Being the loudest in the room is definitely not what they are looking for! I know that it can be really disconcerting when everyone in the group seems to be trying to outdo one another with the number of comments they make, but that will not reflect well on them. I'd start by saying that you don't need to worry about 'standing out' because that can risk undermining the teamwork skills which firms are looking for. If you stand out in an interview and other individual assessments, then I think that a thoughtful, personable and collaborative performance in the group exercise will be more than enough to help you succeed at the AC.
Three things I have noticed which don't go down too well include:
- Trying to talk over everyone else, or stubbornly pushing your own ideas (it sounds as if this is not a problem you have).
- Not making any of your own points and waiting for others to tell you what you are doing (even if you have a quiet demeanour, you should come up with your own unique points and make sure that when you do get the chance to speak, you are able to talk cogently about the issues that you believe are important to the task at hand).
- Acting unnaturally as if you are simply 'performing teamwork' for your assessor, e.g. by always asking every other member of the group 'What do you all think?' after every single point you make (You should work collaboratively and give your teammates time to offer their views but ultimately the teamwork should flow organically from the task at hand and it is completely reasonable to volunteer more points about the topics where you feel more comfortable whilst deferring to other members of the group where they seem to know more).
If you are only worried about your quiet demeanour, then I would not stress too much as I have found that in ACs other candidates will tend to be quite gracious in giving each other time to speak, partly so that they do not come across like my first point. I have found that this can work even better in virtual environments because it is clearer when someone tries to unmute themselves to speak and everyone is more understanding when two people accidentally chime in at once due to the awkwardness of the virtual environment. Overall, if you make several well-reasoned points throughout then it does not particularly matter if someone else made more points. It is my belief that group exercises are more of a way to eliminate candidates than to select candidates - i.e. one can break their candidacy in a group exercise through strange behaviour more than they can make it through delivery of a huge number of points.
Just make sure that you act charitably towards all other candidates and listen closely to what they have to say so that you can make an honest decision about whether they have made the best point in the circumstances or whether you can add something. If you are worried about contributing due to a lack of commercial knowledge then I would recommend spending time developing your commercial awareness! I myself found the Finimize daily brief incredibly useful for that (you can enter your e-mail here to sign up):
https://www.finimize.com/wp/signup/insider/.
It is also worth me including this advice by
@Jacob Miller on how to excel in group negotiation exercises as it has a lot of excellent advice on successful teamwork in general:
https://www.thecorporatelawacademy....ssed-negotiations-monday-article-series.3018/.