Developing Critical Thinking Skills for the Casper Test

In this article, we will discuss ways to develop your critical thinking skills for the Casper test.

The Casper test, or Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics, is a virtual situational judgement test 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 Casper was designed to assess non-cognitive skills while evaluating personal attributes including professionalism, ethics, communication, and personal empathy.

The test itself spans about 2 hours and consists of 2 main sections – one for typed text responses and one for video-recorded responses. As the test does not have a “right” or “wrong” answer, your performance depends on your ability to think critically. This involves being able to analyze the scenario, consider various perspectives, and propose well-reasoned actions. In this article, we will cover 6 ways to develop your critical thinking skills for the Casper test.

1. Review Ethical Decision-Making Frameworks

A common scenario that can show up on the Casper test is an ethical dilemma. These scenarios involve a difficult choice that must be made in relation to a moral conflict, which challenges the test-taker to navigate conflicts like patient autonomy and fairness. In these cases, it is best to have some sort of decision-making framework to properly consider all the options and prioritize what is most important.

There are four principles that can guide ethical decision-making, which are good to keep in mind during the exam. The Four Principles of Biomedical Ethics include:

• Autonomy: respect other’s rights to make decision about their lives
• Beneficence: act in the best interest of others
• Non-maleficence: act to avoid causing harm
• Justice: treat everyone fairly

With the above principles in mind, you can apply them when using a decision-making model during the exam. This will allow you to identify the problem, consider the different approaches to solving the problem, and pick the best course of action. The PLUS Ethical Decision-Making Model involves: 

• Policies: ask yourself if your decision aligns with organizational or institutional policies. In terms of the Casper test, this could include considering if your decision aligns with workplace protocols, professional standards or a medical code of ethics.
• Legal: ask yourself if your decision aligns with relevant laws or regulations. On the Casper test, this could look like scenarios involving patient confidentiality, and whether or not the decision aligns with relevant patient privacy laws. 
• Universal: ask yourself if your decision aligns with universal values like respect, honesty and justice. This will help you figure out if your decision is ethical and backed up by sound reasoning, regardless of varying personal or cultural beliefs.
• Self: ask yourself if your decision aligns with your own values and ethical principles. This will help you betters support your stance with the proper reasoning.

2. Strengthen Analytical Thinking

Critical thinking involves evaluating and judging a situation, while analytical thinking involves understanding and dissecting information. As you will be identifying key issues and considering your options, analytical thinking is also an important skill involved in logical and deductive reasoning required for problem-solving in the Casper test. 

A good way to improve this skill is to practice with sample scenarios. There are many resources that you can find online, including our articles on Casper Test Sample Practice Questions and Free Casper Test Resources. With these sample scenarios, try to practice breaking them down into three key components:

• Stakeholders: think about who is directly and indirectly involved in the situation
• Issues: consider the main issues, and prioritize the most important one
• Consequences: think about the potential outcomes of each action 

With the above key components in mind, you can then approach the scenario with your decision or position, the evidence that supports your decision, and the reasoning that justifies your decision. Answering questions with this thought process should help improve the clarity and conciseness of both your written and video-recorded responses on the exam. 

3. Refine Your Communication 

On top of having the right thought process when it comes to approaching various scenarios, success on the Casper test also relies on clear communication, whether it be through written or video responses. 
Depending on the type of question posed on the test, your approach will look different. Common question types include situational, policy-based, and personal. Even more, there are certain testing techniques you can implement during the exam too. For more information, check out our article on Casper Testing Strategies.

4. Stay Updated

Scenarios on the Casper test often involve social or systemic issues that require an understanding of diverse points of view. This means it is important to make sure you are expanding your knowledge of current events, cultural differences, and healthcare disparities. This can also involve social, cultural and personal factors that may influence different behaviours or decisions, as well as being able to recognize systemic barriers like inequities in access to healthcare. 

To stay updated, take some time to read articles on recent healthcare policies, as well as ethical and healthcare debates like vaccination mandates or access to care. There are many resources online, search as news sources, newsletters and TED Talks.  

5. Improve Time Management

The structure of the Casper test is very time constrained, as test-takers are only given 5 minutes to answer 3 different questions pertaining to one scenario. This means in addition to critical thinking, efficiency and time management are essential to perform well on the test. 

A great way to improve these skills is to increase your typing speed. There are many online resources for typing practice, which you can use to improve your rate of words-per-minute and accuracy. Another way to improve time management is to practice timed responses or simulate mock tests with practice questions. Simulating the real test environment will better prepare you for the real time limiy, which will help reduce your stress levels on exam day. An easy way to practice this is by starting with five minutes per question, and then gradually reducing the time until you can answer all three questions in five minutes.

6. Reflect on Feedback 

Critical thinking is something that improves with reflection and adjustment. After completing your simulated practice tests, take some time to read your responses, reflect on how you approached each question, and how you would adjust to improve your response if a similar question came up on the real exam. Specifically, you can also review your responses for clarity, empathy and logical reasoning. Sometimes it can be hard to judge your own work as well, so you can also ask mentors, professors or peers to provide constructive feedback. 
 

Even more, CasperBooster is an online platform that comes with practice scenarios and questions. On top of the practice questions, it also come with an AI component that provides almost immediate, comprehensive feedback on your responses. Even more, you can also request for manual grading from the Casper Booster team – once you complete any practice test, you will be notified in 3-5 business days with a feedback evaluation if your score falls within the 4th quartile. For more support and supplemental learning, it also comes with a study schedule and notes on various situational topics, along with a question bank to review your understanding. The membership is free, but you can upgrade to a premium membership for $299 USD. The premium membership lasts 45 days and involves unlimited access to CasperBooster AI, unlimited and faster manual feedback, and access to more practice questions.

Conclusion

The Casper test is a challenging exam that evaluates non-academic attributes like empathy, ethics and communication – all of which rely on critical thinking. To perform well, it would be best to have a structured approach to analyzing scenarios, drawing ethical conclusions and communicating effectively under the tight time constraints. Hopefully this article gives you some pointers on how to develop your critical thinking skills so that you will excel on the test. Good luck! 

For more information on the Casper test, check out our other articles on: Mistakes to Avoid on the Casper Test, Which Schools Require the Casper Test, How to Prepare for the Casper Test, How Long to Study for the Casper Test, What to Expect on Casper Test Day, Casper Written Responses, and other Free Casper Test Resources. If you have already taken the test and did not do as well as you had hoped, it is okay if you need to retake it. We have articles on What a Poor Casper Test Score Means and How to Improve your Casper Test Score – make sure to check them out as well!