Casper Slander/Discussion

[casperhater123]

I hate Casper. I think it's a money sham and a horrible way of evaluating someone. I went from a 3rd quartile score to a 1st quartile score and then back to 3rd quartile score in 3 years (talk about not being reliable). First, I would like to hear people's thoughts on Casper as a general discussion.

This current year, I'm surprised by my 3rd quartile score because I did not give the answers they wanted to hear (as a form of rebellion, bad idea, I know). Here is one of the scenarios I was given:

I'm in a group project with 4 people. One of the people wasn't pulling their weight because of a family emergency situation going on. Part of the submission of the project was to evaluate your team members and their contributions. The slacker came to us and said "please give me a good evaluation because this could hurt my grade and I promise I'll make it up on the next assignment."

The question was what would I do? I said that I would make up the remainder of their work and give them a good evaluation because I'm a true homie (as this is what I would do in real life because I am, in fact, a true homie. Plus, I wouldn't submit something that wasn't complete, so I would have done it regardless of whether or not she had a family emergency because at the end of the day I want a good grade on the project for my selfish self). My reasoning was that I did not want to make her life harder than it already was and I did not mind. Plus if something like this happened to me, I would want people to pull through for me as well. I also emphasized that this is a school project and would be meaningless in a year so why ruin her class grade/future over something so trivial.

Is this technically lying? Yeah. Do I think it's immoral or unethical? No, because it's a school project, not something more serious like something to do with patient care. I'm simply being a good friend in this situation. I know for Casper I should have said I would write her an honest evaluation but also specify she is going through a family emergency and hope that the professor would give her an extension of some kind, and tell her to email the professor explaining the situation.

What do you all think? In real life, what would you do? Do you all think I am now an unethical/immoral person for doing this?

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[Mr.Smile12]

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So you're third quartile. That's not a scarlet letter. If you make it into medical school or any health profession, get used to similar feats of mental and moral strength and subjectivity.

 

[karaya]

Respect that you made an account just to hate. I wish I could go back and just be the authentic me on that rubbish. Casper is pretty terrible and the fakeness abounds. Like any other metric, once people wise up to it, they will game the system.

 

[Dral]

Consider it practice for if you get a residency program interview that does situational interviewing. I had a place that had about eight people in different rooms interviewing this way. It was...not...fun.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Consider it practice for if you get a residency program interview that does situational interviewing. I had a place that had about eight people in different rooms interviewing this way. It was...not...fun.

These candidates weren't told this would be part of their experience?

 

[Dral]

I don't remember at this point. I believe we didn't know ahead of time.

 

[OHGODHOWDIDTHIS]

4th quartile here. I both think the CASPER is unbelievably stupid and nothing more than a way to scam a little more money out a student, but also think it's very close to being a genuinely great tool if they tweaked a few things.

The time limits are psychotic. I have no idea how anyone can get a good score with a typing speed under 120WPM. I was HAMMERING out at like 150 and even then I felt constrained.

And the time limits on the recorded section are similarly too short. You don't have time to really think, formulate a response, and give it thoughtfully. I made sure to stick to the generic "well I would always do the obvious ethical thing but I would always have a conversation with everyone involved and come to a group consensus about how to best move forward, create an actionable plan and ensure it was followed through on with regular check-ins to make sure everyone felt included" and the answer to the "you caught a friend cheating" one is always kinda "It would have to be reported, but I'd first have a conversation with my friend and try to understand why he was doing it, and give him the opportunity to bring it forward himself and offer to be there to support him as a character witness" but the super short time format doesn't really let you go beyond the obvious platitudes.

That said, if you do an MMI in an interview, the recorded section of the CASPER is a good guideline for what it's like. I had one that was very similar, but they gave more time to think, you could take notes, and had an adequate amount of time to answer thoughtfully. But the CASPER really was a decent approximation of that. I just think that if they made some tweaks to give students more time to process info and answer, it'd be a decent tool for schools.

It also desperately hurts neurodivergent students who need more time to process. I really felt that as a 97th percentile severity ADHD person. I think my ability to think on my feet and type fast as hell was the only reason I aced the thing.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

4th quartile here. I both think the CASPER is unbelievably stupid and nothing more than a way to scam a little more money out a student, but also think it's very close to being a genuinely great tool if they tweaked a few things.

The time limits are psychotic. I have no idea how anyone can get a good score with a typing speed under 120WPM. I was HAMMERING out at like 150 and even then I felt constrained.

And the time limits on the recorded section are similarly too short. You don't have time to really think, formulate a response, and give it thoughtfully. I made sure to stick to the generic "well I would always do the obvious ethical thing but I would always have a conversation with everyone involved and come to a group consensus about how to best move forward, create an actionable plan and ensure it was followed through on with regular check-ins to make sure everyone felt included" and the answer to the "you caught a friend cheating" one is always kinda "It would have to be reported, but I'd first have a conversation with my friend and try to understand why he was doing it, and give him the opportunity to bring it forward himself and offer to be there to support him as a character witness" but the super short time format doesn't really let you go beyond the obvious platitudes.

That said, if you do an MMI in an interview, the recorded section of the CASPER is a good guideline for what it's like. I had one that was very similar, but they gave more time to think, you could take notes, and had an adequate amount of time to answer thoughtfully. But the CASPER really was a decent approximation of that. I just think that if they made some tweaks to give students more time to process info and answer, it'd be a decent tool for schools.

It also desperately hurts neurodivergent students who need more time to process. I really felt that as a 97th percentile severity ADHD person. I think my ability to think on my feet and type fast as hell was the only reason I aced the thing.

Make sure you fill out our Spring 2025 Applicant Experience Survey when it comes out. It should include a couple of questions about Casper/SJTs in retrospect.

I posted links to the newest recordings of how Casper will be tweaked for next cycle. While you may not like the timing, it is set up to get your immediate response or reaction to the situation, not about how perfect the answer should be. It makes it much more challenging to try to cheat on the exam. I agree with you that one can react with "I'd have to think about it" answers, so as long as you spell out what you need to consider taking action or making a decision, you should be fine. Practice to not rely on the platitudes as a crutch is important.

I agree the video-based scenarios of Casper are great practice for MMI's though you only have 1 minute to answer each of the two prompts.

If one is a low-functioning neurodivergent who requires accommodations, one can contact the Acuity Insights team, provided you give the proper documentation. But congratulations for doing as well as you did!

 

[WildWing]

In a webinar from Acuity Insights on the new changes to the exam, they specifically mentioned that bullets are okay (versus complete sentences), so keep that in mind when responding.