases?

When you get the offer. If you have case fatigue, you can reduce the frequency but ideally not stop.

These are quite subjective answers so take it with a grain of salt

1) When casing feels intuitively easy and becomes more of a fun mental challenge that you know you can eventually solve regardless of the scenario/case type

2) don't stop practicing untily you actually get an offer you are happy with