Casper Test for Nursing in Canada: Format and How to Practice

The format

For the 2026–27 admissions cycle, Casper’s publisher describes the test as eleven scenarios in two sections:

• Four video-response scenarios. Each has two questions shown one at a time, with one minute to record each answer.
• Seven typed-response scenarios. Each has two questions shown together, with three and a half minutes to type answers to both.
• Breaks. An optional ten-minute break after the video section and a five-minute break partway through the typed section.
• Length. About 65 to 85 minutes in total.

Each scenario is a short video or written situation, usually an everyday dilemma: a colleague cutting a corner, a friend in difficulty, a customer who is angry, a rule that doesn’t fit the case. The questions ask what you would do and why. Responses are scored by trained raters on the quality of the reasoning and the consideration shown, not on grammar or polish, and results are reported to programs rather than to you in detail.

Which programs use it

• McMaster BScN (Basic and Accelerated streams) requires the Canadian English Casper and has said it weights admission 80 percent grades, 20 percent Casper.
• Western BScN (direct entry) requires Casper, and applicants who don’t complete it are not considered.
• Outside Ontario, check each program. The University of Alberta’s nursing faculty required Casper for several cycles but has waived it starting with the Fall 2027 intake, so applicants this year do not sit it. Other programs elsewhere in Canada still list it.
• Not everyone. Queen’s Nursing uses its own timed Kira supplementary application instead. TMU’s collaborative nursing program is grades-only and states that Casper is not required. Several other Ontario BScN programs list neither. Requirements change every year, so check each program’s page for the cycle you are applying in.

What raters are scoring

Casper is a professionalism test. The scenarios are built so that the obvious answer is incomplete. A good response usually does four things, and the ordering matters more than the conclusion:

1. Names what you would want to know first. Most scenarios are missing a fact, on purpose. Saying “before doing anything I’d want to understand why…” is the sound of not jumping.
2. Considers the people involved, including the one you are inclined to judge. What might explain their behaviour?
3. Commits to an action, usually the least dramatic one that addresses the actual problem: a private conversation before an escalation, a question before an accusation.
4. Says what you would do if that didn’t work, and where your line is. Safety and honesty are where the line usually sits.

One minute is the whole challenge

Sixty seconds is about 140 spoken words. There is no prep timer in the video section beyond reading the question, so the four moves above have to be a reflex. Practice until your first sentence is automatic: “The first thing I’d want to know is…” For the typed section, three and a half minutes for two questions means about ninety seconds each; write in short sentences, one move per sentence, and don’t go back to edit.

Twelve practice scenarios in the Casper style

AcceptMe practice scenarios, not Casper items. For each, answer “what would you do and why?” in one minute on camera, then answer a follow-up like “what if the person reacts badly?” in another minute.

1. A classmate asks you to sign them in for a mandatory lab they are skipping to attend a job interview.
2. You are working a shift and a regular customer, clearly upset, says she can’t afford her purchase and asks you to “forget to scan” one item.
3. A friend on your team posts something online mocking a teammate’s accent. Several people have liked it.
4. Your group project partner has clearly copied a section from a website. The project is due in an hour.
5. You are tutoring a younger student whose parent asks you to just give them the answers so they pass the test tomorrow.
6. A coworker tells you they are being treated unfairly by the manager and asks you to keep it secret.
7. You notice an elderly neighbour has stopped collecting her mail and hasn’t answered her door in two days.
8. A teammate is playing through an injury they are hiding from the coach before a final.
9. You overhear two classmates planning to report a teacher for something you know didn’t happen.
10. A friend asks to borrow money for the third time this month and hasn’t repaid the first two.
11. At a volunteer event, the organiser asks everyone to exaggerate attendance numbers in the report to the funder.
12. You see a parent in a parking lot shouting at a small child who is crying.

Where to practice for free

Your Acuity Insights account, the one you book the test through, includes a free full-length practice test in the real interface with the real timing, and it is the only practice that uses the actual system. Do it once for the interface and once more the week before for the timing. Beyond that, the free simulators that rank for “casper practice test” are mostly the free tier of a paid prep product; treat them as scenario banks, not as a score. The scenarios on this page are free, and AcceptMe’s custom interviews will run any of them on a clock with a transcript, which is the part the free simulators do not give you.

Mistakes that cost the most

• Jumping to the verdict. “I would report her” in the first sentence skips the reasoning that is being scored.
• Making the other person the villain. Raters look for whether you considered their side.
• Preparing stock phrases. Raters read thousands of “I would be empathetic and professional.” Say what you would actually say to the person.
• Practicing without the clock. The reasoning is easy at your desk. The test is doing it in sixty seconds, four times in a row, on camera.
• Booking late. Test dates are fixed and results take time to reach programs. Book as soon as the program confirms it requires the test.

Where to go from here

Engineering applicants sit the same test; the Western Engineering Casper guide covers the quartile and how it is used there. The typed and video responses are timed answers on camera, which is what the video interview guide prepares for in general. AcceptMe’s custom interviews can run a scenario prompt with a short prep window and a one-minute answer, four in a row, and the transcript shows whether you reasoned or just ruled.