How to Prepare for CASPer: 10 Strategies to Score 4th quartile

How to Prepare for CASPer: The Basics

Preparing for CASPer involves developing a clear approach to analyzing situations and communicating your responses effectively under time pressure.

The CASPer is an online situational judgment test (SJT) designed to evaluate an applicant’s qualitative or “soft” skills, such as professionalism, maturity, and communication. Some programs use the test to serve as an intermediary or additional step between application and later in-person interviews, allowing the admissions committee to determine a candidate’s suitability for the course of study and profession, prior to extending an invitation to meet in person. However, most first-time applicants have no idea what the CASPer test is or what it’s about. 

Many schools and programs now engage in “holistic review,” which means that an applicant’s personal, professional, and scholastic competencies are reviewed alongside their academic achievements. Evaluations like the CASPer test are intended to provide crucial insights into an applicant's core values and interpersonal skills. For some programs, CASPer performance can play a significant role in an applicant's pre-interview score, meaning that effective CASPer test prep is crucial for securing an interview invite!

Understanding the CASPer Test Format

The first step in preparing effectively for the CASPer test is familiarizing yourself with its format. The CASPer test is comprised of a series of scenario prompts, often based on thought-provoking, real-life situations, professional ethics, and hot topics in your field. In response to each scenario, you will be presented with associated questions that offer you the opportunity to provide answers that demonstrate key qualities sought in professionals in your discipline.

Before reviewing the details, it helps to first understand how the CASPer test is structured at a high level. The infographic below provides a quick overview of the test’s format and flow.

This overview highlights the key components of the CASPer test, which are explained in more detail below. An important note is that for both sections, once your allotted time to answer questions runs out, the next scenario will appear automatically.

What CASPer Raters Look for in High-Scoring Answers

The second step toward effective CASPer preparation is understanding how CASPer raters evaluate your test. CASPer raters are looking for how well you think, communicate, and approach complex situations under time pressure. High-scoring responses are professional and consistently demonstrate clear reasoning and the ability to take multiple perspectives before taking action.

These responses also reflect one or several of the 9 core competencies of CASPer:

• Collaboration
• Communication
• Empathy
• Fairness
• Ethics
• Motivation
• Problem-solving
• Resilience
• Self-awareness

Raters overall reward clarity and consistency. To perform well, your goal should be to demonstrate consistent judgment and thoughtful decision-making across every response. For a full breakdown on scoring, see our guide on how CASPer is scored.

How to Prepare for CASPer: Question Categories

Learning to identify CASPer question categories is the third step in preparing for your CASPer test.

Some applicants assume that it is impossible to prepare for CASPer due to the million different scenarios and associated questions you might have to face on the test. While it is difficult to know the exact questions you are going to get, you can prepare solid strategies, or even templates, for each category of questions that are typically included on a CASPer test.

For preparation purposes, you can group most CASPer questions into three broad categories: :

• Situational or scenario questions
• Policy questions
• Personal questions

There are some other question types, like quirky questions, but these can still be tackled by using the personal questions answer template outlined below.

Each CASPer scenario is followed by 2 associated questions, which may include a mix of scenario, policy, or personal types. For example, you might be asked what you would do in a situation, your opinion on a related policy, or to reflect on a personal experience. 

Having answer strategies for each question category in the form of a quick rubric allows you to confidently face any given prompt and structure your answer quickly and succinctly.

Quick Rubric: CASPer Scenario Questions

CASPer scenario questions are designed to assess how you approach complex situations, particularly those involving ethical considerations, interpersonal conflict, or professional responsibility. Rather than testing specific knowledge, scenario questions evaluate your ability to make thoughtful decisions and respond appropriately under pressure, especially when there is no obvious right answer.

The following approach can be used to answer CASPer scenario questions:

1. Try to understand your immediate role and what kind of issues you are being presented with, such as autonomy support, informed consent, professional boundaries, conflict resolution, etc.
2. Identify the most vulnerable party in the situation while remaining objective and non-judgmental to all involved parties.
3. Proceed to "gathering information" by considering all sides of the scenario through private conversations and consulting policies or other valuable external guidelines. Then identify what insights you wish to gain from these consultations to clarify your role and the issues that you face. 
4. Create several practical solutions based on your insights, starting with the best, then the worst possible outcomes, using an if/then sentence structure. This will allow you to demonstrate that you have considered multiple points of view and have included all the parties in your consideration.
5. Conclude by choosing the most rational, ethical, legal, and scientifically sound decision that causes the least amount of harm to everyone involved or indirectly involved.

