The CASPer exam is being rapidly adopted by medical schools – and other institutions – across the world. It was first developed at McMaster University, and then used throughout Canada and the US. Now, it’s used in the UK and ANZ too, as well as other areas. As it’s become more popular, students have been better able to prepare for it. Whilst Altus (the company behind the assessment) insist that you cannot prepare for it, in reality a good CASPer prep course is essential to success. You may also wish to use a CASPer tutor; we will assess how to choose a tutor here, as well as considering how to choose a CASPer prep course.
The main factor to consider when choosing a course is the range of questions offered. At BlackStone Tutors, our CASPer course offers more than 200 scenarios. We are confident that this is more than enough for any student – any more than this is likely to be unnecessary. Remember that each scenario takes 5 minutes to work through, so this is therefore more than 1000 minutes of just scenarios to answer – add in tutorials and technique guides and you have a truly significant amount of content to cover.
You must also be sure that the scenarios provided are representative of what you will encounter in the test. We have undertaken extensive research into how the CASPer works and the kind of question asked, as well as refreshing our offering as the CASPer is updated. In particular, our scenarios cover both written prompts and video prompts, and also acknowledge the fact that many prompts now require you to answer via video.
In fact, video responses are likely to be a little different, in terms of word count and structure, to a written response. We’ve represented this with our model answers – they’re still written, but they’ve been written more in a manner that could be delivered out loud. At each stage, we’ve ensured that the content we provide is faithful not just to the CASPer test, but also to what an excellent candidate could reasonably produce, under pressure, in the span of time that they are permitted.
Our scenarios are suitable for candidates taking any of the CASPer tests – the chief editor is a doctor, but due care has been taken to ensure that they are suitable not just for potential medics, but also for those interested in dentistry, pharmacy, PA, or nursing. That means relatively few clinical scenarios (you will receive very few in the CASPer itself), and instead general prompts that can be applied to different career paths.
We also have a range of tips and tricks from CASPer assessors and CASPer specialists, designed to make the test that little bit easier.
A tutor can be a useful addition to your CASPer prep, especially if you’re under significant time pressure and need to prepare as efficiently as possible. In terms of what a tutor can offer for the CASPer:
– A tutor will be able to provide a clear overview of how the test works, and what it looks for. This can sometimes be a little difficult to understand, or at the least will take considerable time and research. Our tutors have read up on the test extensively – including documents and lectures aimed at CASPer graders, and at institutions considering using it.
– A tutor will be able to provide realistic, objective appraisals of your answers, and contrast them with those provided by other students. This is vital to understand your level; it can be hard to gauge this otherwise, with it obviously being impossible to receive feedback on the mock questions available on the CASPer site, for example.
– A tutor can guide you towards more efficient and effective ways of answering questions. Often the key isn’t in your own experiences, but rather in the manner in which you convey them. You need to practise using tried and tested techniques, which will allow you to better deliver content – and in turn pick up more marks.
In conclusion, the CASPer test can certainly be revised for – as can any situational judgement test. The SJT used before Foundation Years for Medicine in the UK, for example, has an entire industry built around preparing for it. It’s therefore worth considering adding either a CASPer prep course or a CASPer tutor to your preparation – with them, you will be able to more efficiently and effectively prepare.
