Securing a Morgan Stanley Internship: Tests & Preparation Tips
Morgan Stanley is one of the most prestigious financial firms today. This world-renowned financial firm leader offers 8-10 week internships for students in their sophomore and junior year of college.
This program allows interested students the ability to get a feel for what a career with the company looks like and to form a bond with the company to give them a better chance of receiving a job offer upon graduation.
So, how exactly to navigate the world of applying to the Morgan Stanley internship and getting into the competitive program? If you ask yourself this question, you’re in the right place. This article reviews how to get into the program, how to stand out on your applications, and the best ways to prepare for online testing.
So if you are thinking about applying for the esteemed Morgan Stanley internship, keep reading!
Table of Contents
What Is The Morgan Stanley Internship?
This internship lasts between two to two and a half months, depending on the candidate and the program, and while considered an internship, this position is less formal. Instead, it acts as more of an interview process at an investment banking office.
Your job title will be “summer analyst,” but just because the job is not like other internships does not mean it is easy. This internship receives thousands of applications annually, and only two percent of those applications are lucky enough to receive spots.
Why is that?
One of the main reasons the internship is so competitive is because it almost guarantees you a full-time position at the firm after you graduate school. Of course, you have to prove yourself as a worthy worker and a trusted candidate, but if you check all those boxes, you have a high chance of getting brought on the full-time team.
For sophomore internship admittance, you have to score in the top rank of all other test-takers and apply before the September deadline. If you want to embark on an internship during your junior year, you need to apply before the July deadline.
The specific deadline dates vary annually, so check the website frequently to stay updated. Late applications or low test scores will receive admission offers.
How To Get Into The Morgan Stanley Internship
For the internship, everyone applies via the online application and testing offered. The test provider, Cut-e (AON), envelops four online tests to determine your skills, qualifications, and job experience and see if you match the applicants needed for the internship. These four online tests include:
- Situational judgment test
- Numerical reasoning test
- Switch challenge
- Inductive logical thinking test
While applicants take all of these tests online, each applicant will only take three of them. Applicants always receive the numerical reasoning test and the situational judgment test, but whether they receive the switch challenge or the inductive logical thinking test as their third option is up to randomization.
How do you know which random test you will take for the online testing? You will receive a pre-test email detailing which tests you will take. If that email does not list your tests, when you log on to take the exams, the list and order of the tests will pop up.
Why are the switch challenge and the inductive reasoning tests randomly administered? Because they are much more difficult than the two standard exams and help Morgan Stanley determine if you are a good fit.
What Does Each Test Look Like?
1. Situational Judgment Test
This exam lets the potential employer see how you will react to real-time job scenarios. Before you get the internship offer, the potential employer needs to see how well you will fit the environment. It will assess whether you can work well with others, and what skills and characteristics you bring to the table.
This kind of test is rudimentary for most pre-employment/ job screenings, so do not panic. This is regulated.
Morgan Stanley administers a 30-minute situational judgment exam to potential interns filled with texts from the staff at Morgan Stanley. The messages describe different scenarios that could occur on the clock.
They range from reporting someone to a supervisor, changing your work ethic, standing up for an error you made, and questions about your supervisor.
You need to read the phrases with caution and make sure you understand the message before selecting an answer. Remember, these questions serve to demonstrate the kind of character you’ll bring to the table. If the question asks, “how should you treat a new worker?” Respond with care.
Don’t pick the answer that says, “ignore them and continue with your job.” Everyone is new at one point. Instead, pick the answer that says, “treat them with care and kindness and offer them any help they may need.”
Choosing this answer tells the employer you care about your work and the workplace environment. You do not strive for competition, and you want to form a friendly workspace open to all your colleagues.
The question above is general, but the ones on the exam will be more catered to the actual job at Morgan Stanley. So, to prepare yourself for success, you need to study what the job looks like, the kind of environment the job offers, and who works best in that environment.
Make sure to study the job description to best answer the questions on the situational judgment test. The potential employer recognizes when you’ve studied and reviewed and when you are ill-prepared for the internship.
This section also differs from other pre-employment situation judgment tests because each question gives you supplemental information to base your answer on.
For example, say the question asked centers around Brad, a shy dude who focuses on his work and does not understand sarcasm. To interact successfully with Brad, you need to be straightforward and not too overbearing or confident.
This part of the test demonstrates your ability to adapt and react to situations with characters very likely to work at the internship with you.
Make sure to read each question and each character trait with care and caution.
