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Free BCG Potential Test
Boston Consulting Group Potential Test
Free Practice Test
Online case.
During your recruiting process with BCG you will have to go through an online case.
The purpose of this exercise is to test your analytical and logic skills as well as your business sense.
Sample.
This document is a sample of 10 questions put together by IGotAnOffer. Its purpose is to
help you prepare for the actual online exercise you will have to complete. We recommend you take
no more than 20 minutes to take this test.
Each question
is divided into 2 parts:
• on the left, you will find the question itself
• on the right, you will find the information you need to answer the question
No calculator.
We recommend you complete this sample test without using a calculator.
Scoring system.
You should select one or more answers for each question. During the actual test
you will be able to move onwards and backwards and change your prior answers so you should feel
free to do the same here. For each right answer you will get +3 points, 0 points for no answer and -1
point for a wrong answer.
IGotAnOffer disclaimer
Process followed.
BCG only makes four questions available to candidates preparing for its online
test. The free sample test you are reading is inspired by these questions as well as conversations
with past BCG candidates and other consulting recruitment tests. Although this free sample test is
unlikely to be a perfect representation of the actual test, we believe it should help significantly in
your preparation.
Remaining uncertainties.
There are a few uncertainties regarding the BCG potential test that you
should be aware of:
• Number of questions and time: In its four-question sample BCG mentions that the online
test includes 23 questions and needs to be completed in 45 minutes. However, past
candidates have also reported slightly varying numbers of questions and time limits.
• Maths vs. logic questions: Given the limited number of questions made available by
BCG, the balance of maths and logic questions in the actual test is not known at this
stage.
Future improvements.
Despite these uncertainties we believe the materials we put together will
enable you to develop the right skills. Your feedback on the actual test would be very valuable to us
and would significantly help us further improve these materials. You can contact us at
Based on the market research,
what is the average ticket
price Olympian Airways
should charge for a flight from
London to Paris?
1. €102
2. €136
3. €125
4. €116
Question x / 23
Pricing strategy
Market Research
Case Overview
5,000 people were asked how much they would pay for a flight from London to Paris.
Number of respondents and price points: Due to the increasing number of low-cost
airlines entering the market, the world’s major carriers are forced to revisit their pricing strategies in order to preserve their market share.
Olympian Airways is one of the largest airlines in Europe and is revamping its pricing strategy for international short-haul flights.
In order to do so, it decided to carry out market research to find out how much passengers would be willing to pay for different routes. €50 500 €100 1,500 €150 €200 1,100
BCG Potential Test – Olympian Airways
Question 2
What ticket price should
Olympian Airways charge to
maximise gross profit per
day?
1. €100
2. €125
3. €150
4. None of the above / we
lack sufficient information
at this stage
Question x / 23
Maximise gross profit
Scenario analysis
Customer segments
Scenario A B Flight cost and tickets’ revenue
Avg cost per flight €15,000 €15,000 # flights / day 30 20 Ticket price €100 €150 # passengers / flight 200 150 Distribution of passengers C1 50% 30% C2 30% 30% C3 20% 40%
Avg duty free spending per passenger
C1 €5 C2 €10 C3 €15
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After conducting market research in ticket prices the company puts together two different scenarios. Scenario A is a low price high volume strategy and Scenario B is a high price low volume strategy. In addition to ticket revenues, Olympian Airways also sells products (perfumes, alcoholic beverages, electronics, etc.) to passengers during flights.
The company classifies customers into three income bands: C1, C2 and C3. C1 passengers have got the lowest income and C3 the highest.
C1 customers are price elastic across ticket prices and likely to spend less on goods purchased on board.
Olympian Airways’ aircrafts all have the same number of seats.
Which of the factors listed
below would not affect the
gross profit difference
between scenarios A and B?
1. Ticket prices
2. Aircrafts’ seat capacity
3. Fuel costs
4. None of the above
Question x / 23
Maximise gross profit
Customer segments
After conducting market research in ticket prices the company puts together two different scenarios. Scenario A is a low price high volume strategy and Scenario B is a high price low volume strategy. In addition to ticket revenues, Olympian Airways also sells products (perfumes, alcoholic beverages, electronics, etc.) to passengers during flights.
