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minutes we have for each interview.” Since they measure your analytical skills, they39。s thought processes in motion. Can you deconstruct and analyze plex, openended business problems? Do you stay calm, or will you sweat bullets under pressure at a client site? At the most basic level, a case interview is about asking the right questions, developing a logical way of working through the relevant issues, and arriving at a remendation. Your structure may be a packaged framework or it may be various frameworks strung together。 this method of interviewing gauges how well you manage the process of getting to an answer and how you perform under simulated clientengagement conditions. We talked to consultanthunters at several firms to glean their advice on cracking the case interview. Here39。Cracking the Case: A Consulting Interview PrimerPage 1 of 3[Web Exclusive] You don39。t have to be Sherlock Holmes to ace the cases in a consultingfirm interview. In fact, a little preparation can make solving them seem, well, elementary.Firms Are There to Help YouConsulting Industry GuideRemember your seventhgrade algebra teacher’s three favorite words? Show your work. At the time, it seemed silly: Why not just show the right answer? Now that you’re older and wiser, however, you know that in many cases how you get to the right answer is more important than simply knowing the answer itself.The same goes for the case questions that consulting recruiters lob at you. Consulting is a demanding job with few correct answers。s what the recruiters revealed—and how you can best prepare. Why the Case Interview?Case interviews have long been used by recruiters to see a candidate39。 you may even choose not to use frameworks at all. What39。re an improvement over simple fit or resum233。 Company Strategy: “My client is thinking of making an acquisition, and …” Operations Improvement: “Why is my client’s factory running behind?” Young’s national director of university recruiting, says these candidates don’t seem to do any better or worse than candidates from noncase schools. Study different kinds of case questions. Just because your buddy interviewed before you and gave you a headsup on the questions doesn’t mean you have a leg up. Recruiters have tons of case questions in their repertoire, and the chances of their using the same question multiple times on one campus visit are slim to none. Get a classmate or friend to roleplay the interview with you, and use any resources (such as a casebook) that your school39。re not familiar with so as to test your analytical skills, not memorized facts。t forget to ask for the firm39。t know what a pany39。s and the three C39。s permitted, work your answers out on paper. Pencils and pens, plus a notebook or legal pad should be standard equipment in any interview. “It’s amazing how many people show up without a pen and paper,” marvels Kamenna Rindova, a senior associate at Mercer Management Consulting. Thin