Organomegaly Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 This is my opinion but when I was preparing for Casper (seems like ages ago now), I definitely didn't find hundreds of casper like questions for free online. Maybe things have changed since then? i rly didn't think they were complex at all. i can't share what we had on our test of course but i mean all of those stations reflected rudimentary concepts. work-life balance, collaboration, communication, whatever. what was so "unique" about those questions apart from the fact they were presented in videos really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amichel Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 Because that "professional help" used to be involved in the creation of actual Casper test questions. Meh, as someone said, the questions aren't special. I could create them, you could create them, my mother could create them. Plus, who knows if they actually were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edict Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 I agree with the above in that the actual questions are not complicated. The free MMI questions you find online, any that you get from paying for help they are all good because well anyone could create them. IMO, when it comes to the admissions process you shouldn't sweat the extra 50-60 bucks you spend on tests or test prep, if its 1000 bucks then that is a different story, but I wouldn't sweat paying a little bit for some "professional" questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amichel Posted January 18, 2016 Report Share Posted January 18, 2016 I agree with the above in that the actual questions are not complicated. The free MMI questions you find online, any that you get from paying for help they are all good because well anyone could create them. IMO, when it comes to the admissions process you shouldn't sweat the extra 50-60 bucks you spend on tests or test prep, if its 1000 bucks then that is a different story, but I wouldn't sweat paying a little bit for some "professional" questions. I don't think you'll get much disagreement there. But that's not what we're talking about. (I don't think) We're talking about people spending hundreds of dollars (or more) to have a professional (maybe) critique their answers and tell them the "right" way to answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixfire Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 Some posters here seem very eager to talk about how great "professional help" is and how they couldn't have gotten an interview otherwise... paid off by prep companies much? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdy Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 Some posters here seem very eager to talk about how great "professional help" is and how they couldn't have gotten an interview otherwise... paid off by prep companies much? Not necessarily. Sometimes people just very much want to feel that they did not waste the money they spent and will convince themselves that it had value when it didn't, or had greater value than it did. A way of rationalizing the expense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdj78we9jtf2o3mgfvj298j Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
championcc Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 Some posters here seem very eager to talk about how great "professional help" is and how they couldn't have gotten an interview otherwise... paid off by prep companies much? I agree, I feel like the Mac forum is being astroturfed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvestpro Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 I agree, I feel like the Mac forum is being astroturfed. It's also a bit of a selection bias. Those who used them and didn't get an interview aren't very likely to post about it. PS: I used them and didn't get an interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amichel Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 It's also a bit of a selection bias. Those who used them and didn't get an interview aren't very likely to post about it. PS: I used them and didn't get an interview. Thanks for being brave and posting that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MF1-5 Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 Not necessarily. Sometimes people just very much want to feel that they did not waste the money they spent and will convince themselves that it had value when it didn't, or had greater value than it did. A way of rationalizing the expense. Or it could just be the pessimist in me that feels the nature of premeds (and even med students) in general is such that they'll to do whatever they can to squash any possible advantage someone else might have over them. There are MANY MANY prep companies out there and many are sketchy at best. However, there are a few I know of that are legit and help people get into schools like Mac every year. I DO NOT WORK FOR ANY OF THEM. The bottom line is you really need to do your research about the company before paying for any service. If any prep company claims to be able to get you into medical school but doesn't have a guarantee or if their guarantee requires you to be a straight A student, full time student, gotten a 35+ MCAT, 3.9 GPA etc in order to qualify, then I would definitely move on because there's a good chance you're going to getting scammed if you give them your money !!!!!! Anyhow, start another thread if you want to talk about prep companies ripping people off as that seems to be the mentality around here. This thread is about CASPer transparency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
premed911 Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 I feel your pain. I never applied to mcmaster back in 2014 when I was applying to med school, because there was no evidence that casper works. If anything all they have is one single 'publication' which is not peer-reviewed and the publication says it's just a pilot study. Also the study shows that casper is not as good as mmi so it makes no sense to me why it even exists given that the last step is the mmi, which they claim to be the best. And also to be clear the only reason mmi and now casper is spreading is because they have turned into for profit companies, profithr and altus, respectively. And they are buddy system companies, the dude calls his other buddies in other universities and says 'hey you want to try casper or mmi? we give you a discount' LOL They keep claiming nonesense with no peer-reviewed publications by people who are not affiliated with mcmaster and all the papers are by mcmaster affiliated 'researchers' which puts them in a conflict of interest since mcmaster is a part owner of altus and profithr. In my opinion, it's all about money and has nothing to do with what works, nor what's fair. I'm glad I didn't apply, otherwise i'm sure I would have failed and would have broken my computer. lol Good luck to all of you, don't give up and stay away from schools that do mmi and casper! