The Casper test in Australia

The other 7 GEMSAS entries — ANU, Deakin, Griffith, Macquarie, Melbourne, UQ and UWA — do not use Casper at all. Neither do Sydney, Bond, Tasmania, Charles Sturt or La Trobe. That is inferred from Acuity’s complete distribution list, which is authoritative in one direction: a programme cannot receive a Casper score without appearing on it.

Notre Dame will not consider you without one.Verbatim: “Applicants without a Casper score will not be considered.” Its Priority Entry Pathway adds a floor of no lower than one standard deviation below the mean. Wollongong is blunter still:“Applicants without a valid Casper score are not eligible for entry to the MD program, regardless of their competitiveness against other entry criteria”, and it sets a minimum eligible Casper score annually that reflects the cohort.

Casper is an open-response situational judgement test built from short, realistic interpersonal and professional scenarios. Each scenario asks what you would do and, more importantly, why. Notre Dame describes it as evaluating “ethics, empathy, problem-solving and collaboration”.

Total 65 to 85 minutes, including a 10-minute optional break after the video section and a 5-minute optional break after the first four typed scenarios. Each scenario offers an optional 30-second reflection period, and video responses begin after a 10-second countdown. The response format is fixed per scenario — “switching between formats is not allowed”.

Two things commonly get conflated here. Australian teacher education uses a shorter variant with eight scenarios and one break; that is not the medicine format. And any description of Casper as a typed-onlytest is out of date — the video section is a recent addition.

It is effectively closed book. Blank paper, a pen, a hardcopy dictionary, food and drink, corded headphones and an external keyboard are permitted. Pre-written notes, grammar or translation tools, dictation software, phones, smartwatches and wearables are not.

By certified human raters, not AI.Acuity is explicit about this. Each scenario’s two questions are reviewed by the same rater, who sees the full scenario context, but each question is scored independently — “scores are assigned at the individual question level, not as one score for the whole scenario”. Responses are anonymised, no rater scores you more than once, and raters are told to focus on the substance of your response rather than grammar or spelling.

Then the ratings are z-scored.The individual ratings are averaged and standardised “to represent the relative rankings of each applicant compared to the applicant pool”. Your result is a position relative to everyone who sat with you, not an absolute measure of your answers.

No numeric score is ever released to you. Programs receive a single standardised number with no breakdown by topic or area. You receive a quartile and nothing else, by email, typically four to five weeks after the test date. There is no pass mark; Casper is not pass or fail and is not graded against a fixed rubric.

The quartile is also coarser than what the schools see. Notre Dame and Wollongong both use Casper as a continuous weighted score— 30% and 50% of their interview rankings respectively — so a difference within a quartile still moves your rank. Acuity’s own line is worth keeping in view: being in the first quartile “does not mean you failed”, and “most programs consider all quartiles”.

Quartiles move between sittings for three reasons: a score near a boundary flips on a tiny change, the calibre of the applicant pool differs between sittings, and genuine improvement happens. Acuity states the test has relatively high test-retest reliability — but you cannot re-sit within a cycle anyway.

The practical consequence: reapplying next cycle means sitting Casper again, even though your GAMSAT still stands. Budget for it.

One test does cover multiple programmes. If several schools require the same test type you sit once and add them all to your distribution list. Programmes added later receive your result within one business day, and you can add them before or after sitting, as long as the distribution deadline has not passed.

Get your applicant ID right or the score never arrives. Scores are matched by a programme-specific identifier: your GAMSAT ID for both Notre Dame campuses and Wollongong, and your TISC IDfor Curtin — ten digits, formed by adding two leading zeros to your 2026 TISC ID. Your Acuity account must use the same name and email as your application, with government-issued photo ID.

Testing accommodations go directly to Acuity Insights, not the university, with all forms and documentation submitted four weeks before your scheduled test.

Whether the A$59 includes your first distribution is not stated anywhere in the official material. Treat the cost as A$59 plus A$30 for each additional school and budget on the pessimistic reading. Murdoch University independently states the same figures for its veterinary programme.

All fees are final and non-refundable, and valid only for the current cycle. Acuity’s own warning is unusually direct: “You are strongly encouraged to only reserve a test or add a program to your score distribution list once you are certain that you need to.”

A Fee Assistance Program exists, but the published article describes it as available to US and UK applicants with approved FAP status. No Australian equivalent is mentioned, and the eligibility detail was not verifiable at the time of writing — we are not going to guess at it. Some programmes issue their own fee-waiver codes.

• A computer is mandatory. Desktop or laptop, Windows or macOS. Phones, tablets, iPads, Chromebooks and Linux are not supported.
• Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox only, fully updated. Disable extensions, VPNs and firewalls beforehand.
• Working webcam and microphone, on for the entire test. The test is remotely monitored and your face must stay visible except during scheduled breaks.
• Internet of roughly 1.5 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up as a minimum.
• ID photos are captured at the start and midpoint, but you do not show ID to a proctor at the start. You must sit the test alone and unassisted.

Acuity recommends reserving at least three days ahead so you can run the system requirements check and take the free practice test.

Acuity’s position on commercial preparation is worth quoting on a site that sells nothing:

“Our research shows that third-party coaching and prep can hinder your test score, compared to using the free prep resources on our website.”

A free practice test sits in every Acuity Insights account and can be taken as often as you like. The attributes Acuity says separate higher quartiles are all format-and-approach factors rather than knowledge: using the full response time, explaining a position fully, considering all perspectives, impartiality, clear communication, and familiarity with the test format. There is no syllabus to revise.

Duetis a values-alignment assessment comparing what you value in a programme against what programmes offer. It is bundled — the test fee includes it, with no additional charge if a programme requires it. No GEMSAS medical school requires Duet or Snapshot. Notre Dame and Wollongong require Casper only.

Snapshot, the old one-way recorded video interview, does not appear anywhere in the current 2026–27 fee and registration materials, and Acuity now markets a separate “Video Interviews” product that appears to have absorbed it. We found no provider statement confirming discontinuation, so we are not going to state either way.

Two naming notes for anyone searching. The provider was formerly Altus Assessments, and the legacy takealtus.com and takecasper.com domains still redirect. And the test is now styled Casper, not the older all-caps “CASPer”. Same test.

The countries selectable on Acuity’s official tool for 2026–27 are Albania, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Two structural points are worth knowing: US medicine (MD or DO) has its own dedicated test type, separate from general professional health sciences, and Canada is the only jurisdiction with a language dimension — English and French Casper are different, non-interchangeable tests.

On the United Kingdom we have to be honest about a gap.The UK is a selectable country on the official tool, so at least one UK programme participates. We did not enumerate which ones, and we are not going to guess. What can be said with confidence is that Casper is not part of mainstream UK medical admissions — UK medicine and dentistry are dominated by the UCAT, with the BMAT discontinued. If you are applying in the UK, check Acuity’s own Dates and Fees tool rather than any third-party list, including this one.

Pricing outside Australia is also test-type specific. The A$59 and A$30 figures apply to the Australian test types only. We have not verified US, Canadian or UK pricing and will not repeat the figures circulating on prep-company blogs.