thehumanmacbook Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Could you post up how you did CASPer? Any tips, recommendations, and trains of thought? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scissortail Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 honestly (10 char) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
champ Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Could you post up how you did CASPer? Any tips, recommendations, and trains of thought? I prayed... while the timer was clicking down and you know what? I think it worked lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bj89 Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 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. Good luck m8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proton Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms_Sunshine Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 To be completely honest, I thought I did horrible on CASPer... Though to be fair, I was freezing (old house + heating problems + start of winter ==> blowing on my fingers between questions). [i have only 1 desktop computer at home and my laptop was randomly shutting down at the time, so I couldn't go elsewhere.] Personally, I would have liked more time to type answers. I spent too much time thinking and trying to phrase my answers instead of typing... However, I think the best thing is to remain positive throughout the entire process. I.e. Don't let one bad question or section affect how you do on the following questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sev Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 To be completely honest, I thought I did horrible on CASPer... [...] Personally, I would have liked more time to type answers. I spent too much time thinking and trying to phrase my answers instead of typing... However, I think the best thing is to remain positive throughout the entire process. I.e. Don't let one bad question or section affect how you do on the following questions. I thought my CASPer performance was utter cr@p, too. I was swearing sporadically because I felt so rushed while typing my reponses. I remember finishing CASPer and thinking to myself, "Well, that was a waste of application money. Wth was I thinking, applying to Mac?" Anyway, for what it's worth, tips: - MMI prep may help - Type like there's no tomorrow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inspiring-curmudgeon Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 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. Good luck m8 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. I woke up at 8:35 for my 8:30 CASPer, climbed out of bed and did it, and went to my soccer game. 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. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al89 Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 i read a book called "doing right". i didnt do it for casper i juss thot its a gud book to read bcoz it talks abt medical ethics. altho it doesnt directly apply to the situations in casper it definitely helpedd me see both points of view. i think thts wht they were looking for - u look at both sides, discuss them, and come up with an answer that you think its best and back it up. as a doctor i guess thts how u shud go abt lookin at all situations, look at all the sides/options and decide. one of the scenarios - the one abt a criminal and giving away his location to people in the neighborhood, was in fact in the doing right book and i remembered it. i didnt think i did particularly well on casper, it was just alright for me, but i would've done a LOT worse if i hadnt read doing right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 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. Good luck m8 +1 As I was watching the videos for CASPer, I anticipated what types of questions would be asked. That way, I had some basic ideas before the questions came up. Then, when I was answering the questions, I just answered with my honest opinions. I also included some personal examples with my answers. Overall, I thought CASPer was fun, and I think this was reflected in my responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benhc911 Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 The usual sorts of interview tactics might make sense... Don't have scripted answers but be sure to have examples for the usual sorts of questions... I realize that I'm probably coming across as vague, but I don't want to be too specific since there is a lot of variability and I don't want to give away what questions I had.... More specifically for the sort of typical interview questions, I mean things like leadership, teamwork, deadlines etc. For example describe a circumstance where you couldnt seek help, what was it, how did you cope. Response should emphasis that you sought help, but then made the decision that would minimize the possibility of negative outcome, and consult an expert asap. A hypothetical example of that would be a medical emergency where you cant consult an expert right away, but you can do what you know to save their life at minimal risk, then consult the relevant expert. For any (there were VERY FEW) medical questions, try to remember your obligations, primarily to the patient, giving them the information they need for informed consent. When it comes to more general ethics, really just speak from your heart... care about free trade? sweatshop free? anything like that could be a good thing to lean on if you are short for time. I hope this vagueness helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquadon Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 I found making a list of my activities and a few points of what I learned from each before hand really helped. I had the points right beside me as I wrote CASPer so in case I blanked I'd have a prethought out example to go to. It turned out I didn't refer to the sheets, but having them there definitely helped. Also, staying calm and letting go of bad questions once they're done helps:cool:. Skipping to questions further below if you don't get the first one etc, and always leaving yourself a minimum of 1 minute for each question. I also found that (thankfully) some of my non-"bird" courses (ie actually make you think!) really helped. If you still have time in your undergrad consider taking a medical anthropology class. It will blow your mind with some of the interesting cultural barriers to health, and even though you may not be able to get >90% it is well worth it in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larva Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 I can't say for sure that I did really well on casper, but here are my thoughts: -Prep is difficult due to the variability of questions and scenarios. There is no book you can read that will help you. I wrote word lists beforehand, and also went over all the qualities I thought they would be testing for (leadership, communication, problem solving, decision making, etc) and wrote down examples from my own life. -Time is a huge issue. If you have trouble typing, practice. -Pay attention to the clock. If you have used close to 1.30 on one question, forget it and move on even if you are not done. When all three questions are complete, go back to your worst answer and try to repair it. -Do not dwell if you think you bombed a question. -Have fun! Keep your mind open. Good luck all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBP Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Don't press backspace if you've clicked outside of the text-box. Lost all my answers, though it doesn't seem to have hurt me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter12 Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 My question is, did you literally put yourself in the shoes of the characters they asked you to represent, or did you give your own opinion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGB Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 My question is, did you literally put yourself in the shoes of the characters they asked you to represent, or did you give your own opinion? Is there a difference? Your giving your opinion from the perspective of the character in question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der Kaiser Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 Just a general question for successful CASPer individuals: what sort of life experiences do you feel helped you? I'm just asking 'cause I do not have many traditional ECS (ok, maybe just one atm), but I personally felt that I answered most of the questions quite well. Although, CASPer strikes me as the kind of test where one would not know whether one's answers were good or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joba17 Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 Just a general question for successful CASPer individuals: what sort of life experiences do you feel helped you? I'm just asking 'cause I do not have many traditional ECS (ok, maybe just one atm), but I personally felt that I answered most of the questions quite well. Although, CASPer strikes me as the kind of test where one would not know whether one's answers were good or not. I have volunteered in variety of settings (ER, mental health, working with kids / youth) and I think that all of those experiences helped me in some way (whether consciously or not) on CASPer. I think what is most important though, is getting involved with something you LOVE to do. If your volunteering or working just for the sake of getting EC experience, you won't get nearly as much out of it. Also, if you do volunteer, I think going in with the mind-set of "what can I learn from these individuals" is very valuable (I know it sounds really hokey.. but I swear it's made the world of a difference in my experience!!). Just listening to people's stories and life experiences can teach you so much about what qualities you would want to have as a physician ( and which you don't) ... more so than any article or text book can. Anyways, I hope that helps! I found it was beneficial for me during CASPer! (I still had issues with some questions too... so there's definitely many different approaches to take!!) Best of luck with other schools! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter12 Posted January 27, 2011 Report Share Posted January 27, 2011 Is there a difference? Your giving your opinion from the perspective of the character in question. Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear. I was wondering if you followed a certain strategy or approach for when character they asked of you would stereotypically have an opinion different from your own. For example, if they had asked me to be an insurance broker (they did not); I would personally like to cover the person but I cannot assume that an insurance company would as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillybean Posted January 28, 2011 Report Share Posted January 28, 2011 I think it's less important to try to imagine yourself as the character than to ask yourself "what is this question really getting at?" e.g. a lot of the questions were getting at things like conflict resolution, interpersonal skills, time management, flexible thinking, ability to identify potential conflicts of interest, etc. As other posters have mentioned, reading up on medical ethics would probably be helpful, and I would also recommend familiarizing yourself with standard job-interview questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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