On day 1 of Indian Armed Forces service selection board SSB interview procedure, candidates who have gathered from all over the country to their respective SSB canter have to face screening test. Under screening test two rounds of tests are conducted one is Picture Perception and Description Test (PPDT) and another one is Officer Intelligence Rating (OIR) test. Candidates who have cleared both the test will only be able to stay for the next 5 day SSB interview procedure. The screening test is very lengthy and sometimes very disappointing procedure, that’s why candidates have to push beyond their potential limit to survive the first day.

What is PPDT

As described PPDT is short of picture perception and description test, candidates will be shown a random picture on which candidates have to write a story in a brief amount of time then each candidate has to take part in a group discussion with fellow candidates where they have to discuss their stories with each other and in conclusion, they have to decide whose story was the best or come to a consensus to make a common story.

In PPDT a candidate’s narrative capability is put under test along with his communication skill, technically it doesn’t matter in what language he is speaking (English or Hindi) but how better he is speaking. But, it is suggested to stick to English. A candidate has to show the properties of an efficient speaker in a group.

What is the PPDT Procedure

• During PPDT a bit hazy or blurred picture is shown to the candidates for about 30 seconds.
• In about next one minute candidates have to write down the details that have noticed in the picture, it will help them in narrating the story (This part is bringing out the perception from the PPDT). Say for example in the above given picture a candidate may notice following things:
  1. There are two living characters in the picture, one is male and the other one is female.
  2. There is one table with one gun on it; one TV which is ON and no one’s looking at it; there is one window with no curtains, one painting hanging on the wall, one sofa and one stand.
  3. Male in the picture is formally dressed and looks between 35-40 years in age, he is loosening up his tie and his facial expressions are tensed and tired.
  4. Female in the picture is formally dressed and looks between 25-30 years in age, she is sitting on the sofa and her facial expressions are sad and disappointed.
• These assumptions or heat reading of the picture in PPDT is very crucial, the better your skills are the better story you will narrate.
• After writing down the details of the picture, candidates will be given 4 minutes of time to write the story.
• After story writing part is complete candidates will formed in a group and story discussion part will start.

How to write a story in PPDT

There are many ways in which the above given picture can be perceived, for sake of understanding, we will discuss one here. In every story there should be a situation or a problem and then there should be a solution or a way for it, let’s say in this case the women (say Mrs Anjali Gupta) is sad because her husband had been missing for days, she had asked for help from local police authorities but they are not much of any help so she hires a private detective (say Mr. Rajat Kumar), he try to trace the last seen whereabouts of the husband before he went missing and found a lead, but later found out that the lead was a dead end. This failure leaves Mr Rajat tired and the wife disappointed, but this doesn’t mean Rajat was ready to quit he was a professional and knows, not every lead is a successful one he needed to up his game and he did, leaving the traditional ways of searching he tried a new way of approach and used social networking websites. Soon he found a new lead which turns out to be a successful one, he found that the husband was injured during an accident and was admitted to a local hospital; during the accident, the husband lost his mobile and purse that’s why the hospital authorities were not been able to contact the husband’s family members.

In the above given story there are few negative and positive points, If the readers can find out what they are, they are encouraged to leave it in the comment section.

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What is Group Discussion in PPDT

As soon as the candidates have completed their story they are formed in group of 12 to 14 members then the GD starts. Description test has two parts – first is individual narration where a candidate will tell his/her story to every group member and second is group discussion that is conducted right away as the individual narration of the stories are over.

Candidate with the least chest number start narrating his/her story, once finished, the next candidate will start his/her narration. As the narration is done no signal will be given by assessors candidates have to start the GD by instinct.

The discussion will go on for 10-15 minutes and then either group can itself conclude the discussion by picking one story and agreeing that it was the best or the discussion will stop by the assessor and he will ask candidates to conclude the discussion.

Tips on How to Clear PPDT

• In PPDT, once the narration is started, assessors should not be interrupted by any of the candidates it will result badly for the whole group. It’s the group members’ responsibility to handle the discussion without outside help.
• Candidate should narrate his story within one minute.
• If the group discussion becomes a fish market, a candidate should try to calm everybody down and continue the discussion in a well-mannered way.
• Don’t let the discussion go away from the discussion topic of PPDT, try to interrupt very carefully because interrupting in these kind of situation can go both ways for a candidate.
• Give chance or inspire everyone to speak and praise others point too if possible it shows a supportive nature in PPDT.
• In story writing, the story should be positive and must sound realistic. Avoid inhuman fictional possibilities in PPDT.
• Give name to characters, it’s a good habit.
• The basic format of story should be: a problem arises, the hero solves that problem, and hero feels happy about him solving the problem.