- Casper is an open-response situational judgment test created at McMaster University and now run by Acuity Insights.
- The 2026-2027 version has 11 scenarios (4 video, 7 typed) totaling 22 questions in roughly 65-85 minutes.
- Every response is scored 1-9 by a different human rater; there is no fixed passing score.
- The US Medicine fee is $85 USD and covers Casper, Duet, and distribution to 7 programs.
What Is Casper Certification?
Casper stands for Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics. It is not a "certification" in the traditional licensing sense - there is no credential you hang on a wall - but applicants and admissions offices commonly refer to it as a certification requirement because completing it is often mandatory before a program will review your application. Casper is an online, remotely proctored situational judgment test designed to evaluate the interpersonal and professional qualities that grades and interviews struggle to measure.
Unlike a knowledge exam, Casper does not test facts you memorize. It presents realistic, often uncomfortable scenarios and asks how you would think through them. If you're still getting oriented to the basics, the companion piece What Is Casper? and the shorter explainer Casper Meaning are good starting points before you dive into logistics.
Who Created Casper and Who Administers It
Casper was originally developed at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and launched in 2015. It is now owned and administered by Acuity Insights, formerly known as Altus Assessments. Since launch, the test has surpassed 1 million registrations as of August 2024, making it one of the most widely used situational judgment tools in professional admissions.
Because Casper shares its name with unrelated tools in other fields, it's worth double-checking exactly which "Casper" a program means before you register. See What Does Casper Stand For? and What Is A Casper? if you want the acronym broken down further, or What Does Casper Mean? for a plain-language summary.
How the Casper Exam Is Structured
The exact structure has been refined over the years, and for the 2026-2027 admissions cycle Casper presents 11 scenarios in a fixed order: 4 video-response scenarios first, followed by 7 typed-response scenarios. Each scenario includes 2 open-ended questions, for 22 questions total.
- Video scenarios: You get 1 minute per question, recorded one at a time, with an optional 30-second reflection period before each scenario.
- Typed scenarios: Both questions for a scenario appear at once, and you get 3.5 minutes to answer the pair, again preceded by an optional 30-second reflection.
- Breaks: A 10-minute optional break follows the video section, and a 5-minute optional break follows the first four typed scenarios.
- Total time: An estimated 65 to 85 minutes for the standard test. (Note: the Australian teacher education version uses a different structure - 8 scenarios in 45 to 65 minutes - so don't assume the numbers are identical across every Casper variant.)
Casper is delivered online with remote proctoring on scheduled sitting dates rather than in a physical test center. You need a desktop or laptop with a working webcam and microphone; smartphones and tablets are not supported, so confirm your equipment well before your scheduled date. Switching response formats mid-scenario is not permitted, and speech-to-text tools are prohibited unless you have approved accommodations.
Key Takeaway
Practice typing and speaking under a strict clock separately - the video section rewards concise verbal thinking in 60-second bursts, while the typed section rewards efficient writing across two questions in 3.5 minutes.
The 9 Casper Domains
Every scenario is built to probe one or more of nine personal and professional characteristics. Understanding these domains - not generic "test-taking strategy" - is the real preparation work. For a full breakdown of each domain with sample reasoning, see the Casper Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 9 Content Areas.
Domain 1: Collaboration
Scenarios test how you work within teams, delegate, and handle conflicting responsibilities among group members.
- Recognize when to lead versus defer
Domain 2: Communication
Evaluators look for clarity, tone awareness, and the ability to deliver difficult messages respectfully.
- Address the person's concern directly, not around it
Domain 3: Empathy
Because nearly every scenario is built around an interpersonal or professional dilemma, empathy carries substantial practical weight in scoring.
- Name the emotional stakes for each party before proposing a solution
Domain 4: Fairness
Scenarios probe how you balance competing claims to resources, credit, or opportunity.
- Avoid favoring the "easiest" party out of convenience
Domain 5: Ethics
Along with empathy, ethics carries the most practical weight because most scenarios hinge on a professional dilemma with no clean answer.
- Show you can weigh competing obligations, not just pick a "right" side
Domain 6: Self-Awareness
Raters assess whether you can honestly reflect on your own limitations, biases, or mistakes.
- Admit uncertainty rather than projecting false confidence
Domain 7: Resilience
These scenarios test how you respond to setbacks, criticism, or high-pressure situations.
- Describe a concrete recovery step, not just "staying positive"
Domain 8: Problem Solving
You're evaluated on logical structure: identifying the actual problem before jumping to a fix.
- State the core issue in one sentence before proposing action
Domain 9: Motivation
Scenarios explore what drives your decisions when personal and professional incentives conflict.
