Davis Polk & Wardwell Online Assessment Prep

History at Davis Polk & Wardwell. Davis Polk has never adopted third-party assessment software (such as Suited or Pymetrics) for US JD hiring, relying instead on peer-to-peer human evaluation that fits its lockstep culture.

Candidate reputation. Many candidates prep for a test that does not exist. Reinvest that time into interview narrative, resume defensibility and commercial awareness.

• None - holistic human review (no online assessment used)-calibrated practice. Not a generic stand-in. The exact provider and section structure Davis Polk & Wardwell uses on the day.
• Adaptive question difficulty. Questions get harder when you nail them, easier when you struggle. Walk away knowing where you actually stand.
• Coaching, not just a score. "You are spending too long on table-data questions" beats "you scored 68%". Specific advice per weak section.
• Percentile benchmarking. Your score compared to the US candidate pool, so you know if 70% is excellent or worrying for that test.

Free practice section, scored. Keep practising free on Intervyo.

1. 1

   Failing to articulate "why Davis Polk"

   A generic answer that could apply to any Vault 10 firm. Not mentioning the lockstep structure, lean staffing or cross-border style signals a lack of real interest.

2. 2

   The resume meltdown

   Being unable to deeply discuss a paper, case or job on your resume. If it is on the page, it is fair game for a deep dive.

3. 3

   Arrogance / poor "airport test"

   Coming across as entitled. Partners screen for people they would want beside them at a 2:00 AM closing.

4. 4

   Lack of commercial baseline

   Treating law school as a pure academic exercise without understanding the business mechanics driving clients.

5. 5

   Weak questions for the interviewer

   Ending with "No, I think you covered everything." It signals a passive mindset.

• Master your narrative

  Connect your pre-law background or 1L experiences directly to a specific practice interest (e.g. an economics degree feeding interest in capital markets).

• Leverage the lockstep structure

  Explain why a lockstep, collaborative culture appeals - you thrive where resources and information are shared without artificial internal silos.

• Display intellectual self-starting

  Highlight times you went beyond the brief to research an obscure issue or streamline a process.

• Conduct mock interviews

  Use career services or peers and a behavioral matrix; drill clear, structured STAR answers (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

• Read legal and business media

  Follow Above the Law, the Wall Street Journal and Chambers Associate to track macro trends and Davis Polk deal flow.

• Deep-dive your own application

  Review every line of your resume; practice explaining your most complex piece of legal writing to a non-lawyer in under 90 seconds.

Time investment. Spend prep time on narrative, resume defensibility and commercial reading rather than any aptitude-test practice.

1. 01Set your own clock per question. Divide section time by question count. Move on when you hit your per-question budget, even if you are mid-thought.
2. 02Read the question before the chart. Half the work in numerical is finding the right number in a table. Knowing what you are looking for cuts the time in half.
3. 03Use "Cannot Say" generously. Verbal reasoning rewards strict reading. If the passage does not say it, the answer is "Cannot Say", not your own inference.
4. 04Skip the impossible ones. Most tests do not penalise wrong answers more than skips. If you cannot see it in 20 seconds, flag and move on.
5. 05Practise the exact format, not a generic stand-in. None - holistic human review (no online assessment used) has its own rhythm, and a generic reasoning test is not the same. Intervyo's simulation is calibrated to this format, so you rehearse the real thing under real timing rather than a generic aptitude set.