Writing effective stories for Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and Picture Perception and Description Test (PPDT) is crucial for success in Services Selection Board (SSB) evaluations. Many candidates create what they believe are excellent stories, yet still face rejection. Understanding the psychological principles behind these assessments can significantly improve your chances of selection.
Understanding TAT and PPDT
The Thematic Apperception Test is not a fact-based assessment but rather evaluates your opinions, emotions, values, and attitudes. When you craft a story around the presented image, you’re projecting aspects of your personality through your responses. The assessors examine:
- What emotional colors and combinations you bring to the narrative
- Which aspects you emphasize in your story
- Whether you demonstrate positive values, emotions, and attitudes
- How you portray helping behaviors, sacrifice, and faithfulness
- Your ability to face challenges constructively
TAT is fundamentally based on perception—how you organize and interpret sensory information to create meaning. The PPDT follows similar principles but specifically tests your immediate perception and storytelling abilities.
Read: 10 reasons why you are screened out from SSB
Essential Elements of Effective TAT and PPDT Stories
The Hero Element
The central character or “hero” of your story is critical. This character serves as your alter-ego and should:
- Match your own demographic profile (age, gender)
- Share similar character traits with you
- Represent how you would ideally respond in challenging situations
- Demonstrate achievement that reflects your own potential
Remember that assessors view the hero’s achievements as manifestations of your own capabilities and character.
Story Structure
A well-constructed story should include:
- A clear protagonist who faces challenges
- Meaningful obstacles that test the hero’s character
- Risk-taking and courage in addressing these challenges
- Temporary setbacks that create opportunities for growth (optional)
- Ultimate success through perseverance and positive qualities
Psychological Elements to Demonstrate
Successful stories typically showcase:
- Challenge-taking ability – The hero must willingly enter difficult situations
- Sense of responsibility – Going beyond basic duties
- Risk-taking capacity – Making difficult choices with uncertain outcomes
- Planning and organizational skills – Systematic approaches to problems
- Competitive spirit – Healthy drive for excellence
- Leadership by example – Inspiring others through actions
- Motivation and inspiration – Positively influencing others
Sample Story Analysis
Consider this example story from a PPDT/TAT exercise:
The image shows a young man pointing at another person who is running, set in evening or night.
Description: It is the picture of a young man pointing out at another person, who is seen running. It is an evening or night scene.
Story: Due to meager representation of youngsters in the recruitment drive of the Army conducted recently, Suresh Kolte, a sports coach started to train the youngsters of Satana village in Maharashtra. In the month of Feb 12, 2008, he started with one boy. After a week the strength went to five. He scheduled morning and evening hours for exercises/race and day/evening for written preparation leaving 6 to 8 hours for other activities. For the entire Feb month, he made them familiar with written and physical tests. Right from March 1, he made the entire course competitive. He started pointing towards the best one to follow the speed and maintain the time in physical as well as written practice session. In the month of April, out the 5 boys, 4 got selected in the recruitment drive organized by the Army at the Southern Command, Pune. Seeing the results, many youngsters joined the centre and started taking training for the next batch.
In the sample story about Suresh Kolte, a sports coach training village youth for Army recruitment, several important psychological elements are demonstrated:
- Challenge-taking: Addressing the low representation of youth in Army recruitment
- Responsibility: Developing a training program for the community
- Planning ability: Creating structured schedules for physical and written preparation
- Competitive spirit: Using competition to drive improvement
- Leadership: Achieving results that inspire others
- Positive impact: Expanding influence as more youth join the program
Also Read: How To Write Selection Grade TAT Stories In SSB?
Interpretation
The Hero under took the challenge, chose the undriven field in that locality (challenging ability). For the said ability, one has to go beyond the duty, which is sense of responsibility. In most of the case, the sense of responsibility is often dubbed with the risk taking ability, which this hero had. His punctuality, dedication of fixing the schedule and training program reveals his planning and organizing ability. Pointing the best one to be followed by the rest one shows competitive ability and motivation. With his hard work and sacrifice, he creates an exemplary result that would mean leadership by example. Seeing the result, youngsters of neighboring villages got themselves motivated and joined the training centre shows the motivation level and inspiration.
Practical Tips for Writing Effective Stories
- Go beyond the obvious – Look deeper than the surface elements of the picture
- Use your imagination constructively – Create meaningful narratives, not just descriptions
- Maintain positive outcomes – Even when including temporary setbacks
- Demonstrate OLQs (Officer-Like Qualities) – Courage, determination, leadership, etc.
