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Thoughts Of Casper For Uottawa?


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I do not much care to speculate as we just do not know as applicants. But, I think it will be cool to see how it affects the average GPA, or the % of the application it makes. I even wonder on how it will be marked compared to previous years of McMaster doing the marking on their own instead of a third party. I liked doing it the second time around, and I welcome the challenge again. Only time will tell :P.

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The fact schools actually use casper is a joke...sure I get the idea behind it but the reality is people can easily cheat on this test and have somebody else write it for them. They say they are able to randomly check peoples typing strategies to screen for that but I have never heard of anybody being caught...not to mention I know several people accepted to Mac who had either a medical student by their side or even writing the test for them. For Ottawa's sake I hope it's worth a very minimal amount in the decision process..

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Well apparently they did studies that having people with you doesn't necessarily increases your chances of getting an interview. And in the case of Mac, Mac was marking it. Now it's a third party, maybe to help with that reason because no mac student will know how the third party will mark it vs the med students who marked CASPer previously. It will probably be worth at least 10%, anything less and it would be pointless really. But it is unfortunate that some people resorted to that, obviously the integrity of those med students and the applicants is not the greatest which is too bad :(.

 

Essentially be yourself. You don't really have time to make stuff up that IS NOT you. 5 minutes goes by realllllllly fast. Try to be unique, answer the question specifically, babbling on about something irrelevant won't be helpful. 

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The fact that schools actually use CASPer is not a joke. GPA on its own is a poor evaluation of ones potential to be a good physician; I think CASPer is a great idea to weed out the 4.0 third years who lack maturity and critical reasoning. Grades alone are not a good representation of ones potential success as a future doctor. It is very unfortunate that some individuals cheat on this exam. 

 

I am applying to the uOttawa French stream and only have a 3.71 weighted GPA. I am worried that this is not enough, as majority of successful applicants are over a 3.80. With this being said, I am happy I can potentially compensate for my 3.71 with a stellar CASPer score. However, this is my first time writing the test and because there are a lack of practice tests in French, I am not certain on how best to prepare.

 

Any tips on French CASPer preparation would be immensely helpful. 

 

Good luck to everyone applying :) 

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The fact that schools actually use CASPer is not a joke. GPA on its own is a poor evaluation of ones potential to be a good physician; I think CASPer is a great idea to weed out the 4.0 third years who lack maturity and critical reasoning. Grades alone are not a good representation of ones potential success as a future doctor. It is very unfortunate that some individuals cheat on this exam. 

 

I am applying to the uOttawa French stream and only have a 3.71 weighted GPA. I am worried that this is not enough, as majority of successful applicants are over a 3.80. With this being said, I am happy I can potentially compensate for my 3.71 with a stellar CASPer score. However, this is my first time writing the test and because there are a lack of practice tests in French, I am not certain on how best to prepare.

 

Any tips on French CASPer preparation would be immensely helpful. 

 

Good luck to everyone applying :)

 

 

Hmm, it would seem, from my limited knowledge of french CASPer, would be to practice watching english videos and english prompts, and just write up responses in Word, or some other document program, in french. That way you are getting your french typing skills toned, and hopefully you're thinking about the scenario in french even though the video is in english. Even looking at french news or ethical sites that are in french. That way you're not always preparing with english material and CASPer will not be a huge surprise for your brain because you've prepped in french :D.

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HankyD is it absolutely a joke. I completely agree with you on the weeding out of the 4.0 students who lack the maturity and critical reasoning skills. However, there are too many variables involved in Casper such as typing speed, which last time I checked does not correlate with any physician abilities, and most notably the amount of people who cheat on this test that in my opinion make it extremely unreliable. If this test was performed in a controlled environment (e.g. similar to the mcat or any other standard test) then my opinion would definitely change. However the fact is people cheat on this test, get away with it, and get into medical school because of it. 

