As a prospective medical school applicant, you’re probably familiar with Casper, the computerized admissions test that evaluates situational judgment and personal characteristics. Casper has been around for several years and is increasingly widely used in the medical school admissions process, so you’ve likely known about it for some time and know how to prepare for it.
However, at the start of the 2021–2022 application cycle, word got out about needing to take not one but three Casper tests. In addition to the main Casper test, there are two additional assessments: Snapshot and Duet.
While some schools required Snapshot during the 2022-2023 cycle, there was an announcement in 2023 that Snapshot will no longer be required by any programs starting with the 2023-2024 cycle.
With little information out there, you’re probably wondering things like:
In this guide, we’ll address these uncertainties and more. Below, we’ll cover all the logistical information you need, discuss preparation strategies, and provide a list of schools requiring Casper, Snapshot, and Duet.
Let’s begin by briefly outlining each test to get a sense of how they differ:
Acuity Insights administers the three tests. Each test aims to evaluate different aspects of an applicant's personality to provide medical schools with as complete a picture of them as possible.
Here’s how the tests work logistically: You’ll first register on the Acuity Insights website, at which point you’ll reserve a specific date for taking Casper.
After this, you can complete Duet at your leisure, beginning as soon as you register. Acuity recommends taking it within two weeks of taking Casper to send the assessment results to medical schools simultaneously. Nevertheless, you can complete Duet up until your earliest program distribution date (available on the test dates page).
Beginning with the 2024-2025 application cycle, your $85 registration fee will cover sending results for Casper and Duet to seven programs (down from eight in previous years). There are no separate registration fees for Duet. Beyond those seven schools, distributing your test results will cost $18 per school (up from $15 in previous years).
Your Casper results will still be sent to medical schools even if you don’t complete Duet.
Casper test dates are typically offered at least once monthly, with an even greater number of dates available in the summer and early fall months. However, each medical school sets its deadline, so the latest date you can take Casper depends on where you apply.
That said, we recommend that you register for Casper in the spring of your application year (April or May) so that you can take the test and have enough time to complete Duet by the time you submit your AMCAS application in May or shortly thereafter.
Test results are transmitted to medical schools 2–3 weeks after completion. Ideally, you want your scores to reach schools by the time you submit your secondary applications in July so that your entire application can be considered immediately.
When medical schools required Snapshot, results were provided without a score. Individual programs reviewed and assessed your responses for themselves.
Duet scores are created automatically (i.e., not by a human) by comparing your assessment with each medical school’s assessment of values and preferences.
Acuity recommends, though does not require, that all applicants who register for Casper complete Duet as well.
As noted earlier, your Casper results will be sent to medical schools regardless of whether or not you complete Duet. Furthermore, many medical schools requiring Casper have explicitly stated that they do not require Duet.
So, should you take Duet? Our general recommendation is that you do. Even if no schools you’re applying to currently require the tests, medical school requirements can and do change. You might also decide to tack on additional schools as the application season goes on, so it’s a good idea to be prepared for any future application requirement.
Given that the tests require relatively little time, there’s virtually no downside to ensuring you have test results to share.
That said, if you are positive that your school list is set in stone, and you’ve confirmed with each of these schools that they are not requiring Duet, you’re probably fine to go ahead and skip it.
(Note: As of May 2023, Snapshot is not required by any medical schools for the 2023-2024 cycle. However, we have left this section up on our site in case things changes during the cycle.)
We’ve covered how to prepare for Casper extensively in a separate guide, which includes numerous practice questions and sample responses.
In the next two sections, we’ll go over the formats of Snapshot and Duet and provide tips on how to best navigate each test.
The format of Snapshot is as follows:
Snapshot is fairly straightforward, not to mention brief, but there are a few key points to keep in mind:
According to Acuity, Snapshot allows you to “bring your personal statement to life.” So, you can expect questions that aim to get a sense of who you are as a person and why you want to become a physician—the same kinds of questions that you would face in a standard medical school interview.
Below we’ll review common types of questions that you might find in your Snapshot test.
Medicine-related questions: These questions will invite you to share your career goals as well as the motivations and experiences that shaped your decision to pursue medicine. For instance, you might be asked:
Personal reflection questions: These sorts of questions help medical schools learn more about who you are, including your abilities to self-reflect, handle obstacles, and respond to difficult situations. They typically draw out your capacity for the skills and knowledge described in the AAMC’s Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students. Sample questions include:
Values questions: While these questions don’t ask for anecdotes and direct self-reflection, they nonetheless reveal aspects of who you are and what you value. For example:
To ensure that you are prepared for Snapshot, plan to review common medical school interview questions. Our guide to medical school interviews includes several standard questions with example responses, plus appendices with 50+ practice questions and virtual interview tips. Having compelling answers and anecdotes ready to go for common questions will aid you greatly when taking the test, especially given the limited time you have to respond.