- Balance emotion and practicality – Show both human understanding and practical problem-solving
- Create coherent narratives – Ensure your story has logical flow and resolution
- Practice with sample images – Develop your storytelling skills before the actual test
Remember that these tests evaluate not just your creativity but your personality traits and potential as a leader. The stories you create reveal how you perceive challenges and solutions—key insights into your suitability for officer roles.
By understanding these principles and practicing regularly, you can craft stories that genuinely reflect the qualities assessors are seeking, improving your chances of success in SSB screenings.
Also Read
Two brothers Raju and Sanju grew up in a small village in Punjab near the india-pak border. Raju was the elder btbroth and has grown up by seeing the army’s hardwork to protect his small village and had the dream to join Indian army. Raju was the elder brother and the only person to support his family as his parents were become old and cannot take care of themselves and their family, so Raju take up the stand to support his family and buried his dream. One day he saw his brother running 3 hours continuously in the field, when he asked him about what is he doing, Sanju replied – I am very fascinated about how soldiers serve for our nation, what a proud moment and I want that moment to live , so I am preparing for marathon which is going to conducting by Indian army after 3 months and the best 5 will get a chance to join army. Raju become very happy because he got another chance to serve for his nation in form his brother. Without wasting time from the day one he star training his brother, after finishing day work, every evening they practice. And after 3 months Sanju won the marathon and got a call from Indian army For ssb. Because of his hard work and dedication he passed the exam with flying colors and start living the patriotic life.
Good
please comment on my story
akash was capt. in the army and belongs to dist. una himachal. after a long time he met with his friend who was living near to his village. so they decided to go for a walk. while talking they forgot the time and found it was night 8 o clock. while coming to there village they were not finding the way so akash said to his friend showing his finger to see another side of hill and he himself saw the other side.after a quit long time akash found the stone on which they sat and talked quite for long time so they started following the same path and finally reached at home and were very happy with the experience and share with thier family member. everyone enjoyed it.
prashi ur story is good but what i would like to say that u r creating unnecessary problem in ur story.
if u see there is no such problem, this takes ur story in negative way. please try to write positive one.
Ramesh & Suresh were best friends since childhood.As the time passed by Ramesh became an athlete and started representing his state at national level but Suresh had become a part of bad company. One day, when Ramesh was coming from his training, he saw Suresh to run with a purse and villagers following him. He immediately understood the problem and started running after him. As he was athlete so it didn’t take much time to him to catch up Suresh. He caught up him and made him understand that what he is doing is wrong. After Ramesg’s effort, Suresh realised his mistake and he returned that purse to villagers and sought for a forgiveness. After this incident, Suresh started hardwork in which Ramesh helped him to the extent.
Sir please rate this story…
Ram and Hari are two friends.one day both are playing in the hillside of village tubey.both are heared a sound that a kidnapper kept some child and going towards the hill.After watching the situation ram started runnning towrds the kidnapper his friend pointing towards his friend encourage to ram kept that kidnapper,hari went to the village and called some people,when people’s was coming to that place ram fight against the kidnapper the people kept tha kidnapper and han over to the nearest village police station,when ram fought against the kidnapper some of the portion of the body getting injured and took into nearest hospital.the vilage people are very happy for his courage valour for his village………..
sir, i have problem to write stories in tat after four stories. what i should do sir, please help me, my ssb is on 02 nov
The only solution is practice hard.you still have 1 month 30 days……try daily hard
SIR,
I am really very happy that guys like you are helping us a lot. you never delay in replying our quarries, you guys are truly serving the society by helping the defence forces to get more and more officers. THANK YOU very much for your devotion
Thank you so much 🙂
hee….any one knw’s ,from were the ppdt sample’s are dnloded…
Look for the download section in the top navigation.
Sir, if i dont know swimming den can i write in my stories wer it s required to swim tat i swam n did da required job???
Yes but you can use some safety gears and safe method .
@admin,pls tell me about the olqs im trying to show in this story..i know my story is short bt pls tel me as my sbb is near.
pls do tell me about my story.i know its short but i have written in 4 minutes as per ssb…
raj was the sports coach posted in a school. Once he visited his village and found the boys there very active in sports. he found a hiden talent in the boys, since sports facility was not available in his village so he decided to coach and train them for the upcoming national games. first day only 2-3 boys were availbale for training as the days passed, the strength increased and boys trained well for the session.boys went to the national games and won medals and glorified the name of their village. he succeded in training the boys and giving a national status to his village
Anuj is a young B.A. graduate. He along with his friends has planed to go on trekking to the hill in their village Sirohi. Young group of boys forget to keep the times track and it becomes dark while returning back. While they were coming down the hill they heard certain voices coming from other end of the hill.On going to top the saw that a passenger roadway bus has been stuck in midway due to boulders that have fallen from the hill. There were mostly women and children in the bus.As it was quite late he asked one of his friend to go to village and inform the sarpanch about the incident so that he can make arrangement for the passengers to stay at night. Anuj along with rest of boys trekked down. His group helped the passengers to remove boulder and made way for the bus. After staying at village the bus again resumed its journey the next morning.
do comment on my story..
