From my experience, I also had HSF which was very commercial in the sense it was a scenario the firm had faced and you had to answer questions and essentially find solutions to the issues presented as @D has said. I found this scenario assessment was very hard to prepare for and just require some common sense thinking and logic to try and arrive at what you think would be the best solution. However, the other style is the SJTs ones which are more 'on the job' so you will get a trainee situation and be asked to explain what you would do. Weirdly, I found the latter harder and think it is because you need to structure them more tightly.
Here are my quick tips for the SJT questions (ones like 'you have a deadline but are meeting friends for dinner, what do you do?')
- don't take anything for granted - if you are making some assumptions because the scenario was vague, vocalise them. Say that 'well, if this is because of X then I would firstly do X'. When given a scenario try to think about the different reasons and scenarios which might be underpinning it. For example, if someone is clocking off early in the team when you have a deadline, you might want to take a moment to consider whether it matters what they are clocking off for. If someone's family member has been taken suddenly ill then you might approach this differently to someone leaving to have drinks with a friend which could be readily rescheduled. So, always consider the various contexts to a given situation before having your answer ready.
- following this, have various levels to your response. By this I mean you need to structure your response. You could do so like this: 'In the first instance, I would do X... in failing that, or as a plan B I would do X...' This can give your thinking better structure and can allow the interviewer to appreciate what you are trying to say and allows them to see your all-important thought process.
- Try to answer honestly. Different firms will have different ways they want you to answer these questions because they all have slightly different cultures and ways of doing things. Try to give what you would honestly do in a given situation as this is all part of the matching process and seeing whether your character and approach is befitting of the firm and vice versa.
- ask for pen and paper if it is there - some scenarios are very long-winded and you may need to write down to help you sketch out a coherent answer.
- Look at the competencies law firms are looking for. This doesn't undermine the honesty point earlier but it can give you an insight into what they may be looking for. If you know a firm likes proactivity, then if you get a scenario about being able to either undertake new work which might be laborious or similar work to that which you have done numerous times nbefore, you might choose to opt for the new work and try to find a way to make it more time-efficient by using a study technique or something.
- embrace the pauses. These are tough interviews and require a lot of thought because of what I said in points one and two so really own the pauses and just ask if you can have a few minutes to sketch out a well-formulated answer. I really wish I had done this myself on a couple of occasions in the past because it would have allowed me to have a better and more clear structure.
Hope this helps! Feel free to tag me in any follow-up questions you may have.