The company classifies customers into three income bands: C1, C2 and C3. C1 passengers have got the lowest income and C3 the highest.
C1 customers are price elastic across ticket prices and likely to spend less on goods purchased on board.
Olympian Airways’ aircrafts all have the same number of seats.
Scenario analysis
Scenario A B Flight cost and tickets’ revenue
Avg cost per flight €15,000 €15,000 # flights / day 30 20 Ticket price €100 €150 # passengers / flight 200 150 Distribution of passengers C1 50% 30% C2 30% 30% C3 20% 40%
Avg duty free spending per passenger
C1 €5 C2 €10 C3 €15
BCG Potential Test – Olympian Airways
Question 4
Given the data you are
provided with, what is the
maximum number of points
one can earn by buying a
single ticket?
1. 59,700
2. 62,300
3. 5,970
4. 6,230
Question x / 23
New customer loyalty programme
Data
Miles & Bonus
In addition to reviewing its pricing strategy, Olympian Airways has also decided to launch a new loyalty programme called Miles & Bonus. In this programme customers are awarded points based on the distance they travel with either the airline or one of its partners.
The points earned vary depending on the travel class (i.e. first, business or
economy), the destination and the season.
For instance, peak season business tickets in non-popular destinations are awarded the most points.
There are 60 different types of tickets (10 destinations, 3 travel classes and 2 seasons) with an average of 2,000 points awarded per ticket.
None of these tickets earns less than 500 points and exactly 15 of them earn less than 1,200 points.
Assuming only 5% of
economy customers use Wi-Fi
all the time, what are the
expected revenues from a
flight to a popular destination
using a new aircraft at its full
capacity?
1. €56,048
2. €56,016
3. €56,480
4. €56,160
Question x / 23
Upgraded fleet of aircrafts
Data
New aircrafts
Olympian Airways is considering
upgrading its fleet. The new aircrafts will use technologies such as touch screens and Wi-Fi on board.
The company has decided that the new aircrafts will have three different types of seats: first, business and economy. First class seats will have leather heated chair beds, business seats will have leather seats with extra leg space and economy seats will have standard seats.
The ratio of first class, business and economy seats in the new aircrafts will be 1 to 3 to 8 and the total number of seats will be 240.
Average ticket prices for popular
destinations are expected to be €700 for first class, €300 for business and €150 for economy. The average duration of these flights is 3 hours.
First and business customers get free Wi-Fi on board but economy customers need to pay €2 / hour for using it.
BCG Potential Test – PayCo
Question 6
What is the current cost per
sale for PayCo assuming all
lead sources have the same
conversion rate?
1. $39 / sale
2. $44 / sale
3. $49 / sale
4. $54 / sale
Question x / 23
Cost per sale
Current situation
Case overview
PayCo purchases lists of leads at different prices from Alma Bank, Bingo Bank and Com Bank.
It then calls the leads to try and sell them card machines and services. The average conversion rate from lead to actual
customer is about 10%. PayCo is a payments company that
processes debit card and credit card transactions in the United States. PayCo’s clients are shops such as restaurants, bars, apparel shops, supermarkets, petrol stations, etc. The company rents debit and credit card machines to its clients. It earns a rental fee for the card machines as well as a small fee for each card transaction processed by their client.
The company works with banks to acquire new clients. It purchases lists of
businesses from them and calls them to sell card machines and services.
Cost per lead ($) Share of total mix of leads (%) Alma Bank $5 30% Bingo Bank $3 60% Com Bank $6 10%
What is the maximum
conversion rate that can be
achieved by PayCo using the
the three banks as a lead
source?
1. 10.5%
2. 11.2%
3. 11.8%
4. 12.3%
Question x / 23
Maximise conversion rate
Conversion rate results
Bank by bank analysis
After carrying out some research, your team finds out that the conversion rate between the three banks is actually different.
