Free Casper Prep

[NOCat]

Is there anything online that is free (or cheap) for CASPer prep? Or does anyone know how to get the doing right CASPer ebook?

[RicardoKaká]

If you do a google search BeMo and Astroff have some free videos or text based scenarios you can practice.

 

Dont think it is necessary to read Doing Right - personally I have it and the majority of it is common sense, well there are a few things here and there that is useful but I don't think it will make or break your CASPer. I would just buy it from Amazon and read as much as you can before CASPer, I enjoy reading it and hearing about the different cases and how consent was perceived decades ago etc.

 

I dont think CASPer is something you can really prepare for, just be able to think on your feet, ask yourself what is the dilemma at hand and who is involved and choose a side.

 

Hope this helps!

[TwinTurbo]

If you do a google search BeMo and Astroff have some free videos or text based scenarios you can practice.

 

Dont think it is necessary to read Doing Right - personally I have it and the majority of it is common sense, well there are a few things here and there that is useful but I don't think it will make or break your CASPer. I would just buy it from Amazon and read as much as you can before CASPer, I enjoy reading it and hearing about the different cases and how consent was perceived decades ago etc.

 

I dont think CASPer is something you can really prepare for, just be able to think on your feet, ask yourself what is the dilemma at hand and who is involved and choose a side.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Maybe I'm an outlier but I read Doing Right and I thought it really didn't help me out much on the sample CASPer SIM Test and the official sample CASPer test.   I read on another forum where people (US applicants) who have already taken the test say that 33% of the test was based on self descriptive questions for which Doing Right is not going to help much.      

[Bambi]

http://forums.premed101.com/index.php?/topic/47600-mmi-casper-prep-by-popular-demand-part-i-of-ii/ :

 

Comments from those invited to Mac Interview, in part based upon the new Casper Questions - which may be compared to a written and faster MMI (computer based questions that must be answered quickly as opposed to autiobiographical answers made over time):
 

 

I do recognize that no amount of studying will help you do better on the Casper. There is not enough time for that. It is who you are as a person and your own understanding of ethics that will show through the questions. Also, you need to ask yourself questions like about your successes, your failures, your stresses and what you learned from them.

I avoided being flowery or repetitive. I just went straight to the point, and tried to examine opinions from all angles before stating my opinion.

 

Tips for CASPer... 

(1) learn to type quickly 
(2) think on the fly and go with your gut, justify your choice... there's very little time for flippy flopping

 

A lot of people who got interviews last year said they just winged it and answered honestly. Many people also looked over a case or two in Doing Right. 

I wouldn't worry too much about preparing for it...it's not meant to be something you can prepare for! 

 

there's a formula for doing situations like MMI and CASPer...

1) identify the issue. why is it an issue to the person in the case? who else will this issue affect? 
2) identify as many perspectives on the matter as you can. 
3) pick one and defend it. 
4) follow through. identify anticipated future consequences, benefits, disadvantages. 

....they just want to know your basic ideas about things. i don't think anyone will fault you for making a decision as long as it's based on rational thought and a good explanation of why you said what you did. this applies for casper as well. remember that there really are no right answers. that's why i feel that preparation can only help so much. especially with casper...it is just so random.

 

CASPer is really a mixed bag. 

There's also a 3rd type of question that you haven't considered: the random question. It's not hypothetical and it's not based on past experiences. It's more like how you perceive yourself.

To answer your initial question, I'd say that there were more past experience questions than hypothetical ones.

 

In most of my answers, I used examples of things that I had done/was doing to show that I had whatever skill the question was looking for, regardless of whether is was a past experience question or not. However, you don't need tons of experience to answer the questions well. I think I used the same 2 examples for most of my answers. There was a question (or 2, I can't remember the exact number), that asked you to draw on a specific past experience. But I wouldn't worry about not having enough life experience to do well on CASPer.

 

Theres no way to prepare for caper ideally. The best way to do it is having life experience. You can't fake your way through it really. You need to know how to handle stressful situations, resolve conflicts, utilize team work, problem solving, these sorts of things. You can spend hours studying these concepts, butt he best way i think is to have life experience in handling these situations either in your volunteer, research, EC's, whatever. 

I used my own personal experiences to answer most questions on CASPer. In the end, I ended up having a lot of fun taking on the challenge of solving the different scenarios we were given. If I could give you two things to do to prepare, it would be to 1) briefly go over bioethics (i.e. read doing right), 2) practice MMI scenarios, because essentially CASPer is just an online MMI.

 

I agree with this. 

I just used my life experiences to answer the questions. Although there is no right answer, original ideas are definitely looked upon favorably. I think I got an invite because I provided some out-of-the-box answers for some of the questions. Almost everyone will talk about the ethical dilemmas at hand, and try and examine both sides of the issue, but you only have a minute to answer the question, don't write the exact same thing as the every other applicant. 

