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First off- congratulations on securing all your ACs! This is a huge achievement on its own requiring absolutely no further qualification👏 👏 👏 👏

As for how you think you can improve on your performance in ACs- how do you generally prepare for ACs, and how do you feel going into one?

Somebody I know used to feel like they looked on good on paper as well but would tank the AC when it came to it because they felt an overwhelming pressure from the get-go to appear 'perfect', make not one mistake and land an offer. From what you're describing about going silent and feeling demotivated, I think you may be feeling similarly.

I have some insight for you that I really hope will help-

• Things WILL go wrong at an AC, and that's kind of the whole point 
  • An AC is designed to test how well you do under pressure, and when you're under pressure, things do go wrong here and there. Maybe your tech stops working, maybe you don't speak perfectly, maybe you mess up an answer. Making mistakes is acceptable, to a large extent, but dwelling on them or ruminating about how you're being perceived and letting this impact the rest of your AC is the killer. When you make a mistake, you have to simply recover and get back to making the point you know you have the full ability to make.

• You cannot practice for every eventuality in an AC, and that can be comforting 
  • As much as you practice for interviews and case studies and group exercises, you cannot pre-design your responses to them, and that's something that unsettles people- when their pre-designed responses don't quite fit the bill in an AC. Instead of focusing on pre-empting what's gonna come up in your ACs, it may be more helpful to focus on understanding 1) what they're looking to test and 2) how you can develop your thinking to respond effectively. Once you've worked on this through practice, research and reflection, it becomes comforting to know that although you cannot practice for eventuality, you have the ultimate tools with you to ace the AC.

• Perfection is a lie, and you have everything you need to succeed
  • Not trying to sound corny here but you already have everything you truly need to ace your AC- a firm would not interview you if they didn't think you were worthy. You have to accept that you may trip up here and there, seem nervous, seem too happy, be unintentionally goofy- these things make you you. When you perceive these things as imperfections, you start getting anxious about them and it starts impacting your performance, which is why you need to have a mechanism that pulls the brakes on such thinking in an AC. Take a few breaths, drink some really cold water, pinch yourself (I know it sounds bizarre but it works)- anything to stop your anxiety from bigger than it needs to be.

I'm also linking some resources below to help with prep-

• Best tips for ACs
• Definitive guide for case studies
• Concepts to know for case studies

Wishing you the very best- you've got this 💪