Word Association Test
- Understand the Purpose: The WAT is designed to reveal your:
- Thought process: How you think spontaneously and form opinions.
- Attitude: Positive or negative outlook toward life and situations.
- Personality traits: Such as leadership, responsibility, courage, empathy, and mental strength.
- Emotional stability: How calm and composed you are under time pressure.
- It’s crucial to reflect officer-like qualities (OLQs) in your responses.
Tips for Attempting the WAT
Be Positive
- Your responses should convey optimism and a can-do attitude.
- Avoid negative words or phrases like “fear,” “fail,” “give up,” or anything that shows weakness, pessimism, or indecisiveness.
- Example: Word: “Failure”
- Good response: “Failure teaches important lessons.”
- Poor response: “Failure makes me upset.”
Be Practical and Realistic
- Your sentences should reflect practicality and real-world applicability. Responses that are too idealistic or abstract are not recommended.
- Example: Word: “Money”
- Good response: “Money should be earned ethically.”
- Poor response: “Money solves all problems.”
- Showcase leadership qualities, sense of responsibility, initiative, and teamwork in your responses. Use the opportunity to demonstrate qualities that are sought in officers.
- Example: Word: "Team"
- Good response: "Teamwork achieves success."
- Poor response: "Teams can lead to conflicts."
Show Mental Toughness and Courage
- Highlight mental strength, courage, and perseverance in your responses, especially for words associated with challenges or adversity.
- Example: Word: “Fear”
- Good response: “Fear is overcome by action.”
- Poor response: “Fear stops me.”
Keep it Simple and Clear
- Your sentences should be short, direct, and clear. Aim for a simple, actionable statement. Avoid complex or convoluted thoughts that take time to process or express.
- Example: Word: “Goal”
- Good response: “Set goals and work hard.”
- Poor response: “Achieving goals requires careful planning, resources, and teamwork.”
Techniques to Improve Responses
Practice Free Association: