PPDT

 PPDT - PICTURE PERCEPTION AND DISCUSSION TEST 

PPDT or Picture perception and discussion test is one of the two tests conducted in stage one testing of SSB interview, the another one is officer intelligence test. Officer intelligence test consist of written test in verbal and non-verbal questions which is very easy and do not count much for screening, but PPDT plays an important role in screening. Now we will discuss about PPDT, what is PPDT and how to write and speak during PPDT. This would help fresher who certainly miss or get confuse during PPDT story writing, narration and group discussion. 

What is PPDT?

• PPDT stands for picture perception and discussion test, as the name suggests, you need to write a story on the picture shown, narrate it and then discuss among group members to make a common story. 

How to write a story in PPDT? 

• You will see the picture for 30 secs and then you will get 1 min to note down few details and then 4 mins to write your story on the page provided by the SSB. 
• In 1 minute you have to write down the details like gender of the characters you have seen, their age, mood and circle the character you have seen first. 
• All these details have to be marked inside the box printed on the sheet provided by SSB. x Write M/F/P for male/female/person(if the gender is not clear). 
• Write +/-/0 for positive/negative/neutral mood. 
• Write their age assumed by you and as per the picture shown. 
• Circle the details of the character you have seen first. 
• On the right hand side of the sheet, you have to write the action happening in your story, it could be in 3-4 words like ” saving a child” , “Enjoying in vacation” , “helping a poor” etc

Picture Perception [Story Writing]

 

 

Sample of the PPDT story sheet:

 

 

Assume that you have seen the picture(above) during story writing, it will be displayed for 30 secs and then 1 min for noting down few details. Assumptions may vary person to person, but try to assume practical and logical, if you find the character as a female, then write it as a female but male. 

 

Details in the Box 

• According to the picture, I have seen a female[F] character first on the very left side of the frame with positive mode and age around 26 years. So you can see what I have mentioned it in the box given. 
• I have also seen another female[F] on the right hand side of the frame with little sad facial expression (negative mood) and age around 40 years. 
• I have seen another character in the middle of the frame, I not able to guess the gender so I marked it as a person [P] but I guess the age would be 45 years and mood is neutral. 
• These assumptions may vary person to person, one may see only two characters and other may assume it as a battle ground, so it depends on how you think and respond to what you see. 

 

Action Part 

Coming to action part, I find the scene of an agricultural land, so my story is related to farming/ agricultural. After seeing the picture few keywords came to my mind like farming+poor+agriculture+help+fertilizers+drought+earning+livelihood etc etc , so based on that I assumed some story in my mind and based on that I wrote the action in very short.

 

 

Your Story 

Once you are done with above, you will get 4 mins to write the story, keep your story relevant to the picture and characters mentioned by you. Sometime you may not be able to finish the story in time, but that’s okay, you can add the missing parts while narrating but again make sure you do not change your story completely, but try to keep it relevant. 

 

Discussion Test [Individual Narration + Group Discussion] 

This part of screening which can make most of us nervous, as a matter of fact, individual narration and group discussion decides whether you stay for the day or screened out. So, use your full ability to perform well enough during narration and discussion. This part consist two things, one is individual narration and another is group discussion. After the story writing, candidates will be divided in a group of 12 -14, all group members are suppose to sit in a semi circular fashion. You will be getting chance to read your story again just to revise before the individual narration starts. 

 

Individual narration: 

 

1. Candidate with the least chest number start narrating his/her story, once finished, the next candidate will start his/her narration. This will proceeds till last candidate. 

2. Once the narration start, assessors will not interrupt neither you are suppose to look or talk to assessors. 

3. You will be getting sufficient instructions from assessors before the narration starts. 

4. Try to keep your story short and to the point, you may get maximum 1 min to finish your narration.

 

Group Discussion: 

 

1. As soon as the last candidate completes his/her narration, group discussion begins among group members without any interruption from assessors. 

2. Generally it starts with 6-7 candidates speaking/yelling at the same time, you are suppose to keep your calm and show maturity. 

3. The motto of the group discussion is to make a common story out of the picture shown. 

4. If the group discussion becomes fish market, assessors may divide the group into two halves. This makes the discussion easier because of less candidates in each group. 

5. You may get 5-10 mins for discussion. 

6. At last assessors will stop the discussion and tell the group to move out of the room.

 

SAMPLE PPDT PICTURE AND STORY

 

 

Story: Naval was headmaster in the village high school. As always he was on the walk around the fields in the village. But today he was not feeling the fresh air, rather he was coughing due to the polluted air. As he moved on, he saw big flames of fire in the field. He ran up to that field quickly and what he saw was the farmers were burning the waste after cultivating their crop, which was polluting the fresh environment of early morning. On the same evening, Naval with the help of panchayat members talked to the farmers of the village and told them about the new government plans for controlling air pollution, according to which they can sell the waste to fertilizer companies and they should keep some amount of it in fields itself, as it will provide nutrients to the soil for next crop. In this way Naval help the cause of pollution control in his village.

 

RESULT OF STAGE 1 - PPDT 

 

Once all candidates have undergone this stage the results of Stage I are declared. Successful candidates are retained for Stage II testing and the balance are asked to leave after a short brief on general shortcomings. The candidates are provided with lunch and transport to go to the railway station. Candidates will also be paid the entitled Travelling Allowance for AC 3 tier class. This travelling allowance is paid to candidates appearing for the first time in SSB on production of the original tickets. 

 

PPDT/Screening Result: 

 

1. You will get your results after few hours, those who are selected stay back for next few days for stage-II testing. 

2. Don’t loose hope if you are not selected. Try to learn from your experiences.