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotASerialKiller Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 I feel your pain. I never applied to mcmaster back in 2014 when I was applying to med school, because there was no evidence that casper works. If anything all they have is one single 'publication' which is not peer-reviewed and the publication says it's just a pilot study. Also the study shows that casper is not as good as mmi so it makes no sense to me why it even exists given that the last step is the mmi, which they claim to be the best. And also to be clear the only reason mmi and now casper is spreading is because they have turned into for profit companies, profithr and altus, respectively. And they are buddy system companies, the dude calls his other buddies in other universities and says 'hey you want to try casper or mmi? we give you a discount' LOL They keep claiming nonesense with no peer-reviewed publications by people who are not affiliated with mcmaster and all the papers are by mcmaster affiliated 'researchers' which puts them in a conflict of interest since mcmaster is a part owner of altus and profithr. In my opinion, it's all about money and has nothing to do with what works, nor what's fair. I'm glad I didn't apply, otherwise i'm sure I would have failed and would have broken my computer. lol Good luck to all of you, don't give up and stay away from schools that do mmi and casper! :-) That's great advice. Make the extremely tough process of getting into med school in Canada even harder by writing off a school for requiring you to write an online test that requires no preparation. Have you considered counselling pre-meds full-time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neurophilic Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 I feel your pain. I never applied to mcmaster back in 2014 when I was applying to med school, because there was no evidence that casper works. If anything all they have is one single 'publication' which is not peer-reviewed and the publication says it's just a pilot study. Also the study shows that casper is not as good as mmi so it makes no sense to me why it even exists given that the last step is the mmi, which they claim to be the best. And also to be clear the only reason mmi and now casper is spreading is because they have turned into for profit companies, profithr and altus, respectively. And they are buddy system companies, the dude calls his other buddies in other universities and says 'hey you want to try casper or mmi? we give you a discount' LOL They keep claiming nonesense with no peer-reviewed publications by people who are not affiliated with mcmaster and all the papers are by mcmaster affiliated 'researchers' which puts them in a conflict of interest since mcmaster is a part owner of altus and profithr. In my opinion, it's all about money and has nothing to do with what works, nor what's fair. I'm glad I didn't apply, otherwise i'm sure I would have failed and would have broken my computer. lol Good luck to all of you, don't give up and stay away from schools that do mmi and casper! :-) I'd love to hear how you feel about UofT's MPI style interview as well. There are similarities to the MMI. Should people stay away from that too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntiSWOMEN Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 I feel your pain. I never applied to mcmaster back in 2014 when I was applying to med school, because there was no evidence that casper works. If anything all they have is one single 'publication' which is not peer-reviewed and the publication says it's just a pilot study. Also the study shows that casper is not as good as mmi so it makes no sense to me why it even exists given that the last step is the mmi, which they claim to be the best. And also to be clear the only reason mmi and now casper is spreading is because they have turned into for profit companies, profithr and altus, respectively. And they are buddy system companies, the dude calls his other buddies in other universities and says 'hey you want to try casper or mmi? we give you a discount' LOL They keep claiming nonesense with no peer-reviewed publications by people who are not affiliated with mcmaster and all the papers are by mcmaster affiliated 'researchers' which puts them in a conflict of interest since mcmaster is a part owner of altus and profithr. In my opinion, it's all about money and has nothing to do with what works, nor what's fair. I'm glad I didn't apply, otherwise i'm sure I would have failed and would have broken my computer. lol Good luck to all of you, don't give up and stay away from schools that do mmi and casper! :-) If I don't get in this cycle I will surely take your advice and be sure not to apply to Mac or any other school that uses CASPer or the MMI in the future! While I don't think CASPer is perfect, I also have the same thought about the subjective components of the application at other schools. Why should essays at U of T for example be worth so much of the pre/post-interview score when they can be bought or crafted so artificially to please the reviewer, essentially defeating their purpose of getting to know what the applicant is like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 I'd love to hear how you feel about UofT's MPI style interview as well. There are similarities to the MMI. Should people stay away from that too? Ha, the comment may have been born out of frustration but really you CAN'T avoid applying to any school in this competitive process unless there is simply no hope in you matching there. It is the same thing as saying don't write the MCAT because you don't agree with it. Well, ok, but that is kind of an important test ha. The people that do admissions really believe the systems they develop are well thought out, fair within their mandated goals, and lead to creating good doctors. You can hate the policies or find logical flaws but the the directors and their teams are very dedicated to this. If someone is using the MMI it is because they think it is a very good way of screening people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_ _ Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 If I don't get in this cycle I will surely take your advice and be sure not to apply to Mac or any other school that uses CASPer or the MMI in the future! While I don't think CASPer is perfect, I also have the same thought about the subjective components of the application at other schools. Why should essays at U of T for example be worth so much of the pre/post-interview score when they can be bought or crafted so artificially to please the reviewer, essentially defeating their purpose of getting to know what the applicant is like? I don't know...personally I think the questions they asked say a ton about the person in how they answer them. I know I mine