Er. Neha Godbole: Day 2 Psychological Tests

What is Psychological Test(PT)?

PT are conducted by a skilled person, usually a psychologist who finds the personality of a person/candidate and evaluates them whether he/she fits for a service(defense) or any job by using different tools and methodology.

In PT procedure, series of tests are conducted and each is of different types which reveals our personality clearly to the psychologist. In this, a candidate should be true to himself/herself so that it will be easy for you perform well in the PT and also easy for the psychologist to evaluate our personality.

Let we come about the tests in five day process,

i) Thematic Appreciation Test.

ii) Word Association Test.

iii) Situation Reaction Test.

iv) Self Description.

Thematic Appreciation Test:-

Thematic appreciation is a projection test in which a candidate is shown up a series of picture on that the candidate has to put up his own individual views(stories). i.e. A hazy(unclear) series of 11 + 1 picture are shown to the candidates where the canidate has to write down a story for the picture. The 12 th picture is the empty picture in which the candidate has to imagine a situation and write a story according to that. This is also called as imagination process, as this may be used to stimulate the thoughts of future ambitions etc. i.e. A candidate want to do in his future etc.

The hazy picture shown may be of different real life situation i.e. a person aged 21 might have come across of different situations in life(easy, social adoptation, extra curricular, adventures, challenging, etc). These pictures remember the candidates the hidden thoughts. By these things the psychologist assess the character of the candidate and map these with the PIQ which we filled on the screening day. Then they make a clear view about our personality. These document will be forwarded to the personal interviewing(PI) officer and GTO so that they cross check with our reactions in GTO and PI whether we are truthful with our replies and actions.

Protocols to write the story:-

There are about 12 pictures are shown to the candidates in a big auditorium, in which 11 are hazy one i.e. not clear which interprets differen views for different persons and the last one is empty picture. There fore totally 12 pictures were shown. The hazy pictures were shown to us for 30 seconds to think a story and time given to write the story is 3-4 minutes.

Data given in the picture for writing the story:-

The picture consists of a hero, different environmental situations, different characters etc. If there is no hero, then we have to create a hero of our age and same sex.

Important parts of a story:-

The story should consists of a hero, social environment in which the hero acts, other characters and the main theme or core / concept of the story.

Tips for creating a hero in the story:-

The hero of the story should be of same age/sex as the story writer / candidate. Also we have to give a name for the hero of the story. As this shows that how the candidate is putting himself to the story and react. This clearly shows the psychologist to get our attitude towards different stories and they easily take our officer like qualities.

Also the hero should find a solution for the problem in the story and he should not be a cause for the problem. The work done by the hero of the story should be as a normal good energetic youth and should not be like a great super star hero. The important point is the story should be positive. This is very important in the whole process what ever, all the things done by us should be positive. Be optimistic by nature.

Friends and Supportive characters in the story:-

In a story if it is related to a team work and organising theme, it requires a group of friends or supportive character, for this create a group of friends and no need to give name for these friends or supportive characters.

Core of the story:-

The core of the story is how the hero is acting for the situation, how the hero is using the materials in the picture, how the hero is extracting the works from the team or friends, etc. This is the middle part of the story.

Also in the TAT story the protocol followed is three:-

i) what led to the situation( 2-3 lines)

ii) what is happening in the situation( 4-5 lines)

iii) what is the outcome of the situation.(1-2 lines)

Writing a story( Be postive and result should be postive):-

In the starting of the story, give a introduction to the hero, as he is named ....... doing this etc. then give a challenging or problamatic situation in the introduction scene.

In the middle of the story give a broad view of the hero to solve that problem along with resources available to him in that environment and how he uses that

resources effectively.

In the final end of the story, give the outcome of the story. And no need to praise the hero at the end of the story.

Do's and Dont's for Writing the story:-

Write the story in the past ( as this shows that you are implementing your real life experience in the given situation(picture))
Give a small and legible name for the hero.
Avoid stereo type stories( writing all stories related to army, navy, airforce etc as it doesnt look natural).
Give some risks and adventures to the hero and it should be of some real life one. Dont give the hero a situation where a supeman can do.
The Hero should lead the story towards a positive outcome by overcoming the problems. The rest of the friends or team members should only follow him.
Make all pictures positive one, even though it is given in negative convert it to positive and write the story. Be optimistic in your views.
Avoid giving morals or advice at the end of the story.
Also dont waste your time by describing what is happening in the picture.

How to write a negative story to positive one?