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HankyD is it absolutely a joke. I completely agree with you on the weeding out of the 4.0 students who lack the maturity and critical reasoning skills. However, there are too many variables involved in Casper such as typing speed, which last time I checked does not correlate with any physician abilities, and most notably the amount of people who cheat on this test that in my opinion make it extremely unreliable. If this test was performed in a controlled environment (e.g. similar to the mcat or any other standard test) then my opinion would definitely change. However the fact is people cheat on this test, get away with it, and get into medical school because of it. 

 

you know I am surprised you can write it at home - you would think like the MCAT it would be a test that would require a standardized environment to work in.

 

never done CASPer - for those that have is cut and paste functionality possible within the application?

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I type with two fingers, I've tried to learn touch typing but it just hasn't stuck for me. Even when I write essays or papers I write by hand and then type it out after. I can basically cross 2 schools off my list now.

 

I almost wish there was an option to record a vocal/visual response by webcam.

 

that is basically what I am concerned about - I mean typing is not a required skill to be a doctor, and really with proper voice recognition coming down the pipeline you have to wonder how much longer typing as a skill is even going to be really fully required (I suspect we will have some sort of blended system going forward with computers).

 

Of course it is a skill that can be learned but really it is annoying that it is even a factor.

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that is basically what I am concerned about - I mean typing is not a required skill to be a doctor, and really with proper voice recognition coming down the pipeline you have to wonder how much longer typing as a skill is even going to be really fully required (I suspect we will have some sort of blended system going forward with computers).

 

Of course it is a skill that can be learned but really it is annoying that it is even a factor.

 

I agree, it sucks. Most doctors I know even use transcription services or software to dictate their clinic notes. Typing is a thing that will soon be in the past.

 

My fault for not trying harder in grade 2 typing classes when we were in the computer lab...

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I agree, it sucks. Most doctors I know even use transcription services or software to dictate their clinic notes. Typing is a thing that will soon be in the past.

 

My fault for not trying harder in grade 2 typing classes when we were in the computer lab...

 

yeah because what you did in grade 2 should help decide your future as a doctor :)

 

I still believe that they aren't looking for great volume with their answers - I wouldn't what to over emphasize the importance of typing skill. That being said I would be surprised if some people aren't having someone that can type faster actually enter their answers. Setting up an scenario like this just encourages bad behaviour I think.

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I don't think cheating is that much of an issue because there's not really a way to guarantee that cheating would get you a better score. Not like a test where you could have an expert write for you.

 

Also, while it's annoying that you have to type decently, it only really takes a few hours to learn and at this point, it's still a life skill. I feel like saying you shouldn't have to type because you can dictate is like saying kids shouldn't have to learn to print because they can type.

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I don't think cheating is that much of an issue because there's not really a way to guarantee that cheating would get you a better score. Not like a test where you could have an expert write for you.

 

Also, while it's annoying that you have to type decently, it only really takes a few hours to learn and at this point, it's still a life skill. I feel like saying you shouldn't have to type because you can dictate is like saying kids shouldn't have to learn to print because they can type.

 

I think typing speed will hinder you mainly if you are really slow.

 

In my experience, the limiting factor for my answers was not knowing what to write. Not being fast enough was an issue on maybe 2-3 questions out of the what...36 that they have? 

 

Just be able to type regularly and you will be fine. Don't be dissuaded because you think you need to be a superstar.

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The fact schools actually use casper is a joke...sure I get the idea behind it but the reality is people can easily cheat on this test and have somebody else write it for them. They say they are able to randomly check peoples typing strategies to screen for that but I have never heard of anybody being caught...not to mention I know several people accepted to Mac who had either a medical student by their side or even writing the test for them. For Ottawa's sake I hope it's worth a very minimal amount in the decision process..

 

You can cheat on autobiographical sketches and essays too. You can make up activities and make up verifiers. You can lie about hours on activities. You can exaggerate their descriptions in the sketch. You can have your admission essays totally revamped to the point where they don't even reflect you anymore.

 

Possibility of cheating is not a problem unique to casper. 

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