In 2024, What Medical Schools Require Casper?

While most of your medical school application is centered around your grades, hard skills, and personal background, the application does little to shed light on an applicant’s empathy, communication skills, and ethical decision making. In order to determine how strong an applicant’s soft skills are, dozens of schools across the United States and the world now require applicants to take the Casper test, which is part of Acuity Insights. So, what medical schools require Casper, and how do you know if you need to take the test?

Read on to learn what the Casper test is, which schools require the Casper, and why so many schools are adopting this test.

Save our complete Casper Test Guide for the best ways to prepare for Casper, detailed study strategies, Casper dos and don’ts, and frequently asked questions.

Last updated June 2024.

 

What Is the Casper Test and Do You Need to Take It?

The Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics, known more commonly as Casper, is part of Acuity Insights, a multi-part assessment designed to evaluate a prospective medical student’s people skills and bedside manner.

• Casper is a 90-110 minute situational judgment test.
• Duet is a value-alignment assessment.

Learn more: Understanding Acuity Insights: Casper, Snapshot, and Duet.

Developed in 2010 in Canada, Casper is a computer-based situational judgment test that measures who you are beyond your hard skills and grades—the test assesses your interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, professionalism, ethics and ethical decision making, empathy, and bedside manner.

The Casper tests people based on the following 10 Constructs:

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

Casper is made up of 14 scenarios. There is a typed response section and a video response section. Within each section, you will be presented with either a word-based or video-based scenario followed by 2-3 open-ended questions. There are two word-based and four video-based scenarios in the video response section and three word-based and five video-based scenarios in the typed response section.

Typically, the scenarios are not based in a clinical setting but are instead taken from everyday life. For example, if you’re grocery shopping and see a pregnant teenager steal some diapers, what do you do?

Casper takes about 90-110 minutes, which includes two breaks. In the video response section, you have one minute to respond to each question individually. In the typed response section, you have five minutes to respond to all three questions before the test automatically moves on to the next scenario.

Each of the 14 sections is scored by a unique rater, which means no 2 sections of your test will be scored by the same person. Therefore, your Casper score is made up of multiple different, objective impressions of you. The raters have no prior knowledge of you whatsoever and have no idea how you answered the other scenarios.

Casper raters are required to complete a training session and accreditation in order to score the test, and your test results are automatically sent to the schools you’re applying to.

Casper isn’t a test of your academics—Learn How the Casper Test is Scored.

Whether or not you need to take the test depends on the schools you are applying to.

Only certain schools require applicants to take a Casper test, but more and more schools are added to the list each year.

How to Decide Which Medical Schools to Apply to (12 Important Questions)

 

What Medical Schools Require Casper?

Not all medical schools require applicants to take Casper, but the test has seen a recent and significant rise in popularity, and that popularity is showing no sign of slowing down. Currently, there are dozens of programs in the US that require Casper, as well as schools in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Qatar.

Here is a list of every US medical school that requires Casper. (Updated June 2024)

Allopathic (MD) Medicine

1. American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine
2. Baylor College of Medicine
3. Boston University Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine
4. California University of Science and Medicine
5. Central Michigan University College of Medicine
6. Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
7. Drexel University College of Medicine
8. East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine
9. Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine
10. Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine (HMSOM)
11. Indiana University School of Medicine
12. Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
13. Medical College of Wisconsin
14. Meharry Medical College
15. Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
16. Netter School of Medicine Quinnipiac University
17. New York Medical College
18. Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University
19. Rush University Medical College
20. Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
21. Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine
22. Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
23. Texas Christian University, School of Medicine
24. Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso
25. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine
26. Tulane University School of Medicine
27. University of Colorado Denver Medical School
28. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
29. University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine
30. University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine
31. University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, McGovern Medical School
32. University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, Long School of Medicine
33. University of Texas Medical Branch, John Sealy School of Medicine
34. University of Texas Southwestern
35. University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine
36. Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
37. Wake Forest School of Medicine
38. West Virginia University School of Medicine

Osteopathic (DO) Medicine

1. Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
2. Kansas Health Science Center – Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
3. Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
4. Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine NY/MT
5. Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine- Nevada
6. William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine

For medical schools around the world, here is a list of every school and program that requires applicants to take Casper. 

 

Why Are More Medical Schools Requiring Casper?

The medical community recently began to emphasize the importance of a doctor’s soft skills, professionalism, and bedside manner in addition to their scholarly knowledge and ability to apply that medical knowledge.

Medical school applicants hoping to one day become a physician must have a strong foundation of medical knowledge and possess superior smarts. Fortunately, there are plenty of metrics with which to test an applicant’s cognitive abilities. More schools are adopting Casper because it tests areas of being a doctor that are underrepresented in your medical school application.

Strong interpersonal skills are just as vital to a doctor’s success as superior cognitive abilities and medical know-how. Doctors must be able to effectively listen and communicate with their patients in order to accurately diagnose them and, depending on the specialty, deliver bad news to the patient and their family when the time comes. They must also maintain absolute professionalism throughout every patient interaction and be guided by iron-clad ethics.

While your personal statement, letters of recommendation, and Work and Activities section provide some insight into your ethical decision making, empathy, professionalism, and communication skills, the primary focus of your medical school application is your hard skills.

Admissions committees want to know who you are beyond your grades. They do not want to accept an applicant with stellar grades if it means that applicant is socially inept, rude, or possesses a Machiavellian sense of morals and ethics.

When faced with an ethical dilemma, as physicians often are, what will you do? Will your patients feel safe and comfortable with you, or will they dread every interaction and question whether or not you have their best interests at heart?

Admissions committees are realizing the importance of having these questions answered before they accept an applicant to their program, and the Casper is the best method they have of ascertaining the strength of your soft skills.

 

Casper Test Dates

In order to register for the Casper test, you must create an Acuity Insights account with the following information:

• Government-issued photo ID
• Valid email address
• Working webcam
• Working microphone

You must register for your Casper at least 3 days before your preferred test date so that your identity can be verified and your payment processed. Do not book the test last minute.

Casper test dates vary between schools, but the test season generally runs from May to December. It’s imperative that you pay close attention to the due dates set by the schools you are applying to. The test dates for upcoming admissions cycles are made available in the spring.

You can only take the Casper once during an admissions cycle. If you are unsuccessful at matriculating to medical school, you will have to take Casper again the following admissions cycle.

View the latest Casper test dates and times.

 

Casper Test Preparation

You can’t actually study for the Casper like other tests, but you can practice for it by answering sample test questions, taking practice tests, increasing your typing speed, improving your reading comprehension, and understanding the video format—all of which we strongly recommend you do!

Casper is not a complicated test, nor is it a long one, but it will challenge you in ways tests of your hard skills won’t. In order to be successful, set plenty of time aside to practice and prepare.

Review our 15 different Casper preparation strategies that will help you succeed on test day.

 

Casper Prep with Med School Insiders

The Med School Insiders Casper prep platform leverages cutting-edge AI technology combined with in-depth video tutorials. It’s the most comprehensive prep resource for Casper out there.

Get instant feedback on both the typed and video response sections of the Casper test, including immediate personalized evaluation and emotion detection analysis. For the typed section, our platform will help you improve your typing speed as you simultaneously master essential Casper vocabulary. 

The course includes unlimited practice problems, which means you’ll have endless opportunities to refine your skills, adapt to various scenarios, and truly understand the nuances of the Casper exam. 

Plus, it comes with a 3-day money back guarantee, so you can try it for yourself at zero risk.

Still have questions? We cover 19 common Casper questions in our Casper Test FAQ.