Crack the Case System: Complete Case Interview Prep

In preparation for case interviews, I read 4 of the major case interview prep books (Ohrvall, Cheng, Darling, Cosentino). While all of them have been beneficial, David’s book really stood out to me for a variety of reasons.First, David’s book is incredibly thorough. At 536 pages, it is certainly the largest case prep book I have seen and probably the largest on the market. The book touches on everything. Frameworks, behavioral questions, types of cases, tips for the actual case-day, and a wide variety of sample cases, just to name a few. In addition to that, you have access to over 100 videos on his website that support the cases in the book. The resource is truly comprehensive and very helpful in the preparation process.Second, I really benefitted from the sample dialogue/answers David provides in his book and in the videos. It is one thing for someone to tell you to do something a certain way, but it is different for them to provide concrete examples for how to do it. For instance, I enjoyed reading the comparison of the mediocre candidate and the excellent candidate in chapter 2, section 4 because I know I was a lot like the mediocre candidate and thought I was doing pretty well. To see what a truly “excellent” candidate would say, think about, etc. as they walk through a case is always very helpful.Third, while this book certainly gives structured frameworks for how to attack different case problems, I always got the sense that what David was trying to communicate in his book was that each case will be a little different so you have to be creative and flexible in attacking each problem. Other books feel a bit more rigid, but David provides a lot of tools to help you think creatively about how to approach different problems, or even similar problems, but from different angles. I think this is important because if you only know how to approach/solve a certain number of case questions, you will get really flustered if given something else in the interview. David’s book teaches you categories to think through, but not a rigid set of structures that could be limiting if you received a unique type of problem.Fourth, I found Chapter 5, Section 13 very helpful because David looks at a large variety of the types of cases you may receive (growth strategy, profit, exit a business, etc.) and writes out a two page roadmap using his FRAME outline for how he would attack a problem like this. Again, it doesn’t feel so rigid that you feel constrained, but it does give helpful guidance to know how to attack these types of problems. After I do a practice case given by a friend, I will often refer back to this section see how David might have dug into a similar problem to determine areas I could improve.Finally, though I am not very good at doing this, I think David’s advice about finding 2nd level insights and doing mid-case structures is really important. I know I sometimes get bogged down in details during cases or get going too fast and skip over important information. David’s advice about note-taking, creating graphs/charts/tables, and continuing to block & break data is key for doing well in the analysis portion of the case.Overall, I have benefitted tremendously from David’s book and I highly recommend it to others who are preparing for cases!

If you're serious about prep for the consulting interview process, this book far outpaces the competition. Here are a few reasons why:1. Easy-to-read style. No fancy business jargon here; David Ohrvall does a wonderful job breaking down and organizing the various concepts you need to understand in a friendly and accessible manner. Whether you are an MBA student or a non-MBA without much business exposure, this book will make a for an enjoyable and informative read. Key mnemonics such as IMPACT, FRAME and SPECIAL-T will accelerate your retention of the information presented. And the Maximum Value Model, which organizes the information you need to crack cases into 5 Zones, provides a single clear case-cracking structure that can help you think about any case you encounter in an orderly and intuitive way.2. Interactive/Video element. The case interview process is interactive and your preparation should reflect that. Simply reading cases isn't enough. This book is paired with video instruction which brings the case interview process to life: you can watch a mock interviewer ask the question as if you were actually in the interview and then you can take the time to practice your answer. Once you have done so, you can double back and watch video of how a candidate in your shoes would have tackled the question and compare your answer to his/hers. If you don't have a partner to practice with regularly--and even if you do--this book is well worth your time. I've used a number of different study guides, but this book is BY FAR the closest thing I've seen to mimicking the real interview process.3. Comprehensive Case Interview Review. This book contains 42 diverse cases covering different topics and regions. The cases are comprised of case starts, market-sizing cases, mini cases and full cases. Each comes with detailed tips for your interview partner on how to give the case--and this is key, because doing a good job giving a case as an interviewer takes skill-- as well as questions and issues the interviewee should consider. Also included with each case is a page showing what your notes/outline should look like. Finally, David Ohrvall includes a big-picture overview of each case (via video); this overview is particularly helpful because it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees when sifting through lots of data and working through complex cases.4. Comprehensive Interview Focus. Some guides focus nearly exclusively on the case interview, but this book devotes a good deal of space to additional (and important) facets of the interview process. It covers everything from the time of day during which you should schedule your interview to what you should wear to the interview to difficult questions that will be tossed your way during the "fit" interview. Remember, you can be dinged if you don't succeed on the fit interview component. This book will help you avoid that.In sum, this book is invaluable in preparing for a consulting career. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Crack the Case is the go-to book for consulting candidates and those preparing for an interview.Pros:- Consulting and case interviews require both a breadth and depth of business knowledge. This book is excellent at teaching you 13 different categories of case questions like (Growth strategies, pricing strategies, competitor attacks, entering a new business, entering a new geography, mergers & acquisitions and many more)- The book shows you the ideal way to walk through each type of case question in a very detailed manner- The book tells you what to expect in these interviews- The book helps you understand soft interviewing skills like explaining "why you're interested in consulting, tell us about a time you've failed, tell us about a time you've succeeded etc".Cons- My biggest con for this book is that its practice cases really aren't useful. The book gives you so much knowledge about how to crack different cases, however their practice cases suck. The cases are difficult to practice on your own, and are complicated to practice with a partner. Moreover, the solutions to the cases are brief and leave much to be desired.For that reason, I would recommend buying this book along with  Case in Point by Marc Consentino . Case in Point is almost the opposite of Crack the Case. CIP has really great practice cases and in depth solutions of A+ case answers. However its case frameworks and business knowledge is really shallow and lacking.Good luck in your interviews!

This material was very helpful in order to get a good understanding of the type of cases we would see in a real consulting interview. Particularly, the mini cases and the case starts were great practice. The variety of cases was also great because there were cases that went much beyond the typical profitability case into things like M&As, Organizational Transformations, etc. I recommend this case prep material as part of you core case curriculum!

trop de blah blah, le livre est trop épais pour rienles cas ne sont pas bien faits et beaucoup d'erreurs

Many case studies (>40) and deep theoretical analysis useful for the consulting interviews.Actually, the theoretical part is way too long and a third of the cases are without their solution, but globally it is a nice book.Together with "Case in Point" by Cosentino and the Victor Cheng online material, it is the best stuff for your interviews.

Excellent book for those who wants to break into Management Consulting, though I have to say a little bit a verbose.

There really isn't much of a system in this book - just lots of little unnecessarily complicated parts. The practice cases are especially poor in quality. I bought pretty much all the books on case interviews and found this to be one of the poorest in quality.