curriculum

Everything you need to ace the management consultant interview.

The goal is an offer, and offers come from being able to calmly structure and present an argument for a business decision. The learning sections exist to refresh financial theory , understanding strategy and overall familiarity with concepts that one is expected to know. Each section comes with workable drills designed to facilitate the correct type of thinking and reasoning. The answers are less important than understanding the structure and having a strong reasoning process. The arithmetic section is designed to relieve the pressure of having to do mental calculations and involve methods to make mental math easier, it includes drills and explanations of the methods. Same thing goes for the financial drills. Learn by doing , Enjoy!

start here

Finance foundations

Start here: the basics, assuming you know nothing yet. Eight beginner phases, no jargon without a definition: what a business is financially, the three statements and how they link, reading each one, the ratios you can do in your head, the time cost of money, and where the money comes from.

Start with foundations Phase 1: What a business is, financially

Browse the theory library Read all the theory on one page 24-week study plan Run a case interview Arithmetic drills

Tracks

start here · 8 phases

Foundations

Start here: the basics, assuming you know nothing yet.

· What a business is, financially
· The three statements and how they link
· Reading a balance sheet
· Reading an income statement
· …

26 phases

Finance

Accounting through valuation and risk — the analyst core.

Feeling lost here? Do Foundations first.

· Accounting & Financial Statements
· Time Value of Money
· Corporate Finance
· Financial Markets & Instruments
· …

13 phases

Strategy Bridge

Why a company wins, and how that turns into numbers.

· Industry & Competitive Analysis
· Internal Analysis & Capabilities
· Corporate & Growth Strategy
· Strategy Execution
· …

12 phases

Statistics

Probability through machine learning and visualisation.

· Describing Data
· Probability Foundations
· Statistics of Returns & Risk
· Correlation, Diversification & Beta
· …

Why each track exists

Why theory at all

A case interview is not a maths test. It is a test of whether you can decide something sensible with incomplete information, out loud, in fifteen minutes.

Arithmetic gets you to a number; theory tells you which number to compute and what it means once you have it. Every framework here exists because it answers a recurring question: is this business earning more than its capital costs, is this difference real or noise, is this advantage defensible. Learn the question each tool answers and the tool becomes hard to forget.

How finance, strategy and statistics fit together

Strategy says why the numbers will change. Finance says by how much, and whether that creates value. Statistics says how confident you are allowed to be.

The three tracks are one loop. A strategic claim (premium positioning, a network build, an acquisition) has to terminate in a driver — price, volume, mix, cost, capital intensity or risk. Finance converts drivers into cash flow and compares the return to the cost of capital. Statistics decides whether the evidence behind the driver is strong enough to act on, and how wide the band around your answer should be.

Two levels, on purpose

Every phase is written twice: once in plain English, once the way a specialist would put it.

Read the plain version to build the mental picture, then the advanced version for the precision an interviewer probes for. The plain layer is what you say first in the room; the advanced layer is what you have ready when they ask 'why'. Each phase then adds why the method works — the mechanism, not the recipe — the pitfalls that lose marks, and a fully worked example of the method in action.

Why the mental maths matters

You cannot think about a business while struggling with 17 × 240. The drills exist to free up attention.

Speed arithmetic is the cheapest way to buy working memory in a live case. Once multiplication, percentages, growth rates and doubling times are automatic, the whole of your attention goes to structure and judgement — which is the part being graded. That is why every phase ends with the drills and cases where the theory becomes arithmetic you do out loud.

How to use this

Foundations first, then finance in the morning and statistics in the afternoon. The strategy bridge is woven through finance because that is where employers expect you to connect them. Every phase follows the same seven-part shape:

1In plain English / the advanced viewThe same idea at two depths, so you can explain it to anyone in the room.
2Core theory, formulas and vocabularyWhat you must know cold, with the terms you are expected to use fluently.
3Frameworks and strategy connectionHow the concept turns into a decision, and where it links to the other tracks.
4Why it worksThe mechanism behind the method — the reason it is valid, not just the steps.
5Common pitfallsThe specific mistakes interviewers listen for.
6Worked examplesNumbers end to end, at the pace you would say them out loud.
7Practise thisThe drills and cases that use the phase, one click away.

What employers screen for

Modelling & valuation

DCF, multiples, LBO screens built quickly and defended.

Accounting literacy

Reading and stress-testing the three statements.

Strategic reasoning

Why a company wins or loses, and what to do about it.

Data skills

Excel at minimum; Python or R preferred; SQL increasingly expected.

Communication

Presenting a recommendation with conviction, not just the analysis.

DCF modelling
Financial statements
Valuation
Strategic analysis
Python
SQL
Excel
R

Arithmetic, second

Once the logic is there, speed is what keeps you calm in the room. The techniques after Bill Handley's Speed Mathematics live on their own page with endless generated drills.

Arithmetic techniques Finance & statistics drills Start practising Mental math test

Site concept and curriculum design by Wilgot Qvant.

Arithmetic methods after Speed Mathematics by Bill Handley; finance, strategy and statistics content adapted from KTH, Lund LUSEM and the CFA Level I curriculum.