Casper Strategies

The Casper test, or Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics, is a virtual exam where test-takers must respond to a set of scenarios through text or video responses. The Casper is required by many professional schools for their admissions process, including optometry, dentistry, physician’s assistant, physiotherapy, and medical schools. The purpose of the Casper test is to measure your situational judgment and critical thinking while evaluating your personal characteristics (professionalism, ethics, critical thinking, communication skills, and personal empathy). The test itself spans about 1 hour and 40 minutes to 2 hours, and it includes 2 main sections – one for typed text responses and one for video recording responses. Due to the structure and nature of the test, it would be a good idea to take some time to adequately prepare – feel free to read our articles on how to prepare for the Casper test and what to expect on your test day. Besides preparing for the test format and logistics, your approach to answering test questions can affect your performance as well. In this article, we will be discussing 5 testing strategies for the typed and video responses during the Casper test.

1️⃣ Question Type and Approach

During the test, you will get 5 minutes to type your responses to 3 questions, or 1 minute to record your video response, for each prompt. Due to the time constraint, it is important to have a framework to refer to in terms of approaching different types of questions. Regardless of the section of the test you are in (text- or video-based), there are generally 3 types of questions and corresponding strategies you can use to tackle the test:

Situational: Situation judgement questions will provide a hypothetical scenario involving a conflict, assign you a role in the situation and ask what you would do in the situation. The situation is not necessarily related to the specific field you are applying for so you are not expected to have specialized knowledge – therefore, the focus is more on how you will approach the scenario and potential conflict presented.

• Strategy: 5 I’s (Identify, gather information, impact, if/then, I will)
  
  
  • Identify the situation and the most important issue: As you start to read or watch the prompt, think about who needs the most urgent attention in the situation. There could be multiple vulnerable parties, but figure out who would be at risk for the most harm and who you should prioritize the most.
     
  • Gather information: Before jumping to any conclusions, discuss the information that you would need and the questions you would ask before making a decision. This will show that you are considering different factors that may affect the situation, and that you are seeking the necessary information to make a better-informed decision.
     
  • Impact: Discuss who would be directly and/or indirectly impacted by the decision you make. Again, this will show that you are considering different factors and perspectives on the situation.
     
  • “If/then” statements: Use 2 or 3 “if… then…” conditional statements to show that you are capable of thinking about different perspectives and comprehending the possible consequences of your actions, depending on how you handle the issue. During your statements, you could also add more contextual information to better support your thinking and how that would factor into your final decision.
     
  • “I will” statement: State your final decision – whatever action you choose, it should be one that minimizes harm to all parties. If time allows, you can explain why it would be the best choice, or provide other information you believe you are still missing to make the most well-informed decision.

Policy-based: These questions will ask about a current policy or current event. Aside from reflecting on current or potential policies in your field, and healthcare ethics or controversial topics, you can also use the following framework to fall back on when answering these questions.

• Strategy: 4 P’s (Prior knowledge, pros/cons, POV, provisions)
  
  
  • Prior knowledge: Share what you already know about the topic. You should be aware of various tensions in current events, as well as potential controversies if a policy were to come into play.
     
  • Pros/cons: Before jumping to any conclusions or making a final decision, touch on the pros and cons of the policy. At the same time, discuss which parties would be affected, directly or indirectly, in a positive or negative way.
     
  • POV: With the pros and cons in mind, share your own point of view and final judgement on the policy.
     
  • Provisions: If time allows, you can also bring up the cons mentioned earlier and suggest some changes to the policy that would strengthen it or ease any related tensions.

Personal: These questions will ask you to reflect on your own life experiences, and sometimes in relation to a previously-presented scenario.

• Strategy: To prepare for these types of questions, reflect on stories from your past (including shadowing and volunteering initiatives) and have a collection of anecdotes and experiences to recall or connect to common exam themes. If any experiences involved a conflict, think about how you handled the situation, what you could have done differently, what you learned, and how this could be applied to the specific field you are pursuing. There are generally 4 categories of anecdotes you should be prepared to discuss:
  
  
  • Positive: This includes any jobs, volunteer experiences, or achievements that will allow you to highlight your strengths.
     
  • Negative: It may seem daunting to talk negatively about yourself when the test is assessing your personal characteristics, but it is okay to mention any weaknesses or failures, as long as you explain what you learned from your experiences and what steps you have taken to improve.
     
  • Describe a time when: This prompt is usually centred around conflicts and disagreements. When describing your past experiences, be sure to focus on your actions and explain why you chose to handle the situation the way you did, as well as lead back to qualities that you want to highlight to the evaluator (including professionalism, communication, interpersonal skills, and empathy).
     
  • Other: This involves more creative reflection questions (e.g. Explain what a quote means to you and how it could be applied dot your field, your favourite book/movie, etc.). Remember to be clear and honest, and try to link your answer back to why you are best suited for the profession you are pursuing.

2️⃣ Active Reading/Listening

For both the text- and video-based portions, you will be presented with a video or text prompt before you are asked to answer the question(s). During the prompt, try to be actively engaged as you are reading or watching the prompts. This includes rereading if you do not fully understand, making connections to personal experiences, and noting the author’s tone and word choice. Depending on the prompt, having this extra engagement and connection can help you answer the questions more easily.

3️⃣ Take Notes and Scan

While you are actively reading or listening, it would also be a good idea to take notes as the prompt is presented. Have a notepad on hand, and quickly jot down any important details, such as the main conflict and the most vulnerable party in the situation. This would be especially helpful for the video prompts, as you will not be able to rewatch the prompt once you begin answering the questions.

For the text-based portion, you will be presented with 3 questions for each text or video prompt. Before you begin answering the first question, take a few seconds to scan through all 3 questions. It can be easy to misinterpret the questions and accidentally address multiple questions in one of your answers. By looking through the questions first, you can figure out a plan before diving into the answer boxes. This will help you better address all the points you wanted to include, while avoiding having overlapping material across all 3 answers.

4️⃣ Type Quickly

It goes without saying that the Casper test is quite a time-constrained assessment. The text-based portion in particular requires you to answer 3 questions for each presented scenario in 5 minutes. It would be a good idea to increase your rate of “words per minute” before the exam by using typing-speed practice tests that can be found online, but it is important to remember to stay on top of it during the actual exam. You want to make sure that you can type both fast and accurately so you can answer the questions to the best of your ability.

5️⃣ Try Your Best

Aside from identifying the question type and best way to approach each question, as well as making sure you are actively engaged with the prompt so you are ready to answer the questions, just try your best. Try to use up the full 5 minutes for your text responses and 1 minute for your video responses, provide as much detail and reasoning for your ideas and try not to leave any answers blank. Even if it does not go as well as you wanted, the questions associated with each scenario are marked by a different evaluator, so try not to beat yourself up and treat each new scenario as a clean slate.

Conclusion

The Casper test is a challenging exam that requires skills like critical thinking, communication, and professionalism. Be sure to adequately prepare for the exam, and do your research so you have an idea of how your exam day will go. For more information, feel free to read our articles on What Schools Require the Casper Test, How to Prepare for the Casper Snapshot, and How Is the Casper Test Scored. Hopefully, these 5 tips will give you insight on how to best approach various prompts and provide a reliable framework to use when answering the questions. Good luck!