Since some CASPer scenarios require you to respond in a video format, it’s important to understand how to organize and deliver your answers effectively in real time.

Strong preparation for CASPer scenario questions requires focusing on developing sound judgement, such as recognizing core issues, weighting competing priorities, and then choosing a course of action that is fair and appropriate for everyone involved.

An effective way to practice how to answer scenario questions is exposing yourself to wide range of scenarios. This approach helps you evaluate situations quickly and justify your decisions within the time limit.

Quick Rubric: CASPer Policy Questions

Policy questions assess your awareness of the local and global issues facing your profession and your ability to remain objective and non-critical of all sides of an issue. When tasked with answering a question from this category, it is important to identify the themes that the policy question is asking about, such as current social events awareness, rural vs. city practice, ethical/moral dilemma, etc.

Follow this general structure to answer CASPer policy questions:

1. Opening sentence: summarize the policy to illustrate your awareness of the main issues surrounding the policy and their context.
2. Pros (2-3) and cons (2-3) of the policy: list a couple of advantages and disadvantages of the policy to show your awareness of the problem. By balancing the number of pros with an equal number of cons it will demonstrate your ability to stay objective, informed, and open-minded.
3. Last sentence: include a clear stance on the policy and your rationale for that stance. If agree with the policy, provide a short sentence on how you would improve it by addressing the cons you discussed. If you disagree with the policy, write down a short sentence with an alternative solution to the problem.

The best way to prepare for questions in the policy category is to become familiar with current events, hot topic social and political issues, and challenges facing your profession.

To practice answering policy questions, you can write down a list of the most important and interesting policies you encounter, write down their pros and cons, and try to formulate your own informed opinion.

Quick Rubric: CASPer Personal Questions

Personal questions often ask you to reflect on times where you’ve dealt with issues that are presented in a scenario. The purpose of this question category is to assess how you react in certain situations that center around professional boundaries, ethical/moral dilemmas, conflict resolutions, and other issues. For this reason, your answer should demonstrate to the evaluator that you know how to handle yourself in a situation.

When answering a personal question, you can outline your response using these steps:

1. First sentence: provide a very short context about the situation you are writing about.
2. Second and third sentence: demonstrate specific actions, behaviors, or tasks you performed to deal with the situation using concrete examples. For instance, how did you change your communication strategies to resolve an interpersonal conflict? What behavioral adjustments helped you overcome a particular challenge?
3. Fourth and fifth sentence: Reflect on what you learned from dealing with this situation and how you intend to apply this lesson within your future profession. It is important that this reflection is specific to illustrate your unique perspectives as a candidate.

Preparing for personal questions often requires brainstorming. Start by reflecting on past experiences and identifying moments that demonstrate accountability and development of core competencies central to your chosen profession.

Once your brainstorming document is complete, you can practice answering personal questions by articulating the experiences you’ve identified in a manner that illustrates your actions and insights without losing focus or detail under time pressure.

Key Takeaway: How to Prepare for CASPer questions

Preparing for CASPer questions means learning how to approach different question types with a clear and consistent method. By applying the strategies outlined for scenario, policy, and personal questions, you can adapt your responses to any prompt while maintaining strong reasoning and focus.

To practice, work through a range of questions and focus on applying the appropriate approach for each type, improving how efficiently and clearly you communicate your decisions under time constraints. The above framework helps you prepare by giving you a consistent way to approach any CASPer question.

How to Prepare for CASPer: High-Impact CASPer Strategies to Improve Your Score

Beyond understanding how to approach CASPer questions, strong performance depends on how effectively you apply that approach under pressure. The strategies below focus on key habits and decisions that are typically associated with top-performing applicants.

Success on CASPer comes from how effectively you navigate unfamiliar situations and express your thinking in a limited amount of time. Rather than searching for ideal answers, focus on making sound decisions and communicating them in a clear and purposeful way.

With preparation, this process becomes more intuitive. As you continue practicing, you’ll become more confident in how you approach each question, allowing you to respond with greater clarity and consistency throughout the test. These strategies demonstrate how to prepare beyond basic practice by improving how you think and respond during the test.

Another aspect of preparing for the CASPer is understanding how much time to allocate for preparation. You can use our guide on how long it takes to prepare for CASPer to plan your study schedule effectively.

