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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What sort of dogs are the favorite of the British royal family?

2. What is it called when an interviewer asks an applicant to open a high-rise window that can't be opened in a job interview?

3. For the author, the stigma of getting a job through connections is worse than the stigma of ______.

4. Which department at Salomon Brothers is considered "the sleepy backwater"?

5. Traders prove their superiority in a Wall Street firm every day by doing what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author compare economics to art history?

2. How does the equities department treat the trainees?

3. How does the code of Liar's Poker affect a trader?

4. Why is a single home mortgage considered a messy investment for Wall Street?

5. What is one of the main concerns of the old hands at Salomon Brothers concerning the state of affairs in the economics of America in the 1980s?

6. What effect does allowing the back row of the Salomon Brothers training program to create anarchy have on the company?

7. How does Meriwether beat Gutfreund before the game of Liar's Poker even starts?

8. Why does one of the female trainees become the first person to finally talk to the author in the training program at Salomon Brothers?

9. What is meant by "no tears"?

10. In the training class, why does Lewis think Gutfreund looks the part of statesman?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What happens when the author interviews for Lehman Brothers? Why does he interview for Lehman Brothers? Who comes to interview him? What does he say that affects the outcome of the interview? Why is the author perplexed at the reaction the interviewers have to his answer to their question?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the environment of the fortieth floor at Salomon Brothers. Who is housed there, primarily? How does it compare to the forty-first floor in terms of atmosphere, prestige, and pace?

Essay Topic 3

How does the game of Liar's Poker have the feel of trading? Describe how Liar's Poker works, the list of questions a bond trader asks himself, and list some of the other firms besides Salomon Brothers which have similar games.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 876 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample