- What Casper Actually Tests
- Exam Format: Video and Typed Scenarios
- The Nine Domains You Need to Master
- Registration, Fees, and Scheduling Mechanics
- Who Requires Casper and Why
- A Casper-Specific Study Timeline
- Exam Day: Equipment and Logistics
- Common Mistakes That Sink Good Candidates
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Casper is an open-response situational judgment test with 11 scenarios: 4 video, 7 typed, 22 questions total.
- Every response is graded by a different trained human rater on a 1-9 scale; there is no fixed passing score.
- The nine scored domains are Collaboration, Communication, Empathy, Fairness, Ethics, Self-Awareness, Resilience, Problem Solving, and Motivation.
- US Medicine registration costs $85 USD and includes Duet plus distribution to 7 programs.
What Casper Actually Tests
Casper (Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics) is not a knowledge exam. It was built at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and launched in 2015, and it's now owned and administered by Acuity Insights (formerly Altus Assessments). By August 2024, the test had surpassed 1 million registrations, which tells you how deeply embedded it has become in admissions pipelines across health professions and beyond.
Unlike a multiple-choice licensing exam, Casper presents open-ended, judgment-based scenarios and asks you to respond in your own words, either on camera or by typing. There's no single body of content to memorize. Instead, you're being evaluated on how you reason through interpersonal friction, ethical gray areas, and professional dilemmas. If you're still orienting yourself to the basics, our What Is Casper? primer and the Casper Meaning breakdown are good starting points before you dive into prep strategy.
Exam Format: Video and Typed Scenarios
For the 2026-2027 admission cycle, Casper is structured in a fixed, predictable order, which is itself a planning advantage. You will always see:
- 4 video-response scenarios first - one minute per question, recorded one at a time, no going back.
- 7 typed-response scenarios after that - both questions for a scenario appear together, and you get 3.5 minutes total to answer the pair.
- 2 open-ended questions per scenario, for 22 questions across the full test.
Each scenario opens with an optional 30-second reflection period before you have to respond, which is worth using every single time. A 10-minute optional break follows the video section, and a 5-minute optional break follows the first four typed scenarios. Altogether, most sittings run an estimated 65 to 85 minutes (note that the separate Australian teacher education version runs 8 scenarios in 45 to 65 minutes - not the version most readers of this guide are preparing for).
Because the video and typed sections require genuinely different skills - verbal fluency and pacing versus concise written argument-building - treat them as two separate mini-exams during prep rather than one uniform test.
The Nine Domains You Need to Master
Casper scenarios are built to probe nine personal and professional characteristics. Understanding each domain conceptually, not just by name, is the single highest-leverage thing you can do. For a full breakdown of each area with sample reasoning patterns, see our dedicated Casper Exam Domains 2026 guide. Here's a condensed view:
Ethics
Scenarios frequently hinge on competing obligations - to a patient, a colleague, an institution, or a rule. Ethics carries outsized practical weight because nearly every scenario is constructed around an interpersonal or professional dilemma.
- Name the competing values explicitly instead of picking a side immediately
- Show that you understand why the "easy" answer is incomplete
Empathy
Raters look for whether you can accurately represent another person's perspective, not just express sympathy for it.
- Describe what the other party might be feeling and why
- Avoid dismissing a perspective just because it's inconvenient
Collaboration and Communication
Many scenarios involve teams, supervisors, or conflicting colleagues. Strong responses describe a concrete conversation or action, not a vague intention to "talk it out."
- Name who you would speak to and what you would actually say
- Show awareness of tone and timing, not just content
Fairness, Self-Awareness, and Resilience
These domains often surface together in scenarios about bias, personal limitation, or setback.
- Acknowledge your own potential blind spots honestly
- Describe recovery and adjustment after failure, not just the failure itself
Problem Solving and Motivation
Some scenarios are less about conflict and more about practical judgment or sustained drive under pressure.
- Break the problem into manageable steps before proposing a solution
- Connect your answer to genuine, specific motivation rather than generic ambition
Key Takeaway
Don't study domains in isolation - most real scenarios blend two or three at once (e.g., an Ethics dilemma that also tests Fairness and Communication). Practice identifying every domain at play in a single scenario before you answer.
Registration, Fees, and Scheduling Mechanics
Casper is delivered online with remote proctoring on scheduled sitting dates rather than at physical test centers, so you'll pick a date from an available list rather than book anytime. A desktop or laptop with a working webcam and microphone is mandatory - smartphones and tablets are not supported, full stop.
For US Medicine applicants, the registration fee is $85 USD. That fee covers Casper itself plus the Duet value-alignment assessment and distribution of your results to 7 programs; each additional program distribution costs roughly $18. Other health professions programs pay a lower base fee, and pricing varies by country and test type, so always confirm current pricing for your specific program type rather than assuming the US Medicine figure applies universally. For the full pricing structure, see our Casper Certification Cost 2026 breakdown.
Scoring works differently from most standardized tests. Every response is evaluated by a different trained human rater using a 1 to 9 Likert scale, and there is no passing score - applicants only see a quartile, while programs receive the actual score, typically 2 to 3 weeks after your sitting. If you're trying to figure out what "good enough" even means here, read Casper Passing Score 2026 for a clear explanation of how quartiles work in practice.
