Should I prepare for admission tests?

CASPer and MMIs: better than before, but still not good enough

When I say I’m mentoring applicants for limited enrolment programs to help them prepare for their admission tests, I sometimes get an uneasy feeling from the people I’m talking to.

Why?

Digging a little deeper, I found this idea: that the new selection process would be valid because it would allow to know who the candidates really are. And that, therefore, preparing for the various stages of this process would be tantamount to biasing it. Granted, the modalities of situational judgement tests (SJTs) such as the CASPer and the MMI (Multiple Mini Interview) are less effective at selling someone you’re not than conventional interviews. But do they necessarily show your true self?

Here are the 4 main reasons why they don’t:

1. You type slowly, badly or both

   
   

As I often tell the mentees I support in their CASPer preparation, it’s not about writing a lot, but about writing relevant points.

That said, someone who can write a lot more slightly less relevant points will still be at an advantage… whereas keyboarding speed is a skill that should be sought after for potential stenographers, but has absolutely no connection with the practice of healthcare, law, etc.

Also, you may have difficulty structuring your sentences quickly or tend to neglect spelling when focused on the content. Literary aesthetics shouldn’t be a consideration, but if evaluators have trouble understanding your ideas, your ranking is bound to be affected – again, for a skill quite far removed from those that should be sought.

(Rest assured: if you have a learning disability in the spectrum of dyslexia-dysorthographia, you will be granted extended writing time. However, discrimination based on writing quality will [unfortunately] remain).

At Career Access, we especially help our mentees to be better at synthesizing their ideas for time-sensitive written tests such as the CASPer. We trust the test modalities to bring out candidates’ spontaneous thinking. Nonetheless, for an argument to be convincing in their mind and convincing when they write it, it needs to be well organized. This is where our own expertise comes into play.

And with a bit of luck, Quebec universities will end up considering oral answers in their ranking of candidates…

2. You woke up on the wrong side of the bed

   
   

This is a problem for all exams that propose to determine a person's overall skills based on a performance over a few hours.

Let's say your MMI day isn't your best day because 1) you had a falling out the night before with your significant other, 2) you're in the process of managing a friend's crisis and are worried about him, or 3) your beloved dog recently died (by swallowing your homework)?

There's no excuse: this is your chance to prove yourself.

The Career Access team can't guarantee that you'll never have another conflict with your partner, that your friends' lives will go smoothly, or that your dog will survive the ingestion of an integral calculus assignment. On the other hand, we'll give you tips for managing your emotions in the context of high-stakes tests, so that you can put the negative on ice and refocus on your professional goals for the duration of a role-play.

3. You’re stressed out and paralysed by stress

   
   

Whether it’d be during CASPer or MMI, you can't afford to freeze. You need to be able to always think at your best.

But you know that your entry into medical school (to take just one example) is being decided on that day, and it's stressing you out to the point of making you sick.

Some people have a lower stress reaction, are less sensitive to their own stress or know how to control it better. If you're not one of these people, stress will affect your performance on the admission tests.

One could say that stress management is a sought-after skill in potential healthcare, legal and even teaching professionals. (McGill University's teaching program has been asking its candidates to take the CASPer for a few years now... and we can only hope that those at Université de Montréal, UQAM, Université Laval, Université de Sherbrooke and all the other institutions that lead to teacher certification will soon do the same).

And one would be right.

But it's not the only one. And accepting that tests are made in such a way that a person paralyzed by stress has no opportunity to demonstrate his or her other qualities, means that limited enrolment programs run the risk of missing out on excellent candidates – who would still have many years ahead of them to learn how to prevent their stress from being so problematic as to make them bad practitioners.

Nobody wants that. Especially not you, if practicing medicine is your dream.

What Career Access can help you with is practice, practice, and more practice (and good feedback) so that you feel more confident. If you're confident on the day of the admission tests, you'll be less stressed. And your brain will be more available to show your best.

4. You belong to an ethnocultural minority

   
   

Admission tests are [probably] not discriminatory. Yet research shows that applicants from ethnocultural minorities are less likely to be selected than those from the majority.

The probable explanation? The importance of communication.

After all, the professional principles sought in a given field are the same the world over. Only the methods vary – which are verified after training, not before. But that a doctor should be empathetic and a lawyer eloquent is pretty universal.

The problem with tests that rely heavily on expression and discussion is that you may be less understood. You may have a poor grasp of French, or even a good command of it, but your automatisms may be faulty under pressure and when you're expressing yourself quickly. If your ideas are poorly rendered, you may give the false impression of making illogical connections or poorly organizing your speech.

Your mentor at Career Access may have experienced the same difficulty – and overcame it. And if he hasn't experienced such challenges because his name is Frédéric Tremblay and his father is from the Saguenay (I plead guilty), he understands them and will be able to advise you on the best way to say things that will make you stand out.

Because this ethnocultural difference is also a wealth, and it would be a pity if limited enrolment programs were to be deprived of it because of misunderstandings.

Getting ready – right down to unbiased admission tests

We already made a giant leap from conventional interview to MMI. The CASPer introduction was another big step. The selection process for programs in healthcare, law, etc. is improving all the time. The biases inherent in the limitations – financial and organizational – of admissions tests are diminishing more and more. But they remain. And as long as they remain, preparing for them will remain relevant.

And as long as preparing yourself remains relevant, Career Access is your best option for solid, diversified, and personalized support towards the career you’re aiming for.