Page 43 - Failure to Triumph - Journey of A Student

My Target Service Selection Board (SSB)

Word Association Test

Word Association Test is a test that is conducted under the Psychological testing series. This test
is conducted for the candidates who have successfully passed the screening test. This test is very
important as it reflects the way you think and brings out your personality.

In this test, the candidates are shown 60 words, one after the other and are expected to make
sentences using those words. Your sentence can make use of any form of the word. For example, if
the word is run, then your sentence can use any form of the word run as run, ran, running, etc. For
every word, a time of around 15 seconds are given after which, the next word is shown. You have to
see the word and write a sentence within those thirty seconds. As you are bound by time, so you
cannot mask your original responses. Hence, practice is highly required for that test. The difficulty of
the words is not very high. Remember, the test is to test your personality and your behavior, not your
vocabulary. However, you need to have a good vocabulary, as it helps in the other parts of the
interview.

 WAT helps psychologist to understand the real behavior of the candidate under pressure.
 WAT totally depends on how you react to words in your real life.
 A better introspection will help you to know your real personality, your interests, your fears
and your weaknesses. By knowing your weaknesses one can work on that and can change
them in one’s strengths. It will help you in changing the image of a word in your mind
{explained later}.
 Write sentences from human point of view.

Points worth bearing in mind:

1. Don’t ever make negative sentences. Always make a sentence that is positive in the
meaning, even when there is a word which conveys a negative sense. For example: the word
disturb conveys a negative meaning in itself. One should not make sentences like ‘Ram
disturbed his sister ‘or any such negative sentence. You should make positive sentence like
‘Nothing disturbs the brave’ and other such sentences which are positive. Some examples for
you to practice are: cannot, confuse, bad, cry, defeat, fearful, exploitation, bluff, lonely,
Untouchability etc.