PayCo needs to achieve its sales target by using 300,000 leads per year. Alma Bank is a large commercial bank
from the East Coast of the US. Its clients are mainly restaurants and shops. Com Bank has got a similar list of clients to Alma Bank but is established on the West Coast of the US.
Bingo Bank is established in the Midwest and primarily serves Mom and Pop businesses.
The team at PayCo has always assumed a similar conversion rate of 10% across all three banks.
Conversion rate # of leads available per year Alma Bank 12% 100,000 Bingo Bank 8% 600,000 Com Bank 15% 80,000
BCG Potential Test – PayCo
Question 8
What is the minimum cost per
sale PayCo can achieve by
using Alma Bank, Bingo Bank
and Com Bank as sources of
leads?
1. $35.0 / sale
2. $37.5 / sale
3. $40.0 / sale
4. None of the above / we
lack sufficient information
at this stage
Question x / 23
Maximise conversion rate
Conversion rate results
Bank by bank analysis
After carrying out some research, your team finds out that the conversion rate between the three banks is actually different.
PayCo needs to achieve its sales target by using 300,000 leads per year. Alma Bank is a large commercial bank
from the East Coast of the US. Its clients are mainly restaurants and shops. Com Bank has got a similar list of clients to Alma Bank but is established on the West Coast of the US.
Bingo Bank is established in the Midwest and primarily serves Mom and Pop businesses.
The team at PayCo has always assumed a similar conversion rate of 10% across all three banks.
Conversion rate # of leads available per year Alma Bank 12% 100,000 Bingo Bank 8% 600,000 Com Bank 15% 80,000
Which of the following
statements would NOT
increase the motivation of
sellers handling leads from
Bingo Bank?
1. Work with Bingo Bank to
increase the quality of the
leads purchased from
them by PayCo
2. Group sellers handling
different banks in a single
team and randomise the
distribution of leads
between them
3. Keep sellers in different
teams but rotate lead
sources between them
4. Increase bonuses to $200
per sale for all sellers
Question x / 23
Sellers incentives
Sellers’ compensation
Day to day
The sellers’ base salary starts at $40k and increases by about 5% per year for each additional year they stay with the company.
In addition, sellers can receive $100 for each sale they make.
The Head of Sales has noticed that sellers for Bingo Bank are much less motivated than their peers on average. After investigating, his initial conclusion is that they have been consistently making less sales and getting lower bonuses than their peers.
PayCo’s sellers work from 9am to 5pm from Monday to Friday 47 weeks a year. Sellers are divided into three teams. Each team deals with one of the following lead sources: Alma Bank, Bingo Bank and Com Bank.
Every day, sellers receive a list of 85 leads from their respective bank and work through the list during the day.
The list of leads they get are newly setup businesses which are likely to require debit and credit card payment processing services.
Sellers simply cold-call the leads and try to convince them to sign up for PayCo services.
BCG Potential Test – PayCo
Question 10
Which of the following
measures would best help the
company to fully prevent
sellers from agreeing
unprofitable prices with future
customers?
1. Train sellers to negotiate
better prices with leads
2. Fine sellers when they
give unprofitable prices
3. Incentivise sellers to sell
at higher prices with a
different bonus system
4. Set up an audit team that
would check prices and
validate contracts before
they count towards
sellers’ total sales
Question x / 23
Incentive structure
Pricing
Current issue
When selling PayCo’s services, sellers negotiate a share of their customers’ future revenue.
For debit cards, they usually agree a price of about 15 cents per future transaction processed for the client. For instance, if PayCo processes a debit card transaction for a sandwich at $5, they will receive 15 cents from the sandwich shop in
exchange for their service.
For credit cards, the price agreed is a percentage of the transaction instead of a fixed fee. This percentage is usually around 1.5%.
Lately, sellers have been found to sell PayCo’s services at increasingly less profitable prices.
Sellers are currently only incentivised based on the number of customers they manage to sell to.
The head of finance of the group has noticed that the prices at which sellers agreed to provide PayCo’s services have decreased in the past few months. The head of sales suspects that this might be due to sellers selling at
increasingly lower prices to increase their bonus.