A great method for preparing these responses in advance is to go over your personal statement, secondary essays, and AMCAS Work & Activities section. Ideally, the examples you bring up during Snapshot should come from or align with experiences you’ve already described in these materials. Applicants often worry that repeating information will make them seem boring or limited, but doing so actually helps solidify a cohesive portrait of who you are. It’s fine to expand on an anecdote beyond what you’ve already described in writing, but presenting, say, a totally new reason for why medicine interests you may create confusion and raise red flags.
You should also review the AAMC Core Competencies mentioned earlier. Go through each competency (excluding the science competencies) and make sure you can describe an experience that demonstrates that skill or quality. These anecdotes can but don’t need to come directly from medical experiences.
Applicants we’ve worked with who have taken Snapshot have reported that the most difficult aspect of the test is its fast pace. So, when preparing, make sure to time yourself so you can practice thinking quickly on your feet.
An effective way to do this is to virtually participate in a mock Snapshot interview with a friend, advisor, or admissions consultant, mimicking the format as exactly as possible. Not only will this help you get used to the time constraint, it’ll also allow you to practice delivering your answers to a screen and help you work out any technological kinks, environmental issues, or distracting mannerisms ahead of time. Similarly, you can make use of the two-question, official practice section that precedes Snapshot.
To give you a sense of how to put it all together, let’s take a look at a sample response for each type of question outlined above. You can use these examples as guidance when preparing your own practice responses.
Medicine-related question: What made you decide to become a physician?
You can extract the answer to this question straight from your personal statement. Select three brief anecdotes that lay out your path towards medicine: the experience that first interested you in medicine, a situation in which you explored the field, and the time when you knew that medicine was for you.
In high school, I worked in the dining room of an assisted living retirement facility. I got to know the residents pretty well, and although my role was essentially being a waiter, being able to provide small moments of service to the residents planted a seed in me. I knew I wanted to keep making a difference in people’s lives, and witnessing the work of the medical staff at the retirement home inspired me. When I got to college, I sought out shadowing opportunities at the university hospital. Because it was the only major hospital for hundreds of miles, many patients came in with already advanced conditions due to a lack of access to adequate primary care. This sparked an interest for me in addressing the social and economic determinants of health. After my freshman year, I spent the summer volunteering at a rural health clinic about a hundred miles away from my school. Seeing the difference that even basic preventative care made in the lives of our patients, and getting to connect with them through this care, reminded me of working at the retirement home. From that point on, I knew that I wanted to become a physician in order to help improve the lives of the most vulnerable.
Personal reflection question: Tell me about a time when you failed.
What this question is asking is, essentially, “How resilient are you?” Med schools aren’t really that interested in knowing what you failed at; rather, they want to know how you met a challenge and grew from it. So, explain your failure, provide some self-reflection, and then talk about what you did to address the problem and what you learned.
When I was thirteen, my grandmother came from Korea to live with my family. She didn’t speak English well, so certain errands or tasks outside of the house required a family member to accompany her so one of us could translate. One time during junior year, my mom called me before soccer practice and asked if I could come home to take my grandma to the dentist. Because I was captain of the team, I felt I couldn’t leave practice. I told my mom I’d be home in a few hours and would take my grandma then. By the time I got home, the dentist had closed and we had to wait until the next day to address the pain in my grandma’s teeth. Witnessing this pain devastated me, and I felt a great deal of guilt and shame at having prioritized soccer over a family member. I apologized to my grandma and tried my best to care for her that night, which felt woefully inadequate. After this, I made a point to be more thoughtful and to proactively offer my help and care—I was offering to accompany her to so many places that it became a running joke in my family. When I got to college, I was inspired to start a medical translators club to provide free medical appointment translation to non-English speakers in the Atlanta area. The incident really drove home for me the reality that language can be a huge barrier to healthcare access and that being able to communicate with your healthcare provider should be a basic right for all.
Values question: Who is someone you admire and why?
In answering this question, you can again refer to the AAMC Core Competencies. Pick a person who exemplifies one or more of the personal qualities listed there and discuss how they inspire or have made an impact on you.
One person who I greatly admire is my aunt Penelope. She’s been a talented painter all her life but had to put an art career on pause when her husband unexpectedly passed away at a young age. This tragedy led her to seek out more lucrative work so she could support herself and my cousins. She went back to school and became an RN, but she never quit painting simply because she loved and enjoyed it. In recent years, as she’s been able to afford to work less, she’s spent more of her time focusing on art and has actually been able to exhibit her paintings in several galleries in the Denver area. To me, Penelope exemplifies many qualities that I value: she always puts others first, she’s resilient and adaptable, and she never gives up on her goals. Whenever I feel discouraged because I didn’t accomplish something I set out to do, I always think of Aunt Penelope, and I remember that persistence and passion pay off.