If you find in a picture that two people are fighting , the write the story as he is a boy named Ram and aged 22 etc. he is a state level light weight boxing champion. While preparing for his national level eligibility exam last year he got injured in his ankle. Later he cured it and prepared well in advance for this year national level boxing competition. So by his proper planning and preparation he won the championship. Like this if we see two guys fighting with each other may remember a scenario where two persons are fighting in streets, but we should be optimistic in our views and also write the story in same manner.

Giving Title to the story:-

As this varies from one board to another board, follow the psychologist advice.

WAT - Word Association Test:-

WAT is also one of the projection technique used by the psychologist to find the personality of the candidate. Different type of real life usage words are shown to the candidates by which candidate imagination is shown in his response. So the psychologist easily found the views of the candidates on different words, such as his emotional responses, how that word is registered in his mind. WAT is used to the find the emotional stability or responses, this is a process to find the attitude of a person.

Procedure for Writing the WAT:-

A series of 60 words are shown in the projector, the words are real life situation words and regular usage words and we have to give a meaningful response to those words. The response should be postive one.With the help of our response the psychologist assess our attitude with the help of our PIQ(social back ground) what we likes and dislikes, views on social status, and different environments. Dont worry and dont confuse more about WAT, write the positive sentence and response should reveal honesty, friendly, liveliness, i.e. it shows all the olq - officer like qualities of the candidates.

Protocols to write the WAT:-

60 words are shown in a sequence and time given to respond is 15 seconds. Within which we have to write a positive response to the word. The psychologist call for serial number for each word, also you people should be careful in marking the response for the correct serial number.

Negative Words in WAT:-

Negative words are also given in the WAT, in which the candidate has to approach it positively and have to show their knowledge in that.

Eg. Sex - Sex ratio in kerala is more.

Impossible - Proper planning of word makes impossible outcome to possible.

Like this approach the words positively. If you try to approach every word positively then it easily shows your olq's to the psychologist.

Tips for writing the WAT:-

Its not necessary that the word shown should be a part of th sentence and or else starting of the sentence.
Avoid proverbs
Show your knowledge and response
Avoid advices by using words such as should, could, would, etc
If you dont get any idea for a word, better leave it empty since writing anything negatively creates bad impression for you.
The handwritng should be legible and good.
The words can be used as in verb form, noun, adjective and adverb.
Use the responses to be in past and present, avoid the future as it shows imaginary.

SRT - Situation Reaction Test:-

SRT is followed after the WAT. The time between these process is of maximum 10 minutes. The give a question paper and a separate answer sheet for our responses. The space given for single answer is 2 to 3 lines only. So we have to write our reaction precise and good. SRT is nothing but our response to different life situations. What they expect in SRT is to be practical and the candidate should win over every situation in a normal practical manner. They dont expect the candidate to be a hero or like spiderman to achieve everything like a super hero. So the reaction should be normal, worthful and reliable.

From our child hood to our adult (ages 22-25) we may come across different tough or easier situations, Like that same situations are given in the question booklet. We have to write down our response in the given answer sheet. The total number of questions is 60 and the total time given for the SRT is 30 minutes.

So the time for each question is 30 seconds on an average. So our response, handwriting must be good.

The important tool to answer the SRT well is our presence of mind. My piece of advise i.e how to practice SRT is while reading daily news paper you may read different situations on news. Just put yourself to those situations and analyse how you will react like that. By these note down your reactions and check the qualities(OLQ). Why iam telling this means, even if a candidate has less common sense in the situation of emergency, by practising like this he may acquire those things. So this practice is useful for common life also.

The respone varies from different age persons in these type of PT. So they expect our maturity of thought in our replies. Out of 60 questions atleat try to do minimum of 40 questions. Try to do maximum but with good quality. Since in the selection process the Quality matters and not the quantity.

Approach every situation with right personality(good attitude). Just show yourself as positive and never show any type of fear in those situations. Since in defence life they dont want a person having fear and negative mentality.

THEO in SRT - Sometimes, A imaginary character is created in the SRT questions and the candidate has to put themself in the place of THEO and have to react to the situations.

Eg:- THEO wins a lottery of 1 crore. What he will do?

Reaction : Gives the required money to his father, and saves some money for future business and savings. Give the remaining money for the Prime Minister Relief Fund.

