Use the first week to repair the mechanics and the second to practise producing complete answers under interview conditions.
Start with a baseline, not a reading list
Before opening another guide, try five prompts without notes: walk through the three statements, explain enterprise value, walk through a DCF, explain what makes an acquisition accretive, and tell your story. Give yourself around 90 seconds for each. Record the answer if you can.
Mark each attempt as clear, incomplete or unable to explain. A familiar definition can still hide a missing connection. If you can recite the enterprise value formula but cannot explain why cash is subtracted, that is a useful gap to find now.
Week one: make the mechanics hold together
This is a suggested sequence, not a universal recruiting syllabus. Adjust it to the job description and your baseline. Someone with strong accounting and weak fit answers should spend their time accordingly.
| Day | Focus | Finish by doing this |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Accounting | Trace a depreciation change and a working-capital change through all three statements. |
| 3 | Enterprise and equity value | Build the bridge and explain each adjustment. |
| 4 | Valuation and DCF | Explain the methods, then walk through a DCF without notes. |
| 5 | M&A mechanics | Explain the drivers of accretion and why EPS is not the same as value creation. |
| 6 | LBO fundamentals | Calculate entry equity, exit equity, money multiple and IRR in a simple case. |
| 7 | Revisit the gaps | Repeat your baseline prompts. List what still breaks. |
Week two: move from understanding to delivery
Use days eight and nine for mixed technical practice. Change the numbers and assumptions in questions you already know. Ask yourself what would make your first answer wrong.
On days ten and eleven, work on your story, motivation and two examples of difficult situations. Connect your interest in the role to something you have actually done or investigated. Prepare a recent deal you can discuss from public information; separate reported facts from your own interpretation.
Use days twelve and thirteen for mock rounds with feedback held until the end. That exposes whether an early mistake disrupts the rest of your answers. On the final day, review your error log and the interview logistics. Avoid turning the evening into a race through entirely new material.
A repeatable 45-minute session
Keep the structure small enough that you will actually use it. The aim is a clean feedback loop: attempt, diagnose, correct, retest.
- 10 minutes: revisit yesterday’s errors without looking at the solution.
- 20 minutes: work on one weak area using fresh numbers or a new scenario.
- 10 minutes: deliver two answers out loud, including the assumptions.
- 5 minutes: write down the specific gap to test tomorrow.
Measure what you can explain
Pages read and hours spent are inputs. A better end-of-session check is whether you can produce a clear answer, survive one follow-up and correct a mistake calmly. Keep a short error log with the misconception, the correction and a new example.
Callback can organise practice around your interview date and bring technical learning, drills and mock rounds into the same routine. Use the plan as a starting point, then keep your actual weaknesses in charge.
Now make it
second nature.
Turn the concept into practice with Callback for iPhone and iPad.