Very well written , I liked the theme also, and certainly it shows lots of OLQs. Keep it up.
Thanks for your comment but I did not understand what is OLQs?
OLQs stand for officers like qualities OLQS click here
Sir please post some women oriented pictures..
Sure , I will soon.
Blank story:
Rohan was a 20yr old young ambitious men from pune. he was state level badminton player. once there was a maharashtra open badminton tournament to be held in pune.he also had taken part in tournament and he practiced regularly for the tournament. he take help of his coach in analysing his mistakes and in overcoming them. with his good practice and determination, he started well in the tournament and reached finals. But this time, the match is going to be tough as his competitor was national player. but he doesnt give up and loose hope. he gone through the weaknesses of the competitor and played his natural game without any pressure. and he won the tournament.
plz judge this story. as you told, that story should be related to you. this is what exactly me a year ago.i need valuable comments sir.
Nice story , but at some point of time you should always mention what you saw in the picture, like here you can add he kept himself physically fit by running 5 kms daily with his coach’s advice.
all the best
exactly sir …sure…
Alex was a young boy living in a small town.He was fond of sports and physical acticvities. once he decided to participate in marathon at his nearest city. He met with his physical teacher in school and asked him for guidance. then every early in the morning alex get up and go for running with his teacher. teacher told him certain techniques. and told him to run on deep ascent paths for good speed and stamina. he followed the instructions. practised hard. and participated in the marathon and he won the marathon. and thanked his teacher. after that he dicided to participate in common wealth games. he started practising hard. now he is qualified for the london olympics. and is the best runner from india.
SIR PLZ CHECK THIS and my interview is in july.
Alex was a young boy living in a small town.He was fond of sports and physical acticvities. once he decided to participate in marathon at his nearest city. He met with his physical teacher in school and asked him for guidance. then every eary in the morning alex get up and go for running with hi teacher. teacher told him certain techniques. and told him to run on deep ascent paths for good speed and stamina. he followed the instructions. practised hard. and participated in the marathon and he won the marathon. and thanked his teacher. after that he dicided to participate in common wealth games. he started practising hard. now he is qualified for the london olympics. and is the best runner from india.
Sir plz rate it… my interview is in july so guide me plz
@Gaurav
Please go through the stories written above, your story in not well framed also keep short term goals for a hero, also write something which we face normally in out life, and something which shows your own quality . Making a small town boy a marathon runner in London Olympics is very difficult , so stick to the normal level of thinking and try to show OLQs .
respected sir there is one request of mine please upload more pictures like u have posted in this section so that we can write the story in the comment section and thereafter get a reply from ur side regarding the nature of the story.
regards:
mohit
Sure I will try meanwhile check this sample stories by readers
@ admin sir i am sending u my story please check this and give me feed back
Do not use drugs and stuff, keep the story normal.
rishab, a young boy, from lahru village was addicted to alcohol and drugs. his health and memory was weakening day by day. he was aware of the severity of his addiction and decided to quit it. he explained the problem to his elder brother and asked him to help. his brother gave him advise to do meditation and yoga to improve his concentration and intellect. he also told him to keep the mind busy in constructive activities. rishab gets motivated and encouraged after it. he wakes up early in the morning to do meditation and yoga . he also went regularly to the rehabilitation center to get proper treatment. he started helping his parents in agriculture works. slowly but finally he got rid from the addiction.
Sir i am writing on my last time experience in ssb in that which was only a boy shown in a dry land…please asses my story now:
Rahul is a class 9 student of Bundi village…In summer when seeing on his condition of the land , people not giving proper attention to the land which makes it a barren land…He took a decision to take the help of Village sarpanch and organised the meeting with the help of his friends and told the people about the new ways of agriculture and about all the new types of medicines and fertilisers so that the people could be benefited from it the maximum. The people thanked rahul and his friends for his efforts and they also understood the importance of education.
Class 9th student ? Please match the character to your age if possible, also this story is very common and predictable.
rakesh was engineering student.one day he and his brother planned to go for picnic.
they decided to visit company garden.they arrived at garden at 7.30am.They did
lots of fun there .they did swimming ,played games ,overall it was a very nice experience for them.the visit to picnic help them to work more effiencently.
