Casper Test 2026-27: Format, Test Dates, Fees and Deadlines

Casper is the open-response situational judgment test that many programs, from medicine and nursing to teacher education, ask applicants to take. It is run by Acuity Insights; Acuity writes the name as "Casper". This guide sets out the 2026-27 format as Acuity publishes it, the remaining test dates listed on 27 October 2026, including the January-February 2027 dates, what the test costs, and the deadline rule that decides which date you can use.

Acuity's Help Centre describes the test for the 2026-2027 admission cycle as "11 scenarios in this order": four video-response scenarios, then seven typed-response scenarios. Every scenario has two questions. In the video section the two questions come one at a time and you record a one-minute answer to each. In the typed section both questions appear on one page and you have 3.5 minutes in total for the pair.

Two details change how the minutes feel. First, after each scenario there is an "optional 30-second reflection period" before the response page. Second, for video-based scenarios Acuity lists a 10-second countdown before recording begins, with the role you were given ("you are a friend", "you are a co-worker") shown again at the top of the screen during it.

A scenario can be presented in two ways. A video-based scenario plays a short clip and then asks how you would respond. A word-based scenario is a written question, statement or scenario; Acuity's own public example is a prompt to "Think of a time when you had to make a sacrifice in order to accomplish a goal." Whichever way a scenario is shown, you answer it in the response method the screen asks for, video or typed.

Acuity notes that the format "may vary slightly for select programs". The one it names is Australian teacher education, where the 2026-27 test is 8 scenarios (2 video, 6 typed) with an estimated test time of 45-65 minutes. Unless your program says otherwise, expect the 11-scenario test.

You book a specific test type, and it depends on where the program is and what kind of program it is. In the 2026-2027 Dates and Fees data, U.S. allopathic and osteopathic medicine use a test type called "Medicine", pharmacy and physician assistant programs use "United States Casper 2", undergraduate nursing uses "United States Casper 1", and Canadian undergraduate medicine uses "Casper 2". McMaster's admissions page names its test "Casper 2 (CSP-10211)".

For Canadian programs there is one more lock: language. You take Casper in the language the program requires, English or French. When you book your first test you choose a distribution language, and Acuity says that choice "cannot be changed for the rest of the admissions cycle".

Each program is attached to particular test dates, and the page lists a distribution deadline where one is set: the last day your result can be sent to that program. The Dates and Fees page shows the test type, test dates, distribution deadlines and fees for the programs you search for. We read it on 24 October 2026 for two lists of medicine programs, and again on 27 October 2026 for every North American test type.

The next wave of sittings runs from 5 January to 23 February 2027. These are the January and February dates on the Dates and Fees page on 27 October 2026, by test type. Times are North American Eastern, as Acuity shows them.

An 8:00pm Eastern sitting is already the next calendar day in the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia, so the Thursday 7 January and Thursday 21 January English Casper 2 sittings fall on 8 January and 22 January there. They are the same sittings, not extra dates. Read your date in your Acuity account, which shows the time zone.

Five U.S. Medicine test dates remained listed on 27 October 2026. The table shows, for each one, the schools in the Dates and Fees data for which it is the last usable date. So 5 January 2027 is the final chance for five schools, and 9 February 2027 is the last U.S. Medicine date of the cycle.

Some schools in the listing had no date left. For Drexel, Baylor, LSU New Orleans and UT Medical Branch no test date on or after 24 October 2026 was listed. Four more (Hackensack Meridian, University of Nevada Reno, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine and Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine) had no fee, deadline or remaining test date listed in the data we read; check the Dates and Fees page and the school's own admissions page rather than assume.

For Canadian undergraduate medicine, no test date on or after 24 October 2026 was listed for McMaster, Queen's, Manitoba and McGill (university applicants). Six dates remained for the medicine programs: 5 Nov 2026 (6:00pm and 8:00pm EST), 29 Nov 2026 (1:00pm EST), 1 Dec 2026, 7 Jan, 21 Jan and 18 Feb 2027 (all 8:00pm EST). In the English Casper 2 listing, 5 November is the last date for Université de Montréal Medicine - Autres Candidats, and 18 February is the last for the CEGEP streams of McGill and the Université de Montréal.

The English Casper 2 test type also serves many other Canadian programs, such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, pharmacy and physician assistant programs. On 27 October 2026 its listing had three more dates after 18 February: 4 Mar, 8 Apr and 29 Apr 2027 (8:00pm Eastern). Check which of them your own program accepts.

Acuity's fee has two parts: "A base testing fee" and a fee for each program your scores are sent to. The amounts sit on the Dates and Fees page and differ by test type. For the two lists above, the 2026-2027 data showed:

The examples are our arithmetic from Acuity's figures, in the currency of each test; your own total depends on the programs you add. Rescheduling is free 31 or more days before your test and costs $20 inside 30 days or after the date, unless a waiver applies (for example a verified technical or medical issue). If you cancel instead, Acuity says cancellations are "definitive and non-refundable".

Acuity's own advice is to book the earliest date that works. That gives you more flexibility to reschedule if another eligible date is available.

If no single date serves all your schools, Acuity's Help Centre says to reserve the earliest test that qualifies for at least one of them and add the others to your distribution list later. You can add programs after the test as long as they use the same test type and are still accepting scores; results reach a program added after the first 2-3 weeks within one business day.

Results go automatically to the programs on your distribution list about 2-3 weeks after the test. (CaRMS is the exception Acuity names: it sends the score to CaRMS, and you then upload it to each CaRMS program that needs it.) Your account shows "Completed – Results delivered" once they have gone; there is no email for that step. Usually about 4-5 weeks after the test you get an email saying your quartile is ready. That quartile is all you see: programs receive a more detailed score. How the score is built and what a quartile means are in how Casper is scored.

ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not part of or endorsed by Acuity Insights. Every rule, date and fee here is quoted or summarised from Acuity Insights' own pages or, where named, a program's own page.