This is an empathy scenario — one of the nine core aspects assessed in CASPer. Empathy questions explore your ability to understand another person's emotional experience and respond in a way that is genuinely supportive, rather than simply doing what feels helpful to you.
Scenarios like this appear because the ability to support someone who is struggling — without imposing, pressuring, or withdrawing — is a core human and professional skill. In any setting where you work with people, you will encounter individuals who are not ready to accept help. How you respond in those moments says a great deal about your emotional intelligence and your understanding of what support actually looks like.
This scenario isn't about whether you convince your friend to seek help. It's about whether you can sit with the discomfort of not being able to fix things, respond to how your friend actually feels rather than how you think they should feel, and remain present without overstepping.
A close friend confides in you that they have been struggling significantly — they mention feeling overwhelmed, falling behind at work, and not sleeping. When you suggest they speak to a professional or reach out for support, they become defensive and insist they are fine and just needed to vent.
You are genuinely concerned about them. This is not the first time they have brushed off your concern, and you can see that things are not improving.
Before you read the analysis below, try it yourself. In the real test you get 60 seconds to read and reflect, then 3 minutes 30 seconds to answer both questions. Read the scenario above, give yourself a moment to think, then start the timer and write your responses. Come back and see how your thinking compares.
What would you do in this situation?
🟦 SituationalTell me about a time when you supported someone who was going through a difficult time. What did you learn about how people respond to help?
🟩 ReflectiveThis scenario pairs a situational question with a reflective question — a common combination in CASPer. Each requires a different approach.
Question 1 is situational — it asks what you would do. A strong answer acknowledges your friend's feelings and perspective first, before explaining what steps you would take and why. The emphasis here is on responding to the person, not solving the problem.
Question 2 is reflective — it asks you to draw on personal experience. A strong reflective answer doesn't just tell a story — it extracts a genuine insight. What did you learn? Not what happened, but what it taught you about how support works and what people actually need.
Empathy scenarios are deceptively difficult because they trigger the instinct to help — and helping feels like the right thing to do. The problem is that what feels helpful to you may not be what your friend needs right now. Pushing someone to seek support when they aren't ready can damage trust and make them less likely to open up in the future.
Weaker responses tend to fall into one of two traps: either continuing to push the friend toward professional help despite their resistance, or backing off entirely out of respect for their wishes. Stronger responses find the more nuanced path — staying present, keeping the door open, and letting the friend lead without abandoning them.
The reflective question is also where many students lose marks. They tell a story about supporting someone but don't go deep enough on what it taught them. The most valuable learning in support situations is often about what didn't work — and why. That kind of honest reflection stands out.
There is no word count requirement in CASPer. Quality of thinking matters more than word count.
For empathy scenarios in particular, longer is not better. A response that spends three sentences genuinely engaging with how your friend might be feeling will land better than a response that spends ten sentences listing actions. Depth of understanding matters more than breadth of response.
Empathy scenarios assess your ability to understand another person's perspective and respond with genuine care — especially when their response to your support is not what you expected. Strong responses hold space for someone's feelings without imposing their own agenda, while still acting in that person's best interest.
Showing empathy in a CASPer response means acknowledging the other person's feelings and situation before deciding what to do. It means considering why they might be reacting the way they are, not just what the right action is. High-scoring responses weave empathy into both the reasoning and the action — it's not a separate step, it's a lens.
For reflective questions, describe a real or realistic experience, explain what happened and how you felt, identify what you learned from it, and show how that experience has shaped how you think or act now. Genuine insight and self-awareness matter more than an impressive story.
For each scenario you get 60 seconds to read and reflect, followed by 3 minutes and 30 seconds to answer both questions. Practicing under timed conditions helps you learn how to split your time effectively between the two questions.
The nine core aspects assessed in CASPer are: Collaboration, Communication, Empathy, Fairness, Ethics, Motivation, Problem-Solving, Resilience, and Self-Awareness. Each scenario is linked to one or more of these aspects.
Try typed and video practice with feedback — built on the Response Method framework.
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