CASPer test Tips

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Master Thinker

Master Thinker

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Are there any tips for approaching CASPer questions? Like is it helpful to read over the bioethics site or to think about some problem styles beforehand?

Also, how much do you guys usually type for each response? Seems like I am usually only able to do 3-4 sentences per questions before running out of things to say on the practice...
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practice typing skill... My wrist and fingers were straight up hurting at some point. Also, I am one of those people who only types with their two index fingers :'(

Please don't laugh at my insecurity...
 
There are a couple official responses out there, read through them and figure out the patterns/common points that come up in support of each side of the ethical scenarios. Almost every scenario you will be asked about on the real thing will be common sense, but getting really efficient at the above will help loads with thinking of answers on the spot and buying you extra time for typing.

Also, just imo, but this is one of those rare instances where quantity is just as important as quality - the more ethical issues you bring up in crafting how you would react in the situation, the better. Strong typing ability is really beneficial for the exam in this regard. I shot for somewhere between 3-6 sentences.
 
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Rip, my typing isn't the fastest (I think like 55 WPM)? But yea, there were many instances where I think a couple more minutes would help me out a lot...
 
How is this exam usually looked at? Like "oh they did well enough, they can have an interview" and then they don't look at it anymore or is it more of like other parts of your application and they review it with everything else at the end before making a decision?
 
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freedoctor17 said:
How is this exam usually looked at? Like "oh they did well enough, they can have an interview" and then they don't look at it anymore or is it more of like other parts of your application and they review it with everything else at the end before making a decision?
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I don't think anybody really knows at this point. It's still pretty new for U.S. MD schools, and there is no consistency in the way that schools treat the test. Some schools have even explicitly stated that they're just using the test to collect data to figure out how to use it in future application cycles.
 
Google CASPer, read up about CASPer on Wikipedia, and see the sample questions on the CASPer site.

You can also search for MMI practice questions; there are more of these floating around on the internet.

What are they looking for? How an applicant can make a quick assessment of a situation and talk about how they see their responsibilities, how they see both sides of the issue, and what they would reasonably and fairly do in the situation. Responsibility, Integrity, Honesty, Compassion, Ethics. There isn't "one right answer" but talk through your thought process and "don't be a jerk".
 
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I take mine in a few days so I'll let you guys know how it went
 
Just took it. Easy and studying in advance certainly is not needed/helpful (def. don't pay for any practice unless you're Canadian). Honestly, the hardest part was typing fast.

As long as you're a real person and not a sociopath, you should be able to come up with a good answer on the spot
 
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No need to study the ethics either. I didn't get any questions about medicine. All mine were random day to day stuff
 
Master Thinker said:
Just took it. Easy and studying in advance certainly is not needed/helpful (def. don't pay for any practice unless you're Canadian). Honestly, the hardest part was typing fast.

As long as you're a real person and not a sociopath, you should be able to come up with a good answer on the spot
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Same here! Was pretty easy, just type quickly!
 
teenyfish said:
Same here! Was pretty easy, just type quickly!
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Do you know if Temple Med requires casper? It's on the drop down menu on the casper site, but I found nothing about casper on temple's website
 
Dang I just took it, not only am I a slow typer but some of the prompts were so ridiculous that I had to leave them blank lol


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initialize said:
Dang I just took it, not only am I a slow typer but some of the prompts were so ridiculous that I had to leave them blank lol


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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That is fine. From what I know, they grade each set as a whole. So if you covered all the main topics, you will still get the points. But yea, I laughed at many of the videos because they are so ridiculously cheesy.
 
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Master Thinker said:
Do you know if Temple Med requires casper? It's on the drop down menu on the casper site, but I found nothing about casper on temple's website
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Hmm, I don't know - I would email them or give them a call? I might do that tomorrow, as I'm applying there and didn't add them on CASPer.
 
s/p CASPer
Happy to be done.
Happy that I worked as a medical scribe.
 
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Is the webcam on during the entire exam? Mines very finicky and freezes often. Might need to find a different laptop to use from a friend or something.
 
freedoctor17 said:
Is the webcam on during the entire exam? Mines very finicky and freezes often. Might need to find a different laptop to use from a friend or something.
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Yep, it's on the entire exam
 
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Also, there are a few people on previous threads talking about how difficult the exam is and how they should've prepared more. But I suspect those are fake accounts by prep companies because if you look at their post history, they only post on CASPR-related threads and over multiple years. Don't let them fool you into signing up for those expensive courses.
 
