Casper is the most widely used open-response situational judgment test (SJT) in higher education admissions worldwide. Backed by nearly 20 years of research, it assesses social intelligence and professionalism in a standardized way, and is used to identify applicants who are more likely to be successful in their program. 

Casper gives an early and unique glimpse into the personal attributes of an applicant, and how they are likely to behave in the future by requiring them to explain what they would do in different real-world scenarios. Because the assessment is in an open-response format applicants are able to provide their rationale when responding. It provides a reliable, valid and, distinct measure of 10 aspects of social intelligence and professionalism reported as a (single) z-score which can be easily incorporated in the admissions process.

Casper helps in reducing bias and in diversifying top-ranked applicants within the admissions process by consistently demonstrating lower demographic differences than other admissions assessments.

Casper measures 10 competencies: collaboration, communication, empathy, equity, ethics, self-awareness, resilience, professionalism, problem solving and motivation. These competencies are important for both academic and professional success in business.

Casper’s early success has come from medical schools and health science disciplines. However, just as you need soft skills for these disciplines, they are equally important for succeeding in business programs, and as a business professional. Additionally, Casper for business schools has been adapted specifically blueprinted for business education with input and insights from business academics and professionals.

All of the research results for Casper’s efficacy can be found here.

In a Casper test, applicants are presented with real world video and word-based scenarios followed by open-ended questions. The test has 2 sections – video response and typed response. An applicant has to answer the questions in the required response format within the allotted time.

Each response of an applicant is rated by a different human rater, all of whom have gone through extensive training. Casper results are provided to programs as a single z-score, while applicants receive their quartile score.

More general FAQs about Casper are available on our applicant-facing website.

Casper is rated by human raters who represent the community that business students will serve when they graduate. We have a growing and diverse pool of raters that number in the hundreds. All our raters are carefully selected and undergo extensive training, including implicit bias.

Admissions processes for business schools are highly time-consuming and labor intensive. With Casper,  you get a single ‘z’ score which is easy to incorporate into your admissions process and does not require hours or even minutes of review.

Our research team can work with you to:

• Demonstrate how Casper and other pre-admission factors (e.g. GPA, GMAT) predict for admissions and in-program performance
• Learn which selection criteria to prioritize in order to maximize cohort quality and diversity
• Serve your mission and collaborate on peer-reviewed publications, and conference presentations

Please visit this page to learn more.