Kearney hands you a mock of its own recruitment test. Most applicants never open it

Kearney's own mock recruitment test mixes quantitative questions, reading passages and tables and graphs presented as case material, all against a 60-minute clock. Our reasoning test covers two of those three families directly: numbers drawn from business tables, and judging what a passage does and does not say.

The mock also has logic puzzles built on counting and statements, which our test does not drill, and guides say the live test is negatively marked and taken without a calculator, which ours does not imitate. Use Kearney's own mock for the format and our test for extra timed volume.

Kearney hosts a PDF called Mock Recruitment Test on its own site. It explains that the test is designed to measure analytical, quantitative, verbal and structuring skills, sets out six sections, and says the full test lasts 60 minutes. It also suggests the sample can be finished in roughly 25 to 30 minutes.

That makes your first preparation step simple and free. Print the mock, set a timer, and sit it once cold before you read anything else. Your score tells you which of the three families (quantitative, verbal, case data) needs the most work, and it shows you the question styles directly from the firm.

The mock groups its sections in pairs. The quantitative pair has logical counting and statements: puzzles where you deduce what must be true from a set of facts. The verbal pair has logical text and reading a passage. The case pair asks you to read tables and graphs and draw conclusions, much like the exhibits handed over in a case interview.

Each pair calls for a different speed. Logic puzzles reward sketching the information on paper. Reading questions reward slowing down on the exact wording. Table questions reward knowing which number to look for before you look. Our numerical reasoning test gives extra timed volume on the table work.

Guides agree that the live test rewards correct answers and penalises wrong ones, and TARGETjobs advises leaving uncertain questions blank rather than guessing. They disagree on detail. One describes five points for a correct answer and minus one for a wrong one, a maximum of 200; another stresses that blanks score zero; a third mentions only the five points.

Kearney does not publish the marking in what we saw, so prepare a rule that works under any small penalty: guess only when you have eliminated at least one option. At roughly a minute and a half per question across 40 questions, the bigger risk is usually spending three minutes on one puzzle.

Two prep sites say calculators are not allowed, and that all maths must be done mentally or on paper. Kearney's own guidance that we saw does not mention calculators, so treat this as likely rather than certain and check your instructions.

If it holds, the fix is practice in the format: do mock and practice questions with pen and paper only. Get comfortable rounding, comparing fractions without converting them, and checking an answer by estimating its size first.

Kearney's Belgium careers page describes three rounds of two interviews: the first with a senior business analyst or associate, the second with a manager or principal, and the third with a partner. Kearney's case guidance asks you to identify the key issues, form a hypothesis, test and refine it, synthesise what you found, and recommend.

Kearney also says it has run virtual interviews for several years, so a video round is normal. A former intern writing on Kearney's blog advises staying focused on the final recommendation and keeping composure when stuck, and getting sleep, food and exercise in before the day. Compare the rounds with other firms in our professional services assessment guide.

These come from anonymous reviews, university careers pages and prep guides. They often disagree, and Kearney has not confirmed them. Read them as leads, not rules.

• TARGETjobs describes three stages: an online application, the online test of 40 multiple-choice questions in six sections over 60 minutes, then two to three rounds of behavioural and case interviews.
• Prep guides describe scoring of five points per correct answer with a deduction for wrong answers, though they give different details.
• Two prep sites say calculators are not allowed in the test.
• Candidates on Glassdoor describe the case studies as classic consulting cases, similar to those at the largest strategy firms.