What is SRT Test?
The ISSB Situation Reaction Test (SRT) is one of the tests conducted during the ISSB Psychological Tests. The candidates are expected to give out spontaneous and instinctive responses to certain stressful, unfamiliar, and real-to-life situations.
These are ‘real to life’ situations, which you may encounter in your day-to-day life. Due to a constraint of time, you will generally give a response, which would be close to your actual reaction, while facing a similar situation in real life.
Also, Read ISSB SRT Test: 80 Confusing Situations you have to react
Psych Test Preparation: Pointer stories test
Sample Psych Interview Questions
PAF ISSB: Recommended candidate experience
Important Pointes:
- Give your response to a situation in a methodical / step-wise manner,
- The answer should be is brief, but complete in all aspect.
- Some students are showing personalty natural but some of these are showing like a hero or artificial.
- For example, if you see a roadside accident, you must start by giving first aid (if available), followed by organizing transport to take the injured person to the hospital, and also inform police authorities and lastly inform the next of kin of the injured person. but don’t show your abilities like a hero. show your abilities which you have.
- Be realistic, and do not show illogical bravado or foolhardiness in your responses; e.g. fight alone with a number of hoodlums while returning from a late-night movie show with your girlfriend or any other, or jump into a river to save someone, when you are told in the situation that you are a non-swimmer.
- However, if your honor is at stake, then you can even sacrifice your life to protect it; e.g. if the Thugs tell you that we will not harm you if leave your Sister behind and walk away.
- Do not show wishful behavior, by presupposing things to make your problem easier; e.g. should not imagine that police will come out of the ‘blue’ and apprehend the Thugs.
- You must show the presence of mind and utilize various recourses available at your disposal to their fullest potential while giving out your reaction. Besides, it shall also show your general awareness and resourcefulness.
- While giving your responses, you must never forget your moral responsibilities towards society and show empathy in your responses while dealing with the ‘feelings of others.
- Most important is that you need to actually mold your thought process closest to what you portray in your responses. Because, somewhere or the other in your responses in SRT/TAT/WAT/OPI, your true personality traits will be visible to the assessor and naturally, it will not match with the “prepared” responses given by you.
Different Types of Responses Given By Candidates:
Action-Oriented Responses
In these responses, the action is executed and completed. These are considered to be the best responses and reflect the qualities of a candidate, who is self-sufficient, self-reliant.
For example, “he jumped into the river and saved the boy”; “She along with other students controlled the fire by using fire fighting equipment available in the college”.
Make sure that all intermediary actions are written and the outcome is completed, e.g. called fire brigade, mobilized help, used local resources to contain the fire, assisted in the evacuation of victims, and finally controlled the fire effectively.
Starts Action but Leaves it Incomplete
In such responses, the candidate plans, but shows a doubt with respect to the execution/completion of the task; e.g. he will try to catch the thief; such responses reflect lack of determination, inept self-confidence, and all those specific qualities to which the situation is related.
Unrealistic Responses
Responses that show that the candidate lives in a fantasy world and in which the candidate often jumps to conclusions; e.g. He participated in the Olympics and got a gold medal. It might show a lack of self-awareness or a defense mechanism of the candidate to glorify a quality that is deficient with him/her.
Unable to Complete Response
This happens due to a high level of stress on the candidate, presented by the situation. Such responses by the candidate are interpreted by the psychologist as, from a highly stress-prone candidate or that the candidate is unable to grasp the situation correctly or his speed of thinking process is slow, etc.
Leaving Blank SRTs
Invariably, a candidate will leave blanks, as he is unable to handle that particular emotion appropriately and is incapable of responding to it. Hence, that particular personality trait or quality would be found deficient with that candidate.
SRT is the test of your ability to solve problems in the manner desired by the Armed Forces. The only key to be prepared for SRT is to Stay honest, practical, and give robust solutions.
The response must contain the essence of leadership qualities.
There are no best answers. When you do SRTs, keep these things in mind.
- Keep your answer short; In addition to the impression you make, you can answer more questions in the limited time allowed.
- Give logical and reasonable answers. (Do not consider yourself to be batman or superman).
- Write legibly. Your handwriting makes an impression on the testing officers.
- Avoid skipping any questions; If you skip a question, it shows that you lack the imaginative power and ability to understand and respond to that situation. If the psychologist finds a pattern in the questions you skip, that can work against you.
- Do not give contradicting responses to similar situations. IF you do so, the psychologist will think that you are masking something up and he will have a negative impression of you.
- Give positive responses always be active and vigilant.
- Later, analyze your responses and identify the areas of your personality that you need to calibrate, and bring it into the zone desired at the ISSB.
Conclusion
Finally, your responses will be assessed against the information given by you and will be cross-checked during the Board Conference with your projected behavior in GTO and Interview technique.
Since, you are required to give your responses in the form of “thoughts, feelings, and actions” and is given against the constraint of time you will not be able to “fabricate a response” and hence, your true self will be clearly visible through your responses.
Therefore, I would advise all aspirants to always do a ‘timed practice’ and be ‘true’ to you while practicing for SRTs.
You don’t have to prepare separately for the SRT. You just have to be natural and instinctive. Try putting yourself into the situation and then think of the solution. That’s it.