TwinTurbo Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 Hi, Does anyone know how this test is actually scored? I recently completed a free CASPer SIM Test with score and thought it went ok but then when I received my percentile score it was a HUGE disappointment. Now I'm debating whether or not to buy more tests from them for additional practice. They say their questions are designed by people who have graded for CASPer in the past and accurately reflect what's on the CASPer Test. Has anyone purchased practice tests from CASPer SIM? If so what are your thoughts? is it worth it? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaxop Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 Now I'm debating whether or not to buy more tests from them for additional practice. Keep in mind that your free test score may be artificially deflated for exactly this reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinTurbo Posted October 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 I've wondered that too but it was a percentile score rather than a raw score so I interpreted it as me doing really poorly compared to other people doing the same test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvestpro Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 Now I'm debating whether or not to buy more tests from them for additional practice I think this is the key sentence. Take the results on a free practice on companies that offer to improve your score with a grain of salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinTurbo Posted October 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 I also forgot to mention that I have absolutely no ties to either Advisor Prep or CASPer SIM. I know there are other practice CASPer tests out there so feel free to do your own research in order to make the best possible decision. Thanks MacMed2018. I went ahead and bought one of their full length tests with score report. I'll update with my experience afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHCClassII Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Just wondering..for those who wrote CASPer SIM, how many days did it take to get your scores? I wrote it on the 15th and haven't gotten my scores back yet so just wondering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_ _ Posted October 20, 2015 Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 I also forgot to mention that I have absolutely no ties to either Advisor Prep or CASPer SIM. I know there are other practice CASPer tests out there so feel free to do your own research in order to make the best possible decision. Wait...did you say that you paid 3000$ for CASPer prep?!?! Nothing against that....but wow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMed2018 Posted October 20, 2015 Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 Wait...did you say that you paid 3000$ for CASPer prep?!?! Nothing against that....but wow Oh gosh no!!! $3K was for the entire thing from pre-OMSAS to post interview for 1 program. I picked mac as my program so it included preparation on every aspect of my mac application. My point is that it wasn't possible to buy individual casper sim practice tests on their own last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinTurbo Posted October 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 Just wondering..for those who wrote CASPer SIM, how many days did it take to get your scores? I wrote it on the 15th and haven't gotten my scores back yet so just wondering. I got my score back in 4 days for the sample test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevyn Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 Keep in mind that your free test score may be artificially deflated for exactly this reason Believe what you will but this is absolutely false. We just tell it like it is. If you scored poorly, then it is because your answers are missing key elements, not because we are trying to sell you practice tests. Don't take the test if you're afraid to find out how your answers really stack up or are going to start false accusations. I've been around the premed community long enough to know you can't please everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaxop Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 Believe what you will but this is absolutely false. We just tell it like it is. If you scored poorly, then it is because your answers are missing key elements, not because we are trying to sell you practice tests. Don't take the test if you're afraid to find out how your answers really stack up or are going to start false accusations. I've been around the premed community long enough to know you can't please everyone. I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm just saying that this is a well-known tactic that many other premed prep companies use, so it's not completely outrageous that it might be the case with OP's test (FWIW, I haven't taken the test, so I have nothing to gain by making "false accusations"). Thank you for letting us know that it is not the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baileya Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 ........................................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_ _ Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baileya Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 Yes because I didn't know about these practice tests until after my real test. Hoping I get a somewhat decent score enough to land an interview! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organomegaly Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 Thank you for letting us know that it is not the case. You still don't know. At the end of the day they're a profit making company. They can say whatever they want - you have no way of substantiating it. You assume a certain amount of risk when you decide to purchase tests from a random 3rd party company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMed2018 Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 You still don't know. At the end of the day they're a profit making company. They can say whatever they want - you have no way of substantiating it. You assume a certain amount of risk when you decide to purchase tests from a random 3rd party company. It would help if more people participated and shared what their scores were. We know casper accounts for 1/3 pre interview at mac so its possible to figure out over time whether these scores have any correlation to one's actual performance on the real casper exam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organomegaly Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 It would help if more people participated and shared what their scores were. We know casper accounts for 1/3 pre interview at mac so its possible to figure out over time whether these scores have any correlation to one's actual performance on the real casper exam. I think the most ideal thing is that McMaster/Altus makes substantial practice material publicly available. That way nobody has to buy it and there are no SES advantages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ygella Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 Hey guys, I see a lot of information (good and no so good) in this thread and wanted to chime in. I have written the capser and I have marked it (the year after). There is no magic way to answer the questions that will guarantee you an interview spot. capser is there to look at your thought process and reasoning behind some issues. In my opinion the best way to approach this is to have some common general knowledge and to do several practice tests so that you are familiar with the question style and the flow. Remember that casper is marked by your fellow peers (med students), the prep companies do not have a special insight on how the tests are marked, in fact given a large variability of the marks, having such insight is practically not possible. I don't have anything against prep companies, but there are enough free (similar) tests online, and you can spend your money in better ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMed2018 Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 I think the most ideal thing is that McMaster/Altus makes substantial practice material publicly available. That way nobody has to buy it and there are no SES advantages. Unfortunately we both know this is never going to happen. If Altus ever makes available old tests for practice then they are going to charge just like all the other test makers (GMAT,LSAT, USMLE, MCAT etc...). Besides, most practice casper tests are not going to break anyone's bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdj78we9jtf2o3mgfvj298j Posted October 24, 2015 Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 ............................. