Hello guys could someone explain this to me.I have passed the numerical and verbal tests of Barcap, BAML, Detusche Bank, Citi, PWC, and Deloitte. I also did the first interview at Bain (case study and brain teaser) and was called for the second. I just took the numerical test for Oliver Wyman and completely failed it (must have got 5 right out of 30 skipping 11 questions didn't even manage to answer all of them!!!). I found it crazy hard, especially given complexity of the questions vs. the time limit. Also it's impossible to prepare for it (shl and that other stuff won't do and OW simply says review your GSCE but you ONLY have 7 days from the date of the e-mail to do so!) and you need to remember all of the geometry involved with trapeziods, polygons etc.. Does anyone know the ranking of Oliver Wyman, is it a top tier MC firm? Why the hell is there a numerical test so messed-up? How can an OW application be more complex than a Bain one???Please make sense of this because I am quite shocked haha

Never heard of them so as far as reputation with clients, Oliver do not rank highly.perhaps they only employ math geniuses with zero flair for business [which in turn might explain why I never heard of them]that is of course just an early morning two cents on my part....

OW are tier 2 strat house but - and I say this very rarely - Ive been impressed with everyone Ive met from there. They suffered in the downturn which hit their FS business very hard, but seem to be recovering nicely.The MBB division is as much about longevity and brand positioning as it is about capability. Reality is in terms of the people you will find there there really is no difference between an OW a Bain and a McKinsey. It shouldnt surprise you that the numerical was so hard at OW - they may place more emphasis on this than cases, and it sounds like you had little time to prepare. But with plenty of other good options to pursue you can write it off as experience and move on - assuming you already known you have been rejected? I dont know the pass rate, so there is a possibility that lowish scores are the norm. Can anyone shed some light on that for Joker?

not entirely surprising: OW's heritage was in complex quantitative analysis rather than broad MC - I used to come across them in the cap mkts risk space, where they would deliver complex mathematical models to a point problem without much consideration of broader strategic or operational issues. they were very good at that and made plenty of money at it - the partners were on average more highly comp'd than Deloittes'

Oliver Wyman have long been one of the very best paying firms in the industry and attracted the very best talent in the same ilk as McKinsey, Bain, etc. So I wouldn't question their standing in the industry one bit.However they are a specialist firm, in a different vein to the broad strategy houses, and given the financial nature of their work it therefore wouldn't surprise me at all if the numerical assessment was on a different level to what you've seen at other firms. The MBB firms only need people who are comfortable and competent with numbers. OW would be looking I suspect for a greater competency in this area.Hope this helps. If you're in the running with all these other organisations then I'd just forget this, you're going to end up with a good role and in a couple of years' time you'll look back on this experience and just laugh about it!Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com

Our test is a little tricky but my 15 year old nephew breezed it. My 48 year old physisist brother in law 'ony' got 68%.Don't take it personally, diff'rent strokes/folks and all that...

"physisist" ?? I'm amazed by the poor spelling in some of the posts on this board! it's not what i'd expect from people at the so-called "top" consulting firms: sure, it's not all about spelling, but a little attention to detail doesn't harm...

What test is that shoe polisher? Can you send me a mock? I want to see if I can beat the physicist!

I don't have the time to do them properly now, but if one of you wants to make a diary note early december I'm happy to do the whole thing with you.You'll either have to 'come out' or set up an anon id through 'temp alias' but it would be fun.

I made a note shoe polisher, would be interested too.On a side note I heard yesterday from a college friend who has landed an interview with BCG and didn't take any test AND has a really low undergrad grade... Connections, connections, connections damned connections haha!!