CASPer for Occupational and Physical Therapy: Requirements and Prep

A growing number of occupational therapy and physical therapy programs require CASPer, and the rehabilitation science route at McGill requires it from every applicant. If you are applying to an OT, PT, or rehab science program, this guide covers which programs use CASPer, the format you will actually take, how it factors into admissions, and how to prepare for the client-facing judgment these programs are screening for.

Do occupational and physical therapy programs require CASPer?

Some do, and the number is growing. CASPer started in medicine and has spread across the health professions, and rehabilitation science is part of that expansion. The clearest Canadian example is McGill's School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, which requires CASPer from all applicants to its undergraduate B.Sc. rehabilitation science programs, the shared entry point to both occupational and physical therapy. In the United States, a rising number of OT programs on OTCAS and PT programs on PTCAS list CASPer as a required component.

It is not universal, though. Many OT and PT programs still admit on academics, prerequisites, references, and experience alone. Because the requirement is set program by program, the only reliable move is to open each program's admissions page and its OTCAS or PTCAS listing and confirm whether CASPer is required for your cycle.

Which OT and PT programs require CASPer, and how to verify

Rather than trust a static list that goes stale every cycle, use a short verification routine for each program on your list.

• McGill (Canada), verified: required for every applicant to the undergraduate rehabilitation science programs (OT and PT), including CEGEP, mature, out-of-province, international, and inter-faculty transfer applicants.
• US OT programs: check the program's admissions page and its OTCAS profile. A growing set of programs require CASPer, often with their own test code and deadline.
• US PT programs: check the program's admissions page and its PTCAS profile for a CASPer requirement and deadline.
• Everywhere else: confirm the requirement, the exact test type, and the distribution deadline on the official page, and cross-check it in your Acuity Insights account.

The reason this matters more for OT and PT than for medicine is that the requirement is newer and less consistent here, so old forum posts and third-party lists are frequently wrong. Treat the program's own page as the only binding source.

What format will you actually take?

You will take Acuity's current standard CASPer: four video-response scenarios, each with one minute to record an answer, followed by seven typed-response scenarios with 3.5 minutes to answer a pair of questions. The full test runs about 65 to 85 minutes with optional breaks, and certified human raters score it into quartiles. The current CASPer format guide breaks down the section order and timing.

Watch out for one specific trap. Some rehabilitation science admissions pages still describe an older CASPer structure with roughly a dozen scenarios and five-minute sets. That is legacy wording. The version you sit today follows the current four-video, seven-typed format regardless of what an older school page says, so use your Acuity account and Acuity's current format page as the source of truth for what you will see, and use the school page only for the requirement, code, and deadline.

What the OT and PT CASPer assesses

McGill frames its CASPer around professionalism, communication, collaboration, ethics, and empathy. That list is a good map of what any rehabilitation program wants to see, because the job is built on exactly those behaviors: explaining a plan a patient can follow, working inside a care team, protecting confidentiality, and staying steady when a client is frustrated or in pain.

In practice, that means your answers should show client-centered judgment, not textbook definitions. A scenario about a patient who wants to stop therapy early, a colleague who cuts a corner on a transfer, or a caregiver who disagrees with the plan is testing whether you can balance safety, respect, and communication and still commit to a next step. Name the issue, weigh the people involved, choose a practical action, and say what would change your decision.

How CASPer factors into rehabilitation science admissions

It is one input, not the decision. McGill states that admission to its rehabilitation science programs is based on academic assessment, CASPer, and the French-language requirement, and it does not publish a CASPer cutoff or a fixed weight. The practical read is that CASPer helps most when your academic file is competitive, and that a rushed or unfinished answer can quietly cost you relative to applicants who prepared for the timing.

Since the quartile is relative to other test takers and no program publishes a required score, the goal is not a target number. It is to answer every scenario clearly inside the clock. For how quartiles are built and read, see how CASPer scoring works and what a good CASPer score looks like.

How to register

1. Use your program's exact test type. Register on the Acuity Insights site for the specific test your OT or PT program names, not a generic one.
2. Book at least three days ahead. Register a few days before your preferred date, since sittings fill near deadlines and the fee is non-refundable.
3. Distribute your result. Send your score to every program that requires it and confirm whether additional distributions cost extra. The CASPer registration guide covers the booking and distribution flow.
4. Plan to retake each cycle. Results are valid for one admissions cycle, so reapplicants sit CASPer again.

How to prepare for the OT and PT CASPer

You cannot memorize your way through CASPer, but you can remove the two things that actually lose points: unfamiliarity with the timed interface and untrained reasoning under pressure.

1. Take the official practice test. Do Acuity's free full-length practice test once so the timers and recording flow are not new on test day.
2. Drill both response modes. Practice answering two typed questions in 3.5 minutes and recording a one-minute spoken answer with no re-takes.
3. Practice client and team scenarios. Rehearse situations involving patients, caregivers, and colleagues so the context feels familiar, even though the judgment is the same one every CASPer measures.
4. Review for one fix at a time. After each answer, name the single biggest gap and redo a new scenario rather than polishing the old one. Our CASPer study plan turns this into a two-week routine.

CasperCoach generates timed scenarios and gives instant feedback on what raters weigh: whether you answered the question, whether you considered the right people, and whether you committed to a clear action. It is general CASPer practice rather than an OT or PT answer bank, which is the point, because the test rewards your own judgment, not rehearsed lines.

Common mistakes OT and PT applicants make

• Assuming CASPer is optional because it is newer here. At programs that require it, a missing result can make your application incomplete.
• Preparing for the wrong format. Do not train for a legacy 12-scenario version. The current test is four video and seven typed scenarios.
• Answering like a clinician instead of a communicator. Raters reward how you handle people and decisions, not how much terminology you know.
• Skateboarding past the video section. The one-minute recorded answer is where most applicants freeze. Rehearse it out loud.