2. Numerical Reasoning Test
This exam focuses on how well you read and understand data. This test gives you six different pages with various graphs, charts, and tables, and you have six minutes to complete all 18 questions.
To score well on this section, you need to be able to read information quickly and decide on the most important information to base your answers on. Your job is to digest all the information given on each table, chart, or diagram, pick the correct chart to draw data from, and come to a conclusion that answers the questions on the test.
The best way to make sure you succeed on this portion of the test is to review the titles of each document before diving into answering the questions. If you gloss over all the information before taking the test, it could help jog your memory if you get stuck.
Since your time is extremely limited on this portion, you need to learn how to best answer the questions and cut down your time spent taking the test.
One method to trim your time is to note any words that serve to confuse you. Language like ‘never, always, sometimes, maybe, or cannot disclose’ serve to confuse the test-taker and can cause them to answer incorrectly.
When you come across these words, mark them and triple-check that your answer applies to the right word before submitting your test. If you skim the question, you might not pick up on the language, and you could risk losing points.
Since you need to answer over 70% of the questions correctly for internship acceptance, you cannot risk mismarking any questions due to careless reading.
If you run into a problem where you cannot conclude from the given information, you might have an option that reads “cannot say or not enough information given.”
This means you cannot solve the question asked with the information provided. If you suspect this is the case, triple-check each answer and try plugging them in before making your final decision.
3. Switch Challenge
This logical reasoning exam is one of the most complex and unique exams you will ever take, and it is the reason most applicants do not receive acceptance letters to their Morgan Stanley internships.
Each question boasts a pattern of symbols, and below the initial pattern is a different pattern of the same symbols. Your job is to figure out what the pattern is and how it affects the original lineup of the symbols.
All of the questions have four symbols and three answers to choose from:
For example, one question might show a triangle, a square, a circle, and a heart.
Below that line, the shapes will appear in a different order.
Heart, circle, triangle, square.
The question asks what pattern appears, and you have to pick between three options.
Option 1: 1,2,3,4
Option 2: 4,3,2,1
Option 3: 4,3,1,2
Option 3 is the correct answer as it describes the order of shapes in the new pattern. The numbers correlate to the original order of shapes, so the triangle is number 1, the square is number 2, the circle is number 3, and the heart is number 4.
The pattern reads: heart (4), circle (3), triangle (1), and square (2). So, the correct answer is option 3.
This portion of the test gives you six minutes to figure out as many patterns as possible, and as you progress through the test, the difficulty of the patterns increases. You might breeze through the first five questions and get stuck on question six.
The example provided is a basic example with only one pattern/ operator switch. On the real test, you could have three different patterns/operators to define. If you come across a multi-level pattern, you can work on the first pattern to find out the strategy and then work on the third pattern to find out the strategy.
This method will help you understand the problem better and solve the middle equation easier and quicker.
However, if you answer a question incorrectly, the computer gives you easier questions. This might seem like a good thing at the time, but the more easy questions you answer, the fewer points you receive. The more difficult questions you answer, the more points you receive.
4. Inductive-Logical Thinking (ix) Test
This pattern test has the Roman numeral nine In the title because each question contains nine objects. Eight of the objects follow a rule, and your job is to select the one object that does not conform to that rule.
You only have five minutes to answer 20 questions, and each wrong answer you submit reduces your score.
You need to pay close attention to each question and the possible patterns in each question. You will have to work fast but thoroughly.
How To Prepare For The Morgan Stanley Internship
If you want to apply for a summer internship at Morgan Stanley, Job Test Prep has the study guide for you. This all-inclusive prep pack includes practice numerical reasoning, situational judgment, switch challenge, and inductive reasoning tests to ensure your success and admission into the summer internship.
It also contains an explanation guide for each question, so if you have difficulty answering any of the questions, the guide explains how to read the questions, and best answer them. Plus, some additional strategies to cut down time spent taking the test.
You can choose between a one-week plan for $79, a one-month plan for $89, or a three-month plan for $99.
Sign up For The Online Admission Test Today
Morgan Stanley offers competitive summer internships to college juniors and sophomores interested in pursuing careers in the financial firm field.
These internships determine acceptance based on four online assessments, and while these tests have their difficulties, Job Test Prep is here to help you ace the test and move one step closer to achieving a spot on their roster.
Sarah is an accomplished educator, researcher and author in the field of testing and assessment. She has worked with various educational institutions and organisations to develop innovative evaluation methods and enhance student learning. Sarah has published numerous articles and books on assessment and learning. Her passion for promoting equity and fairness in the education system fuels her commitment to sharing insights and best practices with educators and policymakers around the world.
