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My Target Service Selection Board (SSB)

Few Tips Related to TAT Thematic

Apperception Test

TAT is the Thematic Apperception Test, a part of the battery of psychological tests conducted in
the SSB Interview. It is test of imagination where 11+1 pictures are displayed on the screen.

Given below are few tips which you may find useful while tackling TAT:

1. It is a test of your imagination and you
have to imagine and write a story.
Remember it is a story writing and not
describing the picture.
2. You story should clearly have a hero.
Now this Hero is very important. This is
so because this Hero represents you.
3. The thing a person writes or says or in
other words the kind of reaction a
person gives depicts his/her personality
in a great deal. Hence the kind of story
you make depict your personality to a
certain extent.
4. Thus the Hero represents you. So make the Hero a positive character.
5. You story must be a positive story.
6. The story should have a past, a present and a future. The picture which is shown according
to which you frame the story must appear somewhere in the story, most likely in the present
part of the story.
7. Observe the picture very carefully and note down the minutest detail in your mind, they will
help you in framing the story nicely.
8. Never write a pre-conceived story. Also do not try to forcefully fit something in the picture.
Write only around what is shown.
9. Now some pictures may appear totally negative. A gloomy face, a dead body, an accident
scene etc. What to do then? In these cases don’t overlook and avoid what is very evidently
visible, instead try to make a positive ending.
10. Don’t unnecessarily put negativity in your story. A sad face doesn’t imply death all the time,
so do not make negative stories. You have to make it positive.
11. Generally the structure of the story is that there is a hero. There is some information related
to how things led to the present scenario (The picture), then the Hero solves the problem
thus giving a positive ending.
12. Give realistic aim, and practical problems and their solutions. Do not give impractical views or
childish imagination.
13. An ideal story lies between 80-100 words. A shorter story is not better, so practice writing
fast. There is ample sample material present on our website.
14. Choose the age and profession of the main lead of your story very carefully. The age should
be exactly what is evident from the picture. And choose the profession according to the age.
15. In case of many characters in the clip, choose the one closest to your age as your hero. In
case of pictures in which it is very difficult to determine the age, there also choose the age
nearest to yours. But do not forcefully give the age of very evident characters near to your
age. For e.g. If in the picture only one child of 5 years is shown then do not write his age as
21 years in the story.

A good story has a motto, however small it may be, but it should be practical, mature and realistic
motto.