Hello all,I have been (unsuccessfully) through the consulting application process this year and would like some advice on what to do next that would best improve my chances when applying next time round.I'm a liberal arts graduate from UCL (1st and prizes etc.), and got to the final round with one tier two firm this year, but my nerves ate me up on the day.My feedback said my maths skills weren't quite up to scratch - I'm doing a home-study course on Mathematics A-level this year which should help with this element.The best advice you could give me would suggest employment I could apply for now that would genuinely improve my chances with mcs later down the road.I am open to work experience etc. too, but as I have already graduated the big firm schemes are out - would an internship at a small and little known mc have any weight when applying to the elite strat houses?Am also considering applying to a position at a market research firm - exposure to different industries and quantative/qualitative analysis tools etc., though I imagine vastly different to strat houses.Finding another grad scheme and moving to consulting later is of course a viable option too but still doesn't solve what I could do in the next 10 months. Am also considering applying to do masters in Management etc.Any [genuine] advice would be greatly appreciated.

1. Good proper work experience (min 2 years) - they will value your knowledge of a particular industry. 2. MSc from a top school (LSE, Oxbridge, LBS)3. Forget about internship and work experience stuff. It won't be much valued by MCs. 4. Work 3-4 years, get an MBA from top school. Having said all this, really surprised you couldn't do better coming from UCL with first class honors.

Anon,I don't believe that doing an A-Level course is a relevant way to prepare yourself for the numerical element of MC interviews. If you feel you generally have a weakness in that area, fine. But if you simply want to be a bit more nimble with mental arithmetic to get by interview, then re-learning things like Integration will get you nowhere.There are probably a short list of key calculations you need to be comfortable with for MC interviews. List them, and just develop fool-proof methodologies you will remember. I propose a few below, perhaps others can chip in also.- Formulae for the caluclation of volumes of basic shapes. In case you're asked one of those "how many golf balls fit inside... whatever".- converting fractions to percentages. For tackling mkt sizing Qs, for example. i.e. calculate # of ppl in a target age group of a given population.- applying %s to numbers. i.e. caluclate 7% of 250.- practise dealing with numbers in the millions/billions, so as not to get lost in zeros- then you're just left with your bread & butter stuff: + - * /