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organomegaly Posted October 24, 2015 Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 Besides, most practice casper tests are not going to break anyone's bank. I'm glad you were able to pay for them. I personally didn't come with those advantages and didn't even pay for an MCAT prep course. And why so sure that it will never happen? I really don't see what the problem is. Anyway I completely agree with ygella. Companies that tell you they're coaching you to success on CASPer don't have anything back them. It's a company. It's there to PROFIT off you. Whereas perusing and learning the literature for yourself; personal reflection; practice questions from friends/self aren't trying to take anything from you. I'm glad you had a positive experience with purchasing practice tests MacMed2018 (and the $3000 you spent I definitely could not afford) but your initial post about this came off as very strong to me, and the reason i'm pushing back is because I want to share alternate representations from mac med students, lest your opinion is the only one people see and people are unduly influenced by that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMed2018 Posted October 24, 2015 Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 ............................. Your post is absolutely uncalled for. I've been a lurker on here for a long time and this is one of the reasons why I never joined the board is because I refuse to get caught up in childish non-sense. I already posted some documents from medportal that are available only to mac med students but go ahead ....... continue on with your childish posts because you didn't receive the score thought you deserved ..... so now you feel the need to put others down in order to lift yourself up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMed2018 Posted October 24, 2015 Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 I'm glad you were able to pay for them. I personally didn't come with those advantages and didn't even pay for an MCAT prep course. And why so sure that it will never happen? I really don't see what the problem is. Anyway I completely agree with ygella. Companies that tell you they're coaching you to success on CASPer don't have anything back them. It's a company. It's there to PROFIT off you. Whereas perusing and learning the literature for yourself; personal reflection; practice questions from friends/self aren't trying to take anything from you. I'm glad you had a positive experience with purchasing practice tests MacMed2018 (and the $3000 you spent I definitely could not afford) but your initial post about this came off as very strong to me, and the reason i'm pushing back is because I want to share alternate representations from mac med students, lest your opinion is the only one people see and people are unduly influenced by that. Hi, I'm glad that you and many other people in our class were successful in your med school applications without having to spend extra money to get in. I was very clear in my first post and said that people are welcome to take my advice with a grain of salt. You will never see test makers offer any of their practice tests for free (other than a sample test) because I would imagine there are huge costs incurred to them to develop the tests and I don't blame them nor would I expect them to give away their intellectual property for free. The same can be said of any quality test prep company that spends the time and money to develop these tests. Yes, AP earned a profit off of me but they delivered on what they promised and at the end of the day, it was an investment for me. I'm better off having spent that money then saving it and reapplying this cycle. For the record, I did all the things you suggested such as practice questions from friends/self who aren't trying to "take anything from me" but I'm sure you know as a first year med student, things are also very busy and I doubt as my friend, you'd able to devote 7 weeks of your time to help me get to where I needed to be for casper. Not to mention another 4-6 weeks to help me prepare for the interview. If you have med school friends that were able to devote that much time to help you prepare or better yet, if you didn't require that intensive prep then you will probably have a harder time relating to what I went through. As one of our classmates, Edict posted on here ..... "If you think about it, the amount of money you've spent getting here absolutely dwarfs the amount of money you can spend on practice tests. Obviously don't go overboard, I only bought a few but its good practice to prepare you for the real thing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xkittens Posted October 24, 2015 Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 I'm glad you were able to pay for them. I personally didn't come with those advantages and didn't even pay for an MCAT prep course. And why so sure that it will never happen? I really don't see what the problem is. Anyway I completely agree with ygella. Companies that tell you they're coaching you to success on CASPer don't have anything back them. It's a company. It's there to PROFIT off you. Whereas perusing and learning the literature for yourself; personal reflection; practice questions from friends/self aren't trying to take anything from you. I'm glad you had a positive experience with purchasing practice tests MacMed2018 (and the $3000 you spent I definitely could not afford) but your initial post about this came off as very strong to me, and the reason i'm pushing back is because I want to share alternate representations from mac med students, lest your opinion is the only one people see and people are unduly influenced by that. Preach my man, preach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinTurbo Posted October 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 Hey guys, I see a lot of information (good and no so good) in this thread and wanted to chime in. I have written the capser and I have marked it (the year after). There is no magic way to answer the questions that will guarantee you an interview spot. capser is there to look at your thought process and reasoning behind some issues. In my opinion the best way to approach this is to have some common general knowledge and to do several practice tests so that you are familiar with the question style and the flow. Remember that casper is marked by your fellow peers (med students), the prep companies do not have a special insight on how the tests are marked, in fact given a large variability of the marks, having such insight is practically not possible. I don't have anything against prep companies, but there are enough free (similar) tests online, and you can spend your money in better ways. Enough free CASPer tests online? care to share ..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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