“It doesn’t matter if you have failed, if you had been beaten. All that really matters is if you get back up and try again. Because winning is fun, but winning when nobody thought you would, is just awesome.”
Thematic appreciation test is the very first test of the Psychology round that is conducted on candidates who clear the screening process. It consists of 12 stories out of which 11 stories are hazy and 1 blank slide is presented in front of candidate. You get 30 seconds to think and 4 minute to write the story. The hazy pictures are presented because it is assumed that the candidate will reveal happenings of his life, through the stories. Also through these hazy pictures different situations are shown and it is expected that the qualities of social adaptation, leadership, adventure, team work might come out. The blank picture is presented, so as to analyse the thought process of candidate and his ability to link with the sequence shown to him. This is also linked to his imagination power as through this blank slide the psychologist tries to gather the idea of what a candidate has in mind for his future. It might be linked to his/ her vision, mission of life.
It is also said that the qualities that the psychologist gathers are compared with those shown in PIQ and forwarded to GTO and PI officer for crosschecking. So if anyone wants to fake in SSB it is not at all possible because similar things would be checked throughout in all the processes and if they interfere then only can a candidate have his chances for recommendation. Now everybody would be thinking of how to write an effective story. So here it is.
Remember your story should have the following:
- A hero performing some action
- Description of environmental conditions
- Different characters
- Main theme and story should revolve around that
- Past, present , future related events of story
Few tips to make stories effective:
- Hero of story as framed by you should have a name
- Hero should deliver an action which is possible in real life.
- Theme of story should be positive, try to show your optimistic nature.
- Age , sex and mood of the hero and relevant character should also come out of story
- Try avoiding grammatical errors to make story more effective
- It should be written clearly, so that the efforts of psychologist goes in extracting qualities and not in guessing what is written
- Try to convert negative pictures also in positive tone
I still remember the following lines: ‘Your future begins with your next thought’ ~~ Bryant McGill. And it’s true give a thought before penning down to create your future. Feel free to get in touch with me for quick tips and converting your dreams into reality.
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Jayendra Singh, Editorial TeamJayendra is pursuing MBA from IIM Ranchi and is a die heart counsellor for defence aspirants. He was recommended in the first attempt for Indian navy UES entry and is willing to help aspirants to make use of his experience in this field.