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Master Thinker said:
Also, there are a few people on previous threads talking about how difficult the exam is and how they should've prepared more. But I suspect those are fake accounts by prep companies because if you look at their post history, they only post on CASPR-related threads and over multiple years. Don't let them fool you into signing up for those expensive courses.
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1000% Agree
 
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freedoctor17 said:
How is this exam usually looked at? Like "oh they did well enough, they can have an interview" and then they don't look at it anymore or is it more of like other parts of your application and they review it with everything else at the end before making a decision?
Click to expand...

For anyone curious, there is an interview on the premed years podcast that just came out this Wednesday with the director of admissions at UIC I think. She talks about CASPer and basically says that they don’t use it as a screening tool yet because they are still studying the correlation (they see that people who perform well on CASPer do better in interviews), but that her colleagues at other schools who use it tend to use it as a way to grant interviews to applicants who are a little below average stats wise but have high CASPer marks.
 
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How fast do y'all type? I did like 20 minutes of typing practice today and got my wpm up from 50ish to around 60ish. Then I started stagnating so I stopped for today. I'm gonna keep at it for 15 to 20 minutes a day up until my test day to see if I can get it closer to 70.
 
freedoctor17 said:
How fast do y'all type? I did like 20 minutes of typing practice today and got my wpm up from 50ish to around 60ish. Then I started stagnating so I stopped for today. I'm gonna keep at it for 15 to 20 minutes a day up until my test day to see if I can get it closer to 70.
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Took a test and it was 97 wpm. Did two more and got it up to 125 (99.49% accuracy).
 
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freedoctor17 said:
Wow practically double my speed lol, at least I know I have plenty of room for improvement.
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I used to write for a living and play multiple instruments. My typing speed is likely a combination of those two. I used to be in the 130s, but I haven't had to type fast for a while.
 
Quick question: during the test my sister asked me if I wanted food and I responded, and also said "I'm taking a test'. I'm not sure if they will have audio, so I'm worried they'll think I was cheating. Any thoughts? The conversation lasted about 5 seconds.
 
KD6-3.7 said:
Quick question: during the test my sister asked me if I wanted food and I responded, and also said "I'm taking a test'. I'm not sure if they will have audio, so I'm worried they'll think I was cheating. Any thoughts? The conversation lasted about 5 seconds.
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I believe the test does monitor audio.
That being said, IMHO, I don't think declining food from your sister would warrant a cheating accusation.
 
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CJhooper123 said:
I believe the test does monitor audio.
That being said, IMHO, I don't think declining food from your sister would warrant a cheating accusation.
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Thanks, I'm just concerned because I don't know if my audio/mic works. But I was hoping it'd be clear from how brief it was as well
 
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Master Thinker said:
Just took it. Easy and studying in advance certainly is not needed/helpful (def. don't pay for any practice unless you're Canadian). Honestly, the hardest part was typing fast.

As long as you're a real person and not a sociopath, you should be able to come up with a good answer on the spot
Click to expand...

The issue is not whether you have a good answer. It's whether your answer is better than your peers taking the test. Your answer could be "good" but if it's not better, you'll end up with a lower rank.

As to the point about no advance studying being needed, there were over 7,000 free sample CASPer practice tests taken for the 2017 year from Advisor Prep. Seems like what you are saying is that when the practice tests are free then advance studying is warranted, but when you have to pay for a full length practice test, then it's not worth it. If advance practice is not needed, why to applicants even bother taking the free sample test provided.
 
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DubZteR said:
The issue is not whether you have a good answer. It's whether your answer is better than your peers taking the test. Your answer could be "good" but if it's not better, you'll end up with a lower rank.

As to the point about no advance studying being needed, there were over 7,000 free sample CASPer practice tests taken for the 2017 year from Advisor Prep. Seems like what you are saying is that when the practice tests are free then advance studying is warranted, but when you have to pay for a full length practice test, then it's not worth it. If advance practice is not needed, why to applicants even bother taking the free sample test provided.
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I think taking the practice test is useful to get a feel for the format and types of questions asked so you're not surprised by anything completely out of the blue.

I'm taking mine in a week though so I don't have any experience besides the sample on their site. I also only need it for one school who from what it sounds like won't be weighing it too heavily as it's their first year using it so I guess I'm not too pressured by this.
 
DubZteR said:
The issue is not whether you have a good answer. It's whether your answer is better than your peers taking the test. Your answer could be "good" but if it's not better, you'll end up with a lower rank.
Click to expand...

Do you have a source for that? That’s not what the CASPer faq seems to indicate. It says each of your twelve sections are rated by a different person who knows nothing about you or your other sections, and the total rating info is then sent to schools so they can rank you against other people. It doesn’t indicate that your score is curved to the group of people taking the test that day.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Do you have a source for that? That’s not what the CASPer faq seems to indicate. It says each of your twelve sections are rated by a different person who knows nothing about you or your other sections, and the total rating info is then sent to schools so they can rank you against other people. It doesn’t indicate that your score is curved to the group of people taking the test that day.
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I worked with the creator of CASPer so that's my source.

