Approach to Self Description (SD) Test
Introduction
The Self Description (SD) Test is a very important tool in the hands of the psychologist to evaluate your level of self awareness.
The salient aspects that need to be kept in mind while writing your SD are as follows (you could also go through a video pertaining to the same. The link for which is given below): https://youtu.be/XE7L_003SE0
Self Description Test is conducted to assess the candidate's self awareness, which in turn will indicate his capacity to get trained in the future.
Imagine a person who is not even aware of his areas of improvement, how can he be ever groomed to become acceptable in the forces. I get a lot of posts from candidates who were unable to figure out even the broad reason (I can understand that they could not pinpoint the exact reasons) for their non-recommendation at the SSB.
This is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a candidate. In such a case, he/she must discuss the details with a professional mentor and eradicate those drawbacks, rather than repeating the same mistake again and again during subsequent SSBs.
Hence, a more self aware candidate has greater scope to improve in his future attempts at the SSB and also has greater trainability during his service life to become a more accomplished officer. Secondly, the psychologist will often keep referring to your PIQ Form and your SD as he proceeds to evaluate your responses in other tests, like WAT, TAT & SRT, to see the gap between what you portray on paper (practiced responses), what you want to become (SD) and who you truly are (some genuine responses where you could not keep on your mask).
Hence, SD serves to give the psychologist valuable inputs to prepare an authentic personality profile and future trainability prospects of the candidates.
Please read the salient aspects to be borne in mind while writing Self Description (SD):
• Do not write more than three to four odds lines for each category, i.e. while writing the opinion's of your parents/guardians, teachers/employer, friends/colleagues, and your personal view about yourself be brief and precise.
• Never copy someone else's SD, speak from your heart and you could actually take a feedback from all the above category of people to write an authentic SD.
• The SD must comprise of some highpoints of your personality and one odd perceived area of improvement in each category.
• Do not write OLQs/ qualities while describing the opinion, e.g. do not say, "My parents feel I am very hard working, trustworthy and obedient son/daughter". Rather, say how they perceive you as hard working, reliable and obedient, e.g. say, “My parents always include me in all important decisions to be taken at home (shows trustworthy). They always entrust me with difficult tasks and challenges concerning our family matters and issues pertaining to others amongst our near and dear ones as they feel I have the ability to handle them well and would never let them down (shows hard working, resilient and obedient person).
• While writing a perceived area of improvement in each category, make sure not to use very strong language to describe it and also see to it that such shortcoming is not something which is very deep- seeded and irretrievable, e.g. rather than saying that "My friends tell me that I am too choosy while making friends and also that I get aggressive at times", you could say, "My friends feel that I take a little bit of time to open up (choosy to make friends), but once I do, I am a highly friendly person and also that I get a bit impatient at times when things do not go my way (aggressive), however, I have started making a conscious effort to remain more composed and accept things as they come.
• It must be understood that the Interviewing Officer does not go through your responses given in the psych dossier, however, he may separately ask you about your weaknesses, you should also be ready with some examples from your life, e.g. where you took time to become friends, or where you got impatient, etc.
• Lastly, SD is very exclusive to your personality, and hence must be written in your own words and straight from your heart keeping the above cardinals in mind.