- Tie your reasoning back to the interests of the people affected, not just your own goals
Registration, Fees, and Scheduling
The US Medicine registration fee is $85 USD. That fee covers the Casper test itself, 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 category. A full cost breakdown, including how distribution fees stack up, is covered in the Casper Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
A few mechanics worth knowing before you register:
- All fees are final and non-refundable, and they do not transfer between admissions cycles.
- Applicants approved for AAMC or CASPA fee assistance can have the fee waived entirely.
- There are no academic prerequisites to register - eligibility is set by the program you're applying to, not by Acuity Insights. See Casper Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify for program-side specifics.
- You get one attempt per test type per admissions cycle. Retakes are only granted for verified technical failures reported within one week of your sitting.
- Scores are valid for a single cycle only and never carry forward - if you reapply in a later cycle, you must retest.
Because sitting dates are scheduled rather than on-demand, timing matters. Check the Casper Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling guide before you register so you don't miss a program's distribution deadline.
How Casper Is Scored
Every response is evaluated by a different trained human rater on a 1 to 9 Likert scale - meaning a single test-taker's 22 answers are read by many different raters, not one person forming an overall impression. There is no passing score. Applicants only see their result as a quartile, while the programs they apply to receive the actual numeric score, typically 2 to 3 weeks after the sitting.
Because there's no universal cutoff, the honest answer to "what score do I need" is programmatic, not absolute. If you want the mechanics of how quartiles are calculated and what programs typically do with them, read the Casper Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass guide. For context on how difficult the test tends to feel relative to its scoring model, see How Hard Is the Casper Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026, and for a data-grounded look at outcomes, see Casper Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows.
| Section | Scenarios | Response Format | Time per Scenario |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video | 4 | Spoken, recorded one question at a time | 1 minute per question, 30-sec optional reflection |
| Typed | 7 | Written, both questions shown together | 3.5 minutes per scenario, 30-sec optional reflection |
Who Requires Casper Scores
Casper is most recognized as an admissions requirement across health professions programs - medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, and allied health - as well as select teacher education programs. Programs use it to screen for the personal and professional characteristics listed in the nine domains above, characteristics that are difficult to assess reliably through GPA, standardized subject tests, or a short interview alone.
If you're wondering whether preparing for Casper has downstream value beyond admission - for instance whether it correlates with later interview performance or job readiness - that broader question is explored in Is the Casper Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026. For how Casper performance is discussed in the context of career outcomes, see the Casper Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis and Casper Jobs.
Preparing for Casper by Domain and Timeline
Generic study advice doesn't transfer well to Casper because there's no content to memorize - instead, you're training a reasoning habit under time pressure. A short, domain-anchored schedule works better than open-ended review:
Ethics and Empathy
- Practice identifying the emotional stakes and competing obligations in a dilemma before answering
- Draft answers, then time yourself reading them aloud in under 60 seconds
Collaboration, Fairness, Communication
- Rehearse scenarios involving group conflict and unequal resources
- Practice typed responses to two questions within a single 3.5-minute block
Self-Awareness, Resilience, Motivation, Problem Solving
- Practice admitting a real limitation without undermining your answer
- Run full-length mock sittings that mirror the 4 video / 7 typed order
For a structured week-by-week plan with sample prompts for every domain, the Casper Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt goes deeper than the outline above. If you'd rather condense everything into a single reference sheet the night before your sitting, the Casper Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts covers the format, timing, and domain list in one page.
Timed, scenario-based practice is the closest substitute for the real test environment. You can run full mock scenarios with realistic timing constraints on our Casper practice test platform, which mirrors the video-then-typed structure so the pacing feels familiar on test day. Working through varied scenarios on the practice site also helps surface which domains you consistently under-answer.
Key Takeaway
Because ethics and empathy appear in nearly every scenario, prioritize those two domains first - mastering them improves your baseline performance across almost the entire test, not just two scenarios.
FAQ
No. It's an admissions assessment tied to a single cycle. Scores never carry forward, so if you reapply in a future cycle you must retest.
No. Casper requires a desktop or laptop with a working webcam and microphone. Smartphones and tablets are not supported for the remotely proctored sitting.
Retakes are granted only for verified technical failures, and you must report the issue within one week of your sitting for it to be considered.
The US Medicine registration fee is $85 USD, covering Casper, the Duet assessment, and distribution to 7 programs, with roughly $18 for each additional program distribution.
There is no passing score. Every response is rated 1-9 by a different trained human rater; applicants see only a quartile, while programs receive the raw score.