Analysis of the Reaction: In this the candidate first put himself in the place of 'THEO'. Then how he reacts is , i.e. the candiate shows himself as a responsible candidate by helping his father and future savings. Also he is giving remaining money to the prime minister fund, as this shows he is having national spirit and helping tendancy. Like this the psychologist will note down your qualities.

Important:- The time constraint is important in this process, so the candidate has to think and work fastly as soon as possible. Practice well with various real life situations as i told earlier, then surely you will get enough time to respond to the situation.

Important Tips for SRT:-

Use telegraphic key words to answer the sentence as this saves time.
Dont respond more elaborately, respond precisely in a manner i.e. the psychologist can understand.
Dont lose in any situation , the candidate should not lose in any situation, so write logic response in which candidate should win in every situation.
Also dont jump from one question to next, some people say answer the first you feel easy. But its absolutely wrong , Why iam saying is an armed officer wont switch from one tough situation to another easy one, he has to win in every situation. So answer all in a sequence and dont jump.
Try to keep in mind, the quality is matter and not the quantity. So give priority to quality of the reaction than the quantity. But try to maximum i.e. more than 40.
Some situations may be repeated i.e. the meaning of the question is same but the way asked is vary. So be constant in your thoughts and responses.
Show all your good(OLQ) qualities. Dont show cowardness or fear. Be positive in your reaction.
Few SRT Questions to practice:-
All his family members are ill and his father is out of town. There is no money in the home. What he will do........
He doesn't find a interesting subject to study so he
On opening the door of his bathroom in his room he finds a big snake hanging from the ceiling. he...
He returns late in night from N.C.C camp. His step mother doesn't allow him in. He.......

Self Description:-

Self Description is the last in the PT(Day-2). Self description is nothing but putting ourself in the view of ourself and in the view of our close ones(parents, teacher, friends). The time given for this process is 15 minutes. So in this process also the candidate should be fast by mind and also by hand writing.

Try to keep margin in the left side of the answer sheet and write neatly, as why iam telling is the personal interviewing(PI) officer will read this before we enter into the panel. As I told earlier, he just cross checks our Self Description by triggering various types of question in the PI. So write it neatly.

The main description of this processis we have to write about ourself i.e. what we are thinking about ourself., about our parents, friends and teachers i.e. what we are thinking about our parents, teachers and freinds.

For the working professionals, they will order us to write like, write what your co-workers or boss think about you. ( the working professionsl have to write this instead of teachers).

Let we come to test scene, The psychologist commands the students as

Write about yourself, your strength, weakness
Write about your parents
Write about your teachers
Write about your friends

(or)

What you parents will say about you
What your friends will say about you
What your teacher will say about you
What your friends will say about you
Write about yourself

The aim of this process is to assess the candidate i.e. whether he has the maturity to think and assess about themself or not. It also gives the clear idea about oneself. Since no body can able to tel about a person rather than the self.

Preparation for Self Description:-

Since it is like an released question paper before an exam, ask your parents, good friends, teachers about you and write it in a good paragraph.
Try to write those set of paragrahs with in the stipulated time (10-15 mins)
Also you think and write the good points about your parents, teachers and freinds.
Spend more time in writing the own self description about yourself and find the right positive and negative points about you.
Try to do some works to overcome those negative points. Since the IO may ask you in the PI that what are the things you are doing to overcome your short comings.
Try to give the correct information about you. Dont bluff or tel lies. As it lowers your chance of getting selected.
Dont waste time by telling more about your native, school and all. Try to show your true character in this.

Example for Self Description:-

Self Opinion:-

I am optimistic, candid, responsible boy. I want to do my things successfully. I am confident with my thinking and analysis that i can able to convince my surroundings with my points. I used to do exercise regularly to keep myself fit. The game now iam playing is table tennis. My hobbies are blogging. I want to satisfy my surrounding people upto my extent and want to keep them happy.

Things i want to improve is , i want to develop my technical skills, also iam working on that now by putting extra time

Friends Opinion:-

My friends say me as practical person as i put forward my points as outspoken. They feel happy and secured when iam with them, since i can able to handle situations easily. They like my helping tendancy in education and all.

Teachers Opinion:-

My teacher say me as an above average student in studies and good at obedience. Also they like my participating attitude in extra curricular activities. They say that iam good at mathematics and lovable person at class as i have lot of friends.

Parents Opinion:-

My parents say me as responsible boy as i support my family after degree by going to job and also they have a lot of affection over me for giving them a good name in the society. They have belief over me that i wiill achive my aim to become a officer in armed forces, and they are giving full support for me to achieve that.