Nice one.
karan and rohit were the student of final yr of engineering in nit surat,karan was a blue belt in taekwondo and was the member of taekwondo federation of india one evening he was heading back to his home after having his regular practice with his friend rohit, he found that one man is misbehaving with a girl,karan order his friend rohit to quickly go to nearby police station and inform about the sitation meanwhile he challenged that man with his taekwondo skills and save the girl and later on handover the man to the police,drop the girl to her place safely and reached to their homes respectively.
respected sir can u plz tell me the shortcommings of the story
and how to overcome it.plz rate my story too.
sir i have read all the stories posted in this blog and found
most of them are not relevant to the picture described.none of them has mention the seen described in the picture so is it ok to write such stories which has no connection with the picture.
regards:
mohit
I liked your story, your story is matching with the picture, we can assume some actions in the picture though they are not visible in the picture, like you assumed a girl and a man.
You should not deviate from the picture and avoid writing pre planned stories which are not relevant to the picture at all.
@ admin sir i am sending u my story please check this and give me feed back.i am a b.tech final year student,n going to attend my first ssb in next 24 march.
Ravi is a social worker in remote area n moving around the hilly place,at the evening time he found that one of the younger visitor forget the way to return guest house where his family staying, and the visitor start running in a random way, then Ravi stopped him n convince him to come with him.then he take some shortcut and reach the guest house at time..then the boys family thanked him.
Nice story.
@ admin sir please send me the feedback asap and improvements required.
I guess the way your have framed the story is perfect, just keep practice.
a lot to learn from your story…….
@admin, sir im Attending SSB for second time please give me the feedback about my story,
Ayaz & his friend age 22 & 23 respectively,Both graduate from pune came to spend their winter vacation with their family at a village near by Ahmednagar.One day Ayaz along with his friend went to city theatre to watch a marathi play.While heading back to their village they saw a Old couple along with their daughter were looking for a mechanic as their car got punctured.Ayaz approached them and enquired about the problem.As it was late night they couldnt find a mechanic.Ayaz requested them to stay at his place for a night and can continue their journey the next day.The family agreed.Ayaz arranged for their dinner at his place.The next morning he send a Car mechanic and got the repair.By afternoon car got repaired and the family thanked him & continued their journey.
Very nice and +ve approach , keep it up
cg
@ admin plz rate my story my ssb on 19 feb 2011
Nice
Manoj,25 yrs old capt. in Indian army.One day he with his team returned from a base camp saw that some people are at a gun point by a group of robbers.He planned with his team to attacked on the robbers and caught them but one of them try to escape capt shoot his leg by pistil and caught him.In this way he with his team saved the life of the people and got warm regards and honor by the people.
@admin please rate my story…..
and please let me know if i choose secondary date for ssb without any strong reason will it create a negative impact….because i know my preperation for ssb is not up to the mark…..
Practices for Annual festival in college were on its peak everyone was busy in practice to win in there respective field Rahul also participated in 100 mtr race.One day Rahul’s best friend who was physically challenged told him that he has participated in singing competition which is 3 days after the sports event and need a new guitar for which he is short of 3500 rs Rahul told his friend that he has only 2000 rs and assured him that he will try to arrange 1500 more.Rahul was asking some other friends for help and he came to know that a special race of 12k.m has been organised by the pannel for which rewrad would be 5000 rs Rahul decided to help his friend by winning this race so he started practicing hard for it even at night he used to practice and was accompnied by other friend who used to note his timings daily{as shown in picture}.On final day he won his 100 mtr race as well as 12km special race and helped his friend with balance amount who also stood first in singing competition and later all three friends enjoyed a small party with winning amount.
Hi sir screning feels me very tough how i can crack screning..
thanku sir
@abhilash Good story .
@DMIN SIR PLEASE COMMENT ON MY STORY
Ajay is a young guy completed his graduation in B.TECH .To enjoy summer vacation he went to his village.He has been meeting his old friends in the village.
One day while returning to home he saw an old man lying down unconsciously. Soon he want to rush to the hospital and call for an ambulance but he was not sure about the way but he initiated with a ray of hope on the way he found a gentle man and asked him the way.The gentleman guided him to the hospital and Ajay was succeeded in bringing the ambulance in stipulated time and saved the old man’s life
@Saurav
You can buy a good book for SSB interview preparation .
https://ssbcrack.com/2011/07/blog-post.html
Gud evening sir,first off all i would like to thank you for giving us such an information.
sir please tell me what should i do to get prepared for TAT.
like is there any book or something else….