Attempts are also tightly limited: you get one attempt per test type per admissions cycle, and retakes are only granted for verified technical failures reported within one week. Scores are valid for a single cycle only and never carry forward, so if you reapply in a future cycle, you must retest regardless of your prior score. Check Casper Exam Dates 2026 before you commit to a program deadline, since sitting dates are limited and fill up.
Who Requires Casper and Why
Programs use Casper to screen for personal and professional characteristics that transcripts and interviews struggle to capture reliably at scale. There are no academic prerequisites to sit for it - eligibility is set entirely by the programs that require it as part of their application, not by Acuity Insights itself. If you're unsure whether your target program requires it, our Casper Requirements 2026 guide walks through eligibility and how to confirm what's needed.
Because the test measures judgment rather than credentialed skill, it shows up across a range of admissions contexts beyond a single profession. If you're weighing whether the time and fee investment is worthwhile for your specific path, Is the Casper Certification Worth It? lays out the tradeoffs, and Casper Jobs covers where this assessment tends to matter downstream.
A Casper-Specific Study Timeline
Generic study techniques only help if they're mapped to Casper's actual structure. Here's a domain-aware timeline that assumes roughly four weeks before your sitting date.
Learn the Domains Cold
- Read through all nine domains - Collaboration, Communication, Empathy, Fairness, Ethics, Self-Awareness, Resilience, Problem Solving, Motivation - until you can define each in one sentence
- Collect 10-15 real-world scenario prompts and tag which domains each one touches
Typed-Response Practice
- Practice answering paired questions within the 3.5-minute typed window, since typed scenarios make up 7 of 11 scenarios
- Focus heavily on Ethics and Fairness scenarios, since they appear disproportionately often
Video-Response Practice
- Record yourself answering within the strict one-minute-per-question limit, using the 30-second reflection period every time
- Review recordings for pacing, clarity, and whether you actually answered both parts of the question
Full Simulated Sitting
- Run a full mock sitting of 11 scenarios in order, including the optional breaks, to build stamina for the 65-85 minute total length
- Use a full-length practice test to simulate real pacing under proctored-style conditions
Spacing practice this way lets you drill format-specific skills (typing speed and pacing versus verbal delivery) separately before combining them, which mirrors how the actual test is structured rather than treating it as one undifferentiated block of prep.
Exam Day: Equipment and Logistics
Because Casper is remotely proctored rather than administered in a test center, your equipment setup is part of your preparation, not an afterthought.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Device | Desktop or laptop only - smartphones and tablets are not supported |
| Hardware | Working webcam and microphone required for remote proctoring |
| Response tools | Speech-to-text is prohibited without approved accommodations |
| Section order | 4 video scenarios, then 7 typed scenarios, fixed order, no switching formats |
| Breaks | 10-minute optional break after video section, 5-minute optional break after first four typed scenarios |
Test your webcam, microphone, and internet connection well ahead of your scheduled sitting date. Since there are no physical test centers to fall back on and retakes are only granted for verified technical failures reported within one week, a preventable setup issue on exam day can cost you the entire cycle.
Common Mistakes That Sink Good Candidates
- Treating it like an interview script. Rehearsed, generic answers read as inauthentic to trained raters looking for genuine Self-Awareness and Motivation.
- Ignoring the second question in a pair. Typed scenarios show both questions together, and candidates who spend all 3.5 minutes on the first question leave the second thin or unanswered.
- Skipping the reflection period. The optional 30-second window before each scenario exists to help you organize your answer - skipping it under time pressure often produces disorganized responses.
- Underestimating the typed section's ethical weight. With 7 of 11 scenarios typed, and Ethics woven through most of them, candidates who only practice on video often mismanage the typed pacing.
- Assuming there's a "correct" answer. Since a different trained human rater scores every response on a 1-9 scale with no passing threshold, the goal is demonstrated reasoning quality, not a single right conclusion.
If you want a sense of how difficult candidates generally find each section, our How Hard Is the Casper Exam? guide and Casper Pass Rate 2026 analysis go deeper into what the available data actually shows, without relying on invented numbers. For a fast pre-exam refresher, bookmark the Casper Cheat Sheet 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
The 2026-2027 version presents 11 scenarios in a fixed order - 4 video-response followed by 7 typed-response - with 2 questions per scenario, for 22 questions total.
No. Every response is scored by a different trained human rater on a 1 to 9 scale, and applicants only see a quartile rather than a raw score or pass/fail result.
Generally no. You get one attempt per test type per admissions cycle, and retakes are granted only for verified technical failures reported within one week of the sitting.
No. Scores are valid for a single admissions cycle only and never carry forward, so reapplicants in a later cycle must retest regardless of their previous score.
A desktop or laptop computer with a working webcam and microphone. Smartphones and tablets are not supported since the test is remotely proctored on scheduled sitting dates.
Casper rewards candidates who understand its specific mechanics - the fixed video-then-typed structure, the nine scored domains, and the human-rater scoring model - far more than it rewards generic test-taking tricks. Build your prep around those specifics, run a full-length practice test under timed conditions, and revisit our Casper Study Guide as your central reference as your sitting date approaches.