New Situational Judgement Testing Requirements for the 2023 Cycle: Additional Options and Recommendations

While the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) has been a standard of the medical school admissions cycle, additional testing on top of academic metrics has more recently begun to show value as institutions aim to assess applicants more holistically and equitably. 

To better provide care for patients in an ever-evolving health care industry, the next generation of doctors must understand far more than chemistry and human anatomy. 

The College of Human Medicine began requiring in 2021 that all candidates take the Casper Test, an open-response situational judgment test administered online. Innovative responses to educational imperatives have been an important trait of the college, extending that spirit to the admissions office. 

The college, for instance, was one of the initial medical schools in the U.S. to implement the Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) as part of its interview process and has continued with the effort now for close to a decade. So, including a situational judgment test like Casper at the initial stages of the application process further serves the Office of Admissions’ aim of enhancing an already-robust holistic review process.

Yet even within the last year, more options have been made available for further assessment.  Prospective medical school applicants should familiarize themselves with two assessments in particular as it pertains directly to the College of Human Medicine application process. The goals of the Altus Suite and the AAMC PREview™ Professional Readiness Exam are to promote more holistic reviews. Each assesses applicant competencies, values, and more including one’s understanding of communication and effective/ineffective behaviors. 

Starting in the 2022-2023 application cycle, applicants will be required to complete either the Casper test (Altus Suite) or the AAMC PREview™ exam. Now that there are two options for situational judgement testing available to applicants, understand that most medical schools will fall into three general categories: 

1. Those that do not require a situational judgement test
2. Those that require/recommend one but not the other
3. Those that require/recommend either, but not both 
   

There are a variety of complicated and complex reasons why admissions processes at schools fall into these categories, and all have good, thoughtful reasons for doing so.

"Given that some schools will prefer, require, and/or recommend one of these situational judgement tests over the other, we recognize that many applicants will find themselves needing to take both exams in order to apply to all of their desired schools in a particular application cycle," said Joel Maurer, MD, Assistant Dean for Admissions at the College of Human Medicine. "Some will also consciously decide to take only one of the two (or even neither) due to a variety of reasons, including resource availability.  As a school that uses situational judgement testing in their process and in the spirit of applicant resource equity, we will accept either CASPer or PREview in our evaluation process." 

The PREview was designed to naturally target the AAMC's recommended pre-professional competencies. CASPer evaluates related competencies as well but, having been created by an external organization, are not official, in that sense. CASPer has been around longer than PREview, though, and is thus more widely required by medical schools.

Here is more in-depth information on both options:

The Altus Suite

The Altus Suite is a multi-part assessment. In addition to Casper, the suite is made up of two more tests, Duet and Snapshot. If choosing the Casper test to fulfill the College of Human Medicine’s situational judgement test requirement, only the Casper is required to be taken of the three. Yet the college strongly encourages applicants to also participate in Duet as well. Though Duet is optional, participating in the additional test offers another helpful window as it relates to fit and value-alignment. 

Applicants to US-based medical schools will pay $85 and includes distribution to eight programs—the fee is waived for Fee Assistance Program participants. Any additional distributions are $15 each.  It’s important to understand that this cost covers all three assessments. Regarding  Casper and Duet:

Casper 

Casper is an online situational judgment test that evaluates social intelligence and measures professionalism among personal traits such as empathy, ethics, collaboration, and more. It consists of two sections—typed and video response—with 15 scenarios of which nine are video-based and six word-based.  According to Altus Assessments, the time it takes to complete the Casper has increased from 90 minutes in previous versions to about 120 minutes in the latest version.
Casper must be taken on a specific date and time, selected when registering for the suite and subsequent assessments. An official test prep webpage for the Altus Suite provides sample Casper scenarios, and a technical system check.

Duet 

Duet is an assessment that compares what you value in a program with what the program has to offer. Program characteristics are compared to applicant preferences within a variety of categories. There is no time limit and Altus suggests Duet should not take more than 15 minutes to complete.

While Casper is taken on specified dates and time, Duet can be taken any time after reserving the Casper test but no later than 14 days after taking the Casper. No preparation is needed, but it is helpful if applicants think deeply beforehand about the factors and “selling points” they are looking for in a medical school. Self-awareness and honesty are important and students should be honest about what they are looking for in a suitable institution. 

Each medical school program has its unique offerings and, because of this, will review and assess responses as they see fit. This additional assessment offers another layer to help gauge "fit" with the college, which prides itself on having long applied a robust and holistic review process.

In addition to the Altus Suite, the second option to fulfill the situational judgement test requirement is the AAMC PREview exam. 

AAMC PREview™

The Association of American Medical Colleges Professional Readiness Exam (AAMC PREview, and previously known simply as the AAMC Situational Judgment Test) assesses the pre-professional behavior across eight competencies that admissions committees believe are essential for success at our medical school and will be increasingly important in meeting the needs of patients and modern medicine. 

The PREview Exam, too, presents a series of hypothetical scenarios students may encounter in medical school and asks examinees to evaluate the effectiveness of a series of behavioral responses to each scenario. It’s specificity to medical school is intentional. Whereas the Casper was not specifically designed solely for usage by medical schools,  the PREview exam was created by the AAMC for the medical school admissions process. Once registered, students can prep for the exam with official resources before taking the exam, including a practice exam.

The exam is made up of written scenarios based on real-world situations, developed specifically for pre-health students. There is a total of 30 scenarios, which should take about 95-115 minutes for a complete session. The exam is to be taken online, supported by a remote proctor who monitors through video camera and microphone. For the 2022-23 cycle, the fee for the exam is $100, but can be waived entirely for applicants benefiting from the AAMC Fee Assistance Program.

To reiterate, these situational judgment exams help to enhance our commitment to holistic admissions by looking beyond academics to assess core personal skills such as resilience, service orientation, ethics, and teamwork. When combined with other parts of the admissions process, PREview provides our admissions committee with a more complete view of an applicant. 

As we like to say, it’s all about fit!