A verified guide to the 20 cases in the 2013 Yale Graduate Student Consulting Club case book, with firm tags and a worked Diabetes Device pricing teardown.
Updated Jul 19, 2026. Reviewed by Ned.
The packaged Yale resource is the YGCC Case Book 2013: Full edition, dated September 2013. Its introduction says readers will find 15 mock cases, but the complete two-page contents table continues through case 20 and the body contains all 20. The inventory, not the introductory sentence, is the reliable count. Yale's selection system is unusually usable: every case has a firm and round tag, a case type, and separate qualitative and quantitative difficulty scores from 1 to 5. The set includes seven clearly named healthcare, pharmaceutical, or medical-device cases, alongside retail, public investment, private equity, operations, and market sizing. That makes it useful when a candidate needs to practice decisions where the commercial answer depends on acceptance, implementation, or stakeholder behavior. Firm tags describe the source case as printed in 2013. They do not promise an identical current interview. Source: packaged Yale PDF; inspected 2026-07-19.
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Is the Yale case book realistic and what industries does it cover?
The 2013 Yale case book contains 20 firm-tagged cases with separate qualitative and quantitative difficulty scores. Its named inventory is especially useful for healthcare and medical-device practice, while also covering retail, investment, operations, and market sizing. (Source: packaged Yale PDF; inspected 2026-07-19.)
| Yale reference fact | Value | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Edition | September 2013 | Packaged Yale PDF, inspected 2026-07-19 |
| Indexed cases | 20 | Packaged Yale PDF contents, inspected 2026-07-19 |
| Difficulty dimensions | 2 | Packaged Yale PDF, inspected 2026-07-19 |
| Difficulty scale | 1 to 5 | Packaged Yale PDF, inspected 2026-07-19 |
| Default case style | Interviewer-led | Packaged Yale PDF introduction, inspected 2026-07-19 |
What cases are in the Yale case book?
The descriptions below stay close to the title, type, and prompt in the local full edition. (Source for every row: packaged Yale PDF contents and case prompts; inspected 2026-07-19.)
| Case | One-line situation |
|---|---|
| Gas Station | Diagnose falling profit across fuel and convenience-store segments. |
| Baby Helmets | Test market entry and a first-year profit target for three medical helmets. |
| Animal Drug | Evaluate relocation for an animal-health product business. |
| Burrito Cart | Decide how a food cart should expand. |
| Sports Cards & Signed T-shirts | Evaluate expansion for a sports-merchandise business. |
| Diabetes Device | Set prices and a bundle for an injector and disposable cartridges. |
| Yumy Co | Diagnose profitability at a consumer business. |
| Apoplexy Drug | Evaluate market entry for a pharmaceutical product. |
| Superstore | Decide how a large retailer should expand. |
| Towels | Diagnose profitability in a towel business. |
| Surgical Robot | Evaluate an investment in surgical technology. |
| Desert City | Make a public or infrastructure investment decision. |
| Call Center | Evaluate expansion of a service operation. |
| Candy Stand | Decide whether to make a small retail investment. |
| Bakery | Diagnose profitability at a bakery. |
| Diagnostic Test | Evaluate market entry for a diagnostic product. |
| Taxi Service | Assess a taxi business as a private-equity investment. |
| Paper Company | Diagnose profitability at a paper producer. |
| Hepatitis Drug | Evaluate market entry for a hepatitis treatment. |
| 7-Eleven | Size a convenience-store market. |
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How should you use Yale's firm and difficulty labels?
Start with the skill, then use difficulty as a guardrail. If healthcare stakeholder logic is new, choose a lower qualitative score before a quant-heavy pharmaceutical case. If math is the weakness, choose a case with a higher quantitative score but a familiar industry. The printed firm and round tags can help vary interviewer rhythm, but they are historical provenance, not a current-format guarantee.
The book's own practice instructions support a partner-led setup: the interviewer reads the case first, provides additional information only when requested, and asks for a roughly one-minute synthesis at the end. The solution uses RRRN in this order: recommendation, reasons, risks, next steps. (Source: packaged Yale PDF introduction, printed pages 1 to 7; inspected 2026-07-19.)
Worked Yale mini-case: Diabetes Device
The client sells a reusable injector and disposable cartridges directly to patients with a prescription. Injector production cost is $40. Cartridge production cost is $20. The case gives willingness-to-pay acceptance rates for several prices. Expected contribution per potential customer is margin multiplied by acceptance. (Source: Diabetes Device, case pages 1 to 6; inspected 2026-07-19.)
For the injector, the case calculates $150 - $40, then multiplies the $110 margin by 50 percent acceptance to get $55, the highest tested result. For the cartridge, $60 - $20 multiplied by 80 percent acceptance gives $32, also the highest tested result. The initial recommendation is therefore $150 per injector and $60 per cartridge.
The bundle decision changes the unit of analysis. At one injector and 20 cartridges, separate sale margin is $110 + 20 x $40 = $910. The book's bundle includes discounts and cost savings that produce a $926 margin, so the 1:20 bundle improves gross margin by $16. Other tested bundle ratios underperform separate sales.
Stakeholder implication: the manufacturer gains from the 1:20 bundle, but patient acceptance for each bundle ratio is not supplied. The recommendation is to test acceptance before launch, because a higher unit margin does not guarantee higher total profit or patient uptake. That explicit safeguard makes this a healthcare-pricing case rather than a generic profitability clone.
Who should use Yale, and where is it limited?
Yale suits candidates targeting healthcare, life sciences, public-sector decisions, or any case where the user, payer, provider, and producer may value different outcomes. It is also useful for practicing concise synthesis through RRRN. The main limitation is age: this is a 2013 source, so use its cases for reasoning and verify any current industry or firm-format assumptions elsewhere. The page makes no claim that the case tags represent current interview content.
How should Yale pair with CoachNed?
After a Yale case, name whether the miss was stakeholder mapping, math, exhibit reading, or recommendation. CoachNed's current free window includes 1 full case plus 3 drills per day for 3 days. That free case credit works in voice mode too, so your first voice case costs nothing; beyond it, voice needs Pro, club access, or more credits. Pro is $49 per month and Annual is $249 per year. (Product terms supplied for this build, 2026-07-18.)
McKinseyMarket entry · medium
MedSuite Technologies Hospital Software Pricing
Healthcare / Technology
Practice this case free Practice another healthcare pricing decision
Run MedSuite Technologies and connect willingness to pay with adoption and implementation.
Sources
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Packaged Yale/Yale casebook 2013 best one.pdf inside coachned-yale-case-book.zip, inspected 2026-07-19.
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Yale Case Book article brief, dated 2026-07-17.
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CoachNed casebook collection registry and signup-first CTA wrapper, inspected 2026-07-19.
Frequently asked questions
Which Yale case book edition is packaged here?
The 2013 Yale case book contains 20 firm-tagged cases with separate qualitative and quantitative difficulty scores. Its named inventory is especially useful for healthcare and medical-device practice, while also covering retail, investment, operations, and market sizing. (Source: packaged Yale PDF; inspected 2026-07-19.)
How many cases are in the 2013 Yale case book?
The descriptions below stay close to the title, type, and prompt in the local full edition. (Source for every row: packaged Yale PDF contents and case prompts; inspected 2026-07-19.)
Does the Yale case book include healthcare cases?
The descriptions below stay close to the title, type, and prompt in the local full edition. (Source for every row: packaged Yale PDF contents and case prompts; inspected 2026-07-19.)
How should I choose a Yale case?
The descriptions below stay close to the title, type, and prompt in the local full edition. (Source for every row: packaged Yale PDF contents and case prompts; inspected 2026-07-19.)