Reading Casey exhibits without losing two minutes

Casey exhibits are usually a single chart or table dropped mid-case. They are designed to test whether you can isolate the relevant data quickly — not whether you can interpret beautiful visualizations.

The four-step routine

1. Title and axes first (5 seconds). What is being measured? Over what period? What units? Most mistakes happen because candidates start reading data points before they understand the chart.

2. The footnote (5 seconds). "Excludes Asia." "Indexed to 2019 = 100." "Local currency." Casey hides answer-changing context here. Skipping the footnote is the single most common error.

3. Spot the answer (15 seconds). Re-read the question. The chart almost always contains one obvious data point that resolves it. Resist the urge to analyse the whole chart.

4. One sanity check (5 seconds). Does the answer feel right vs the rest of the chart? A 40% growth number that's an outlier across years deserves a second look.

Thirty seconds total. Anything longer means you're either reading the wrong chart or chasing a story Casey didn't ask for.

Patterns Casey reuses

• Stacked bar / segment split. Question is almost always about one segment's share or growth.
• Trend line over years. Question is usually CAGR, inflection year, or "which period grew fastest".
• Two-axis chart. Question targets the cross-over or divergence point.
• Table of margins by segment. Question targets blended margin or which segment to fix.

If you've trained on each of these four patterns, you'll recognise the answer shape before reading the question.

What not to do

• Don't translate the chart into prose. Casey doesn't grade your description; it grades your number.
• Don't compute metrics the chart doesn't ask for. Time spent calculating gross margin when the question is about volume is wasted.
• Don't reference exhibits Casey hasn't shown you. The chatbot keeps a strict context.

Drill it

Take 20 charts from any consulting prep bank. For each one, write only the single most likely question Casey would ask, then answer it in 30 seconds. Speed comes from pattern recognition, not from raw reading speed.