Thank you…
@Priya
Because its mostly for PC and girls comes in SSC ie OTA.
stilllllllllll waiting 4d answer……….
well ya smart thinking is desired.
thank u Harman.
@ajay I just want to say one thing….Be Honest, but be smart as well.
And i think if one wants to join army he or she should be as original as he was born.
@harman: i have experienced the same at allahabad when i attended the SSB for UES entry.after analyzing my SSB i came to a decision that coaching manipulated my original thoughts and psycology was horrible.Although coaching helped me somewhat in GTO’s but i thing i was fake at the psycology.And i could have done it excellently if i was not coached for this.
Also remember one thing, While improving yourself, don’t do it with a motive of preparing for the SSB, don’t think about the results. Do it to prepare for you LIFE, for your future and anything and everything you aim for.
@ajay…I am not an expert, but i would like to share my experience with you. I have been to one SSB in allahabad. I took some training before going to the SSB, thinking that it would help me to understand the process and perform better. It did help me to a certain extent but I took a wrong direction last time. My psychology test was horrible. All I did after coming back is introspected and improved. There is a code to crack the SSB, That is improve your thought process. The desired thoughts will lead to desired actions. We all know all the OLQs, but how many of us practice that. We don’t, not because we can’t but because we do not inculcate them in us. Trust me, if your thought process improves rest all will fall in place. Training for SSB is good, but only to know more about your weaknesses. What you do after knowing your weaknesses, is totally upon you. All you need to do is follow a small plan, It may be difficult at start, but you’ll soon realize it works.
# Introspect,
# Self realization,
# Improve, specially your thought process
Be humble while doing anything, because humility never lets you be over confident.
Rest use your own discreet and common sense.
Harman, I am ex President of an SSB and I cant agree more with you. You are on the dot. Understanding of SSB training amongst the aspirants is inadequate. that is why so many people fail the simplest test like SSB.
a typical question …..y r girls not eligible 2 apply for airforce or naval academy through cds exam however boys can do so ?…i know there r other exams 4navy & airforce…but y not through cdse ??????
sir,
i want to ask u that the coaching manipulates your original ideas? And you are at more risk of contradiction during the PI ?
@Ajay
Coaching makes you ready for the test, also its not the assurance of 100% success , but quite help full. And you are support to write such stories shows your quality .
if you are coached then does it make a difference because you write stories filled up with all the qualities as the caoching institute told you?
@Priya
Do not get exhausted and write all the story with same interest .
do all our stories connect our psychology or sometimes there comes something conflicting as we continously write 12 stories which sometimes leads to exhaustion cz of which one isn’t able 2write the stories after completeing 6-7 stories..
i mean in the starting stories candidate seems 2b brave but not in the last stories…
@Ajay
He amuses the hero of the story as you and find out the qualities of you.
what do a psycologist look in a story
Two brothers ramesh and suresh, after watching first show of cinema are walking back home.Suddenly they heard a blasting sound on the road they are walking.Immediately they ran to the location to see what happened.They saw two motor cars has undergone an accident.Both of them went in a hurry to see how badly the people inside the cars were hurt.After seeing their critical position ramesh asked suresh to go and fetch a doc near by, where as ramesh goes and picks up police near by, as it is an accident and doc will not treat until police comes and sees the situation.Finally both brothers are successful in doing their tasks.The persons who undergone accident given some treatment in that location and taken to hospital.
@Siddharth
Yes, blank story gives you a chance to express something important, in other words something you remember the most, like a problem you faced and how you tackled it. It could be any story related to you.
Sir in TAT a blank slide is also shown in the end.
What story can be made for this slide ?
Thank you sir. Please continue this with more stories.
THNK U SIR FOR THE VALUBLE INFORMATION, I REQUEST U TO PLZ CONTINUE THIS WITH NEW STORIES
Nice one!!!
Yes
dat means v have 2 write 12 stories
Different stories according to the picture shown to you…
in TAT 12 pics r shown……do we have 2 write only one story or different story for different pics
There is no 1st and last SSB its always a fresh attempt …
Sir Can SSB be cleared in 1st attempt ???
good job sir ……
Rakshit, sure, soon you will get the post on Personal interview.
thanx alot sir…..
hope u will keep giving us such nice info time to time.
please write smthng on interview
nic 🙂
Hope this information help you all and brings future officers for our country .
Thanks a lot sir for valuable information
Most Welcome 🙂
thnk u sir for dis….:)