expressed a lot more of my personal values then CASPer did. Writing one long narrative, like a personal essay, could be more 'crafted' to please the interviewer, but I think they way they are organized does require a lot of thinking on the applicants part, and can show a lot about a person. They aren't better or worse then each other-but different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntiSWOMEN Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 I don't know...personally I think the questions they asked say a ton about the person in how they answer them. I know I mine expressed a lot more of my personal values then CASPer did. Writing one long narrative, like a personal essay, could be more 'crafted' to please the interviewer, but I think they way they are organized does require a lot of thinking on the applicants part, and can show a lot about a person. They aren't better or worse then each other-but different. My point is that they are still a highly subjective component, and in some cases "perfect" essays can even be bought. I personally thought that my essays were decent, but I would not be surprised if my reviewers interpreted them poorly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neurophilic Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 Ha, the comment may have been born out of frustration but really you CAN'T avoid applying to any school in this competitive process unless there is simply no hope in you matching there. It is the same thing as saying don't write the MCAT because you don't agree with it. Well, ok, but that is kind of an important test ha. The people that do admissions really believe the systems they develop are well thought out, fair within their mandated goals, and lead to creating good doctors. You can hate the policies or find logical flaws but the the directors and their teams are very dedicated to this. If someone is using the MMI it is because they think it is a very good way of screening people. Not sure if you understood my comment completely but it was sarcasm lol. I completely agree with you and I also believe that although you may not like the way certain schools select people, the fact may be that that specific selection process actually favours candidates such as yourself. I personally am not a fan of the CASPER, however, I would never tell anyone to avoid applying to a school simply because they use it. As premeds we've already jumped through so many hoops, so what's one last hoop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a7x Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 I don't know...personally I think the questions they asked say a ton about the person in how they answer them. I know I mine expressed a lot more of my personal values then CASPer did. Writing one long narrative, like a personal essay, could be more 'crafted' to please the interviewer, but I think they way they are organized does require a lot of thinking on the applicants part, and can show a lot about a person. They aren't better or worse then each other-but different. The point of CASPer is there is no time to put up a "front" or "persona", so I think this provides a much, much better assesment of a persons character than essays that are often written by someone else, or crafted to present someone as something they are not. If you truly got the life experiences from your ECs they were meant to give you then CASPer should be no issue, if not, then its alot easier to present a more 'falsified narrative' (not accusing you of this) in an essay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimples Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 I feel your pain. I never applied to mcmaster back in 2014 when I was applying to med school, because there was no evidence that casper works. If anything all they have is one single 'publication' which is not peer-reviewed and the publication says it's just a pilot study. Also the study shows that casper is not as good as mmi so it makes no sense to me why it even exists given that the last step is the mmi, which they claim to be the best. And also to be clear the only reason mmi and now casper is spreading is because they have turned into for profit companies, profithr and altus, respectively. And they are buddy system companies, the dude calls his other buddies in other universities and says 'hey you want to try casper or mmi? we give you a discount' LOL They keep claiming nonesense with no peer-reviewed publications by people who are not affiliated with mcmaster and all the papers are by mcmaster affiliated 'researchers' which puts them in a conflict of interest since mcmaster is a part owner of altus and profithr. In my opinion, it's all about money and has nothing to do with what works, nor what's fair. I'm glad I didn't apply, otherwise i'm sure I would have failed and would have broken my computer. lol Good luck to all of you, don't give up and stay away from schools that do mmi and casper! :-) There are actually quite a few publications on situational judgment tests which is what CASPer is. Without getting into the ethics of it, medical students are at the mercy of the schools when it comes to admissions. What I don't understand is that as a first year medical student at UofT, you had to undergo the new MPI format which as others have pointed out definitely has merits of the MMI. Why then did you apply to uoft? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amanda Weinburg Posted March 7, 2016 Report Share Posted March 7, 2016 ya, casper seems a bit questionable since it turned into a company by mcmaster so they are now in a conflict of interest yet they want to use casper to judge us on our professional/ethical characteristics. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
premed911 Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 There are actually quite a few publications on situational judgment tests which is what CASPer is. Without getting into the ethics of it, medical students are at the mercy of the schools when it comes to admissions. What I don't understand is that as a first year medical student at UofT, you had to undergo the new MPI format which as others have pointed out definitely has merits of the MMI. Why then did you apply to uoft? Incorrect, CASPer has only one "publication" as far as I know... (correct me if I am wrong) and the authors clearly say that it is just a pilot study with like 30 people. There's no independent study done on the efficacy of CASPer. Period. (situational judgement tests are the broad category. I'm talking about CASPer specifically) I'm also not a fan of MMI, again all the publications seems to have a bit of conflict of interest since the mmi is now also a company. I haven't checked the papers to see if the authors from mac are now including their financial conflict of interest on their papers or not. but dimple you're the expert so why don't you comment again. lol :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.