How to Prepare for CASPer with Sample Questions and Expert Responses

The examples below include four sample CASPer stations: scenario, policy, personal, and quirky. Each sample is paired with a model response and explanations to demonstrate how different types of questions can be approached using the structures and techniques provided earlier. Once you’ve done this, you can use this as a practice set to compose your own responses.

Sample Scenario CASPer Question and Expert Response

Prompt: You are at the airport with your family, preparing to board a plane to your favorite vacation destination. The flight attendants prepare to begin calling passengers for boarding. Prior to calling for passengers in first class, the attendant asks for any passengers with disabilities to come forward for priority boarding. A couple, a young man and woman in their mid-to-late twenties, begins moving toward the desk; the man is carrying all of their carry-on baggage, and they are smiling and laughing, with no visible complications with movement in either of them, and neither has any kind of visible mobility device (e.g., a cane, crutches, wheelchair, etc.). As they move past you, the woman in line behind you sighs loudly. You turn to look at her, and she is glancing around at your fellow passengers, visibly annoyed. She loudly proclaims, “This is unbelievable! Look at them!” She notices you looking at her, catches your eye, and looks at you expectantly. “You know what I mean, right?” she says to you, gesturing toward the couple, who have overheard this and look visibly upset.

Why this Response Works

This response focuses on clarifying the situation before acting and avoids making assumptions. It addresses the issue in a measured way and communicates a reasonable and clear course of action.

How to Prepare Using This Example

When practicing, focus on identifying what information is missing before responding. This will help you make more thoughtful and consistent decisions.

Sample Policy CASPer Question and Expert Response

Prompt: On the heels of the recent legalization of recreational cannabis (marijuana) in Canada and several U.S. states, debates around full decriminalization or legalization of illicit substances have been renewed in some medical, legal, and political circles.

Why this Response Works

This response evaluates different perspectives before reaching a conclusion which presents a clear position supported by logical reasoning.

How to Prepare Using This Example

Practice outlining key considerations on both sides of an issue before deciding on a stance. This outline will help you develop more balanced and well-supported responses.

Sample Personal CASPer Question and Expert Response

Prompt: From time to time, we all make decisions we regret. Whether bound by less-than-ideal circumstances, lack of resources to make the best decision, or a lack of foresight or maturity, everyone has made a bad or unfortunate decision in their lives.

Why this Response Works

This response uses a specific example to show the applicant’s actions and what they learned. It stays focused and easy to follow.

How to Prepare Using This Example

Prepare a few experiences in advance and practice explaining them clearly, focusing on what you did and what you learned.

Sample Quirky CASPer Question and Expert Response

Prompt: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why this Response Works

This response stays focused and provided a structured and relevant answer despite the unconventional prompt.

How to Prepare Using This Example

Practice responding to unfamiliar or unusual prompts without overanalyzing them. Focus on maintaining clarity and staying on topic.

Reviewing sample questions helps you become more familiar with how different prompts are presented and how to structure your own responses under time constraints. This familiarity can make it easier to navigate new questions and respond with greater clarity during the test, even when certain questions feel unexpected.

Want to see a mock CASPer test session? Here you go!

Common CASPer Mistakes That Lower Your Score

Certain mistakes tend to appear as you continue to practice, especially when you start to write your responses under time pressure. While these mistakes are not always obvious, they can affect the clarity of your answer and how your main points are understood if left unchecked.

In some cases, responses include too much setup or context before addressing the actual question. These details can make it harder for the evaluator to identify the main point of the provided answer. In others, the answer shifts direction partway through, making the reasoning difficult to follow or rely on general statements without clearly connecting them back to the situation.

Another common issue is uneven pacing throughout the station, where one question is answered in detail while others are left underdeveloped. This type of pacing creates an imbalance which affects the overall quality of the provided responses.

Recognizing these patterns can help you identify where your answers may lose clarity or focus during your practice. If you are unsure how to identify your problem areas, working with a medical school advisor can provide with the necessary training by giving you concrete actionable advice.

Preparing for CASPer: Final Considerations

By the time you reach test day, the goal is not to have perfect answers, but to be comfortable working through unfamiliar situations and expressing your reasoning efficiently. With enough practice, this process becomes more natural, allowing you to respond with greater focus and control.

FAQs

To your success,

Your friends at BeMo

BeMo Academic Consulting

Disclaimer: CASPer is a claimed trademark of McMaster & Acuity Insights. BeMo does not recommend, endorse nor affiliate with CASPer, Acuity Insights or McMaster and vice versa.