Chapter One-How To Master Word Association Test
Start your journey to mastering the Word Association Test! This introduction explains the book's structure and study methodology for WAT used in this book.
1. Introduction
Every year, thousands of candidates appear for SSB with a dream in their eyes to join our armed forces and be a part of what is arguably one of the finest institutions of our country. However, a very small percentage of them are actually able to make it to the academy. One of the primary reasons for not succeeding is poor performance in the psychology tests. This is mainly because the candidate does not really understand the science behind the psychology tests and the concepts involved.
This book is the first in a series of 3 books covering each of the psychology tests separately. In this book, I have covered Word Association Test in great detail. Through this book, I have made a sincere effort to help aspiring candidates understand the science behind the word association test so that they will be able to perform beautifully when appearing for the test.
This book has been divided into 3 parts: Introduction, Orientation of the four factors and the connected officer like qualities (OLQs), followed by the study of word association test. At the end, I have written about what we cover in our daily class in Nashik.
I have kept the language very simple so that even a candidate who is not from English medium background will be able to understand things easily. For writing this book, I have followed the same methodology which is followed in our class when teaching word association test.
Every day, a set of 20 words is given on a printed sheet to candidates in our class in Nashik. They are supposed to write sentences on those words. After that, the candidates are first given an in-depth understanding of the purpose of that particular word being displayed and what quality is being gauged through it. Then a detailed discussion takes place analyzing the sentences submitted by the candidates and a thorough feedback is given regarding what will be the conclusion drawn about the candidates based on what they have written. After that model sentences are also discussed along with a detailed explanation of how and why they will be beneficial to the candidate. The same method I have followed in this book.
First I have given a detailed explanation of what is the purpose of that particular word being displayed during the word association test. This is a very important part of teaching because most of the times the candidates just don’t have any clue about why that particular word gets displayed during the test. Then I have taken samples of sentences submitted by
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candidates during our online as well as offline class and discussed in detail about how that sentence will be interpreted by the board. If the sentences are such that with little modification their quality can be increased considerably then I have explained that as well and finally, I have discussed about model sentences on that particular word along with a detailed explanation.
In order to derive maximum benefit from this book, the candidate should read the book very patiently and ensure that no page or section is skipped. Section on every word is extremely thorough and all efforts have been made to leave no room for doubt, confusion or question. It will be more beneficial to the candidate if, before starting the next word, he/she writes his/her response to that particular word. This way, the candidate will be able to understand whether his/her own first immediate natural reaction is good or bad. This will aid learning about word association test in a major way. In order to maintain authenticity, I have copy pasted the responses of the candidates without making any changes in their responses. As such, you will find spelling mistakes or grammatical mistakes in many of the candidate’s responses. However, as already mentioned, I have not corrected those spelling mistakes or grammatical mistakes to ensure that authenticity is maintained.
I have always advised candidates to perform in an outstanding manner in the psychology tests. Accordingly, the model sentences, are of a very high quality. It does not mean, in any way, that a candidate will not get recommended with mediocre performance. It is just that I have always believed in teaching in such a way that the quality of the candidate’s performance is very high and not merely mediocre. As mentioned earlier, for learning purpose, I have used the same methodology which we use in our class in every batch during the daily session of psychology. In the word association test section, I have carefully selected 40 of those words which are not only amongst the most commonly displayed words during the test, but also are considered amongst the most difficult to respond to by the candidates.
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