Where does it state in the CASPer FAQ for applicants that "the total rating info is then sent to schools so they can rank you against other people."

Below is the full response for the question, "How is the CASPer test rated?" https://takecasper.com/faq/#toggle-id-2

"Each section in your CASPer test is scored by a unique rater, making the CASPer score a robust measure made up of many independent impressions of you.


Raters are trained to ignore test-taker errors in spelling, and grammar.


Each rater completes a training session and accreditation before they are permitted to score CASPer responses. Furthermore, your responses are anonymized, so a rater does not know who you are, or how well you’ve done on any other section of the test."

CASPer is marketed as a turn key test for schools, therefore the schools DO NOT rank you. The results have already been standardized and you are already RANKED for the schools by Altus.

On the rating side of the CASPer website, https://takecasper.com/rating/about-casper-rating/#howiscasperrated

"CASPer is not a pass-fail test, but a way of ranking a large amount of applicants on personal characteristics and professionalism. Rating is one of the key reasons the CASPer test is so effective. Raters are asked to rate responses using a descriptive “Likert” type scale. Research on the test has demonstrated that use of the Likert-type scale has a positive influence on the raters (over a checklist), as raters tend to use a wider range of the scale than has been seen in traditional interviews."

Using a likert scale guarantees that not everyone will score well, regardless of how easy you feel the test was or how awesome you believe your responses are. Your score is curved to your peers. With CASPer, there is no single "right" answer as others have said, but there are many less than "right" answers.
 
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DubZteR said:
CASPer is not a pass-fail test, but a way of ranking a large amount of applicants on personal characteristics and professionalism.
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You literally quoted it. It doesn’t say your score is determined on a curve. And no offense, but I’m not banking on some random poster on the internet who says he worked with the creator of CASPer, whatever that means. It says your score is determined by 12 independent raters. How does that imply that your score depends on other test takers? If that’s how they score it, they need to be clear about that, since that makes the test even more BS than already is.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
You literally quoted it. It doesn’t say your score is determined on a curve. And no offense, but I’m not banking on some random poster on the internet who says he worked with the creator of CASPer, whatever that means. It says your score is determined by 12 independent raters. How does that imply that your score depends on other test takers? If that’s how they score it, they need to be clear about that, since that makes the test even more BS than already is.
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No offense taken. I will try one more time. CASPer is a test that ranks applicants. Each applicant's total score is determined by a total of 12 ratings given by 12 different raters. This total score does not equal a rank. To get to your rank, your performance is compared to how others performed, because CASPer is not a pass/fail test like MCAT, USMLE etc. The schools you apply to then receive your rank relative to your peers. Some schools apply cutoffs (ie. if your rank falls below 1 SD of the test, then you are not considered further) based on this information.

It would be nice if they were more transparent for applicants but I wouldn't hold your breath.
 
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DubZteR said:
No offense taken. I will try one more time. CASPer is a test that ranks applicants. Each applicant's total score is determined by a total of 12 ratings given by 12 different raters. This total score does not equal a rank. To get to your rank, your performance is compared to how others performed, because CASPer is not a pass/fail test like MCAT, USMLE etc. The schools you apply to then receive your rank relative to your peers. Some schools apply cutoffs (ie. if your rank falls below 1 SD of the test, then you are not considered further) based on this information.

It would be nice if they were more transparent for applicants but I wouldn't hold your breath.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the explanation. That’s much clearer.
 
sss1219 said:
There are a couple official responses out there, read through them and figure out the patterns/common points that come up in support of each side of the ethical scenarios. Almost every scenario you will be asked about on the real thing will be common sense, but getting really efficient at the above will help loads with thinking of answers on the spot and buying you extra time for typing.

Also, just imo, but this is one of those rare instances where quantity is just as important as quality - the more ethical issues you bring up in crafting how you would react in the situation, the better. Strong typing ability is really beneficial for the exam in this regard. I shot for somewhere between 3-6 sentences.
Click to expand...
Where can I find these official responses?
 
I agree with OP. It is not that hard to "fake" response for Casper.
In another word, the test may be highly reliable, but it lacks validity.
 
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So if a school only encourages me to submit CASPer, should I still go ahead even though I'm not sure how I did?
 
wysdoc said:
Yes, because CASPer does not release any "scores" to the students and you will never know "how you did"
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I understand that but I just don't feel like I answered the questions well and I don't want to negatively impact my application :-(
 
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