What is this nonsense called "numerical reasoning test" which is part of the investment banks' online assessment? I take them and always fail as they are timed and I am not so quick to answer all of them (Gladly I'm not so stupidly intelligent!). It sounds to me that a bunch of dogface consultants wanted to open a business and make money from the banks, so they invented these bullshit..

They are cheap and objective, so whatever you think, they are not going away any time soon.Of course "objective" is not the same as "accurate", nor do I claim they are "fair".I have to tell you that the number of these is inevitably going to rise. We now live in a global workforce that has effectively grown by more than a factor of 10 since I graduated, and electronics mean that you don't have to apply by filing out a form by hand any more. Before the Internet, even finding job ads was a mildly skilled activity, yes really. You're surprised ? That's how fast things are changing.Already we are seeing systems that talk amongst themselves to send in candidates without them even applying.Imagine being on the other end of that hose...Cheap simple filtering is fashionable.Speaking on behalf of the community of dogfaced consultants I am surprised you think that making money from banks is somehow unethical ?But as a headhunter my only advice is to get better at brainteasers et al, unless serving coffee is a career path that attracts you. As a HH I see my job as telling you the truth, not saying what you want to hear.(by the way I do mean factor of 10, not 10%, India, China, and most of SE Asia had no meaningful part in world labour supply in the 1980s. The numbers are headed up, not down, and certainly no plateau).

I previously interned in Asia-Pac and didnt have any of these tests but applied for some grad roles in the UK and had to do these tests. I find the verbal part tougher than the numerical part. But u can improve on yr numerical test skills with some prac. Try SHL for a start. Life aint fair so I wont even go to the topic on how fair are these tests. If u wanna be in the industry then just suck it up and do it. The numerical parts are in fact pretty simple maths as long as u can understand wat they are asking. Just do some practise tests and u'll ace the next one. Good luck!

The truth is that when you play with chance you should be and act quite foolish. The randomness is so deceiving that no amount of IQ can rescue you. What is important is to be able to float yourself on the circumstances of life and the stock market! Intuition, diligence, hard-work and a strong sense of reality is often far more important than the whole world knowledge and IQ. What these corporate organizations are doing is a brainwash of their employees. People go through these IQ preparations just to find out that they themselves are smarter than the interviewer and the tests are completely irrelevant to how the tasks are conducted. Today morning I also had an interview with Jane Street, but I was totally indifferent to it and woke up ten minutes before the test. I was mostly answering "What's that?" I bet the interviewer thought I am the most stupid person on the planet. PS. I am glad that DC never denies the malignant attitude of his fellow consultants, but he is also very clever when he says "he is a pimp" since he implies ".. and you are my bitches!" I suggest the relationship is more like gay sex - the screwing is done both ways..