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Practice Tests / 3-Hour Investment Committee Deck

  • 3 hours
  • PowerPoint deck
  • Six data files
  • Private equity

3-Hour Investment Committee Deck

Read a 45-page memorandum and six data files, take a view on the deal and put it in six slides with a valuation and sources and uses.

You get the test, a worked answer key, the deck I sent, the workbook behind it and a two-page debrief.

Larch Junction Products, a fictional company · Recreated from a test I took in April 2023

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What you are given

A 45-page memorandum and six Excel files.

This is a page from the test. Select it to read it at full size.

The assignment page of 3-Hour Investment Committee Deck
The assignment. Page 1 of the test, as you receive it. Open the PDF

What the test asks

  • Read a 45-page memorandum on a family-owned maker of traffic signal and utility hardware.
  • Work through six data files: sales by customer, EBITDA adjustments, monthly backlog, other operating expenses, capital expenditure, and purchases by vendor.
  • Take a view on the deal, with numbers and with judgment.
  • Recommend a valuation, with sources and uses, even if you would not bid.
  • Put it in six slides or fewer.
  • All of it in three hours.

What the answer looks like

The answer key is my corrected working model, with a note on each corrected row. You can check yours against it line by line. This example is from the free test, so nothing here gives this case away.

From the answer key of the free testEnlarge
The income statement of the free test's answer key, December 2025 to December 2030, from revenue to net income

The note on the Taxes row

<- Got this wrong on the day: in the 60-minute file (row 27) this was EBT x (1 - tax rate), which is after-tax income, and cash taxes read it. Tax is EBT x the tax rate.

Take the free 60-minute test to see a full answer key and debrief

What you get

Start here.pdf1 page

1 - The test

1 - The assignment.pdf1 page

2 - Confidential information memorandum.pdf45 pages

3 - Sales by customer.xlsx

4 - EBITDA adjustments.xlsx

5 - Monthly backlog.xlsx

6 - Other opex breakout.xlsx

7 - Historical capex.xlsx

8 - Purchases by vendor and type.xlsx

2 - My answer

1 - Answer key (corrected model).xlsxcheck yours against this

2 - The deck I sent.pdf7 pages

3 - My working model.xlsx

3 - Debrief

Debrief.pdf2 pages

Who it is for

  • Candidates who will be handed a data room and a clock and asked for a view, not only a model.
  • You should be able to build a quick LBO. This is practice at deciding what to leave out.
  • Three hours for the attempt and about one more to compare and read the debrief.

The story

In April 2023 I was interviewing for an associate role at a private equity firm.

After a first round of two interviews, a managing director emailed me a case on a Sunday afternoon: a 45-page confidential information memorandum on a maker of traffic signal hardware and six Excel files.

I had three hours from the email to send back an investment committee memo in PowerPoint, six slides at most, with a recommendation on valuation and the sources and uses behind it. A seven-page deck went back as a PDF at the end of the three hours. The next day I went through it on a 30-minute call with most of the investment team.

Before you start

Is this the real test?

It is recreated from the test I took. The format, the task and the time limit are the same. The company is fictional and its figures are changed.

How do I know the answer is right?

The answer key is my own model, corrected, with a grey note on every row that changed. It was recalculated and checked before release. Check yours against it line by line.

Is the deck you sent complete?

No. Four of its six slides are finished and two have only a title. That is what three hours produced. The debrief covers what the model behind it should show.

More tests like this one

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