Mastering the CASPer Exam: Written Section

Like many others, I found the written section of the exam to be easier than the video response section. This doesn't mean that it's not still challenging! Find below my tips for conquering this section.

1. Type, type, type: A significant determiner of your score on the CASPer's written section is your ability to type out your responses as fast as you think of them. Unlike the video responses, where you can relay your thoughts as soon as you have them, the written section requires your typing skills to match your thinking skills. This is why I recommend completing several typing tests to figure out your WPM (words per minute). Average typing speeds range from about 30-40, but the faster your speed the more you'll be able to answer the question! I type at a speed of 96 WPM; while this is a bit extreme, I'd recommend getting yours up to at least 50-60 in order to adequately respond to written questions.

2. Read Ahead: The written responses allow you o see all of the questions at once. This portion of the exam gives you a larger chunk of time to answer 3 written questions about the same prompt. I recommend reading all 3 prompts as soon as you land on the page, then proceeding with answering the questions one by one. This will help you avoid repeating yourself, or accidentally answering question #2 when you're writing out your answer to question #1.

3. Brain Dump: You approach to this section should be a little different than your approach to the video section. While in the video section, I stressed quality over quantity, this section should push you to prioritize both. While this may seem difficult (or impossible), I'll elaborate by explaining that the longer your written answers are, the more opportunity for you to hit gold! In other words, typing out every thought that you can allows you to give a more all-encompassing, comprehensive response. The longer the answer, the more details you can include to provide graders with a good idea of your entire solution.