Hi
@M85672 while I do not have any insight on
Dechert specifically here, and while I agree that it is in general very difficult to prepare for written exercises because of how much they can differ on a firm-by-firm basis, I think you can improve your chances of doing well in this assessment by developing the underlying skills tested in every written exercise: time-management and work under pressure, clarity of writing and structure, commercial awareness and analysis, ability to digest large amounts of information, etc.
To do that, I think it is useful to both practice actual case studies and to read more widely about the commercial matters that might be relevant for them. A particularly helpful resource for me was
the course offered by TCLA on the matter (which you can find
here). It includes a number of mock PE and M&A case studies, recordings of two hour long sessions explaining how to think through written/interview style M&A case studies, and a number of questions that are analyzed in depth by the TCLA team. To link a few other useful free resources on TCLA:
- An amazing guide for M&A written exercises by @Jacob Miller, which includes both a mock case study and a model answer with detailed explanations of how you should think through the materials (which you can find here).
- A glossary of M&A terms by @Amma Usman here.
- On a fee-basis, a mock exercise with individual feedback from the TCLA staff available here
Besides these, I have also found a few external resources you may want to take a look at:
