Questions about caster level

My friend was reading a set of variant rules for 3.5 that use the Elder Scroll races and for the Altmer their racial trait is that they cast arcane spells as though they were one caster level higher, what exactly does this mean? Casters were never my strong point.

What it means is when determining effects or duration of a spell they are considered to be 1 level higher than they actually are. So for example lets say you are playing a 1st level Altmer Wizard and you cast Mage armour. The duration for the spell is 1 hour per caster level. As a first level wizard your caster level is 1 but because you are an Altmer you are considered to have a +1 caster level so as a first level wizard your mage armour would last for 2 hours as your caster level is considered to be 2. Any other race casting Mage armour as a first level wizard would only have it last for 1 hour. I hope this helps you, if not I have no qualms explaining further.

It means when you cast a spell you treat your caster level as one higher. Example: if you are a 5th level wizard (5th level caster) and you cast a fireball you normally do 5d6 damage. However, if you treat your caster level a 5+1=6 then you would do 6d6.  Note: I do not know the Altmer racial trait so it may have restrictions regarding what you can apply your caster level increase to.  - Gauss

No that actually just nudged the information to the center of my mind, I felt kind of dumb for not realizing that's what it meant, thank you

Nothing to feel dumb about, if you don't play a caster frequently then it is normal for you to now immediately remember all the ins and outs of them.