TORONTO, Aug. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acuity Insights, the leading provider of admissions assessment, program management, and analytics solutions for higher education, is pleased to announce that Casper, the most widely used situational judgment test in higher education, has reached a monumental one million test registrations since its launch less than a decade ago.
Launched in 2015, Casper is a unique, evidence-based open-response test that measures essential non-academic traits and skills, such as collaboration, problem-solving, ethics, empathy, and self-awareness. Developed at McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences to improve the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine’s admission process, the test was then made available to other medical schools that wanted to improve their selection process and adopt a more holistic, well-rounded review of applicants.
In recent years, it has become evident that soft skills are essential predictors of future success beyond medicine. Today, the Casper test is used worldwide by health professions programs, teacher’s education, business education, and engineering education, among others. Acuity Insights is committed to supporting holistic review and continues to expand partnerships with higher education institutions globally.
In addition to the 1 million test registrations, 3.5 million Casper scores have been distributed to programs—this means that each applicant's score is distributed to multiple programs to which they have applied, showing the growth in holistic reviews in higher education.
Acuity Insights co-founder and co-creator of the Casper test Dr. Kelly Dore reflected on the significant moment of one million Casper test registrations in under ten years.
“Since the first Casper test registration in 2015, to the millionth in 2024, the higher education landscape has shifted vastly – but Acuity’s commitment to redefining how we evaluate future professionals has remained the same,” says Dr. Dore. “We want to ensure that everyone is able to present their full potential to their programs wherever they are applying. With the ban on affirmative action and the upcoming enrollment cliff making recruitment and retention key priorities, looking at grades alone isn’t enough – it’s critical that we add more 'pixels' to the picture. This enables schools to build robust applicant pipelines and gain a truly holistic understanding of applicants beyond academic metrics, not just for admissions but also for future success in their programs and beyond. This is what Casper does. Acuity Insights' growth to over 665 global program partners reflects our dedication to innovation in education, connecting critical data points across the learner journey from application to graduation."
Visit our website to learn more about Casper.
About Casper
Casper is an open-response situational judgment test (SJT) that measures social intelligence and professionalism, and is backed by 20 years of data. Research consistently shows that demonstrating effective interpersonal skills contributes significantly to success during academic programs and in future careers.
Casper presents applicants with scenarios and questions that allow them to demonstrate these skills and the extent to which they can respond to challenging scenarios in a professional and socially intelligent manner, by using their diverse life experiences. Its open-response format, with both video and text, ensures it cannot be gamed by humans or AI, unlike most other SJTs, which use a multiple-choice format.
The Casper assessment tool measures skills such as:
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Empathy
- Equity
- Professionalism
- Teamwork
The evidence-based assessment is used by over 650 program partners worldwide in various fields, including the following educational programs:
- Medicine
- Health Sciences
- Teaching
- Business
- Engineering
Visit our website to discover how Casper can support your admissions goals.
About Acuity Insights
Acuity Insights is the leading provider of admissions assessment, program management, and analytics solutions for higher education. The company’s solutions help higher education institutions deliver on their mission holistically, considering the whole student, widening pathways into higher education, and ensuring both student and program success. Recognized as one of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 companies for 2021 and 2022, Acuity’s solutions are used by nearly 600 higher education programs worldwide. Its Casper situational judgment test (SJT), taken by more than 150,000 applicants every year, is the most widely used open-response SJT in higher education and is backed by almost 20 years of efficacy research. For more information, visit acuityinsights.com.
Media contact:
Brianna Bell, Content & Communications Manager
bbell@acuityinsights.com