You don't need to prep if you have the ability to think on the spot. I don't even think you can prep for CASPer.

 

Think quickly and carefully (as carefully as possible, anyway, with that red timer glaring at you) and be as honest as you can. 

I think there were scenarios where I was tempted to say what I thought they wanted me to say, but I had decided ahead of time to just go with what I really thought.

[NOCat]

Thanks for the help everyone! I will have to take a look at some more of the Mac thread too, I didn't even think about that subforum since I didn't apply there! Seem like I'll just work on typing faster and practice some MMI situations

[NOCat]

I've found 10fastfinger.com is helpful for typing if anyone is trying to get faster!

[RicardoKaká]

I'm looking to do some sample tests/prep and I am currently looking at two options

 

BeMo Sample Test and Course - 97$

 

Astroff CASPer tests - Roughly $85 for 4 sample tests (but they are text-based, I think?)

 

Has anyone had experience with these? Were they useful?

 

The Astroff tests are text-based, so I am leaning towards BeMo 

 

Any other sample test prep out there?

 

Thanks everyone

[freewheeler]

I'm looking to do some sample tests/prep and I am currently looking at two options

 

BeMo Sample Test and Course - 97$

 

Astroff CASPer tests - Roughly $85 for 4 sample tests (but they are text-based, I think?)

 

Has anyone had experience with these? Were they useful?

 

The Astroff tests are text-based, so I am leaning towards BeMo 

 

Any other sample test prep out there?

 

Thanks everyone

 

There's also Casper SIM and Mock Casper.

 

I'm currently looking through them as well. Not really sure how to rank them considering there isn't much feedback on them.

 

I'm just looking for full lengths that are 12 stations with the mix of question types that are on the real thing (text, video, personal exp, situational, etc.) with scored feedback so I get an idea of where I'm at (probably should take with a grain of salt, regardless) and that is reasonably priced (although this isn't the time to skimp out if something can really help me feel more confident about this).

 

The main thing of course is to spend some time reflecting on your experiences, who you are and why medicine, etc. But I do agree that having some realistic practice can really help. As for myself at least, I can use some improvement on my timing and ability to flesh something out that is coherent and not repetitive/fluffy in only 5 mins.

[RicardoKaká]

There's also Casper SIM and Mock Casper.

 

I'm currently looking through them as well. Not really sure how to rank them considering there isn't much feedback on them.

 

I'm just looking for full lengths that are 12 stations with the mix of question types that are on the real thing (text, video, personal exp, situational, etc.) with scored feedback so I get an idea of where I'm at (probably should take with a grain of salt, regardless) and that is reasonably priced (although this isn't the time to skimp out if something can really help me feel more confident about this).

 

The main thing of course is to spend some time reflecting on your experiences, who you are and why medicine, etc. But I do agree that having some realistic practice can really help. As for myself at least, I can use some improvement on my timing and ability to flesh something out that is coherent and not repetitive/fluffy in only 5 mins.

 

Yea exactly, the prep is more to get timing down to make sure I am not typing too much for some questions and less for others. But yea I agree I think it is best to have a mix of the scenarios (video, text, personal) so I will likely go with BeMo, these tests are just expensive!!

 

EDIT: do the MockCasper tests include video and text based scenarios?

[MedToBe]

After speaking to my mac friends (3 of them), not a single one of them recommended using ANY of these companies - they were all against it and said not a single one of them is accurate or has a clue about how these tests are being marked this year.

[NOCat]

One of my friends did Astroff, she said it had text and video questions but that it didn't accurately represent the actual content of her CASPer this year.

[RicardoKaká]

I just purchased a full length test + score report from CASPer SIM for $50 - this is remarkably cheaper than anything else I found (BeMo, astroff etc.)

 

I found it to be pretty accurate, did CASPer last year and it was the same kind of style and format. It really was useful to get timing down and to know whether or not I am spending too much time per question etc, would recommend buying a test or two with a score report if you have the money to do so. You can also be a 'score-rush' to have it scored within 24 hours, for around $15.

[Amanda Weinburg]

One of my friends did Astroff, she said it had text and video questions but that it didn't accurately represent the actual content of her CASPer this year.

 

Well of course these practice tests won't be super close because no one knows the actual questions that will be asked but both these companies seem professional and have probably done their research on how these types of test work so its definitely better than nothing and no one has to kick themselves after for saying they didn't prep lol! so I think if you want to prep, go ahead but don;t be like expecting word for word questions that you should memorize answers to and then expect to see them in the actual test. 

[TimeZoner]

Thanks MDHopefulyMe for the Google search advice - found this: **Advertising Link** on the back of it. Has really helped me prepare for my CASPer in the New Year. 

 

 

http://forums.premed101.com/index.php?/forum-15/announcement-25-new-rules-regarding-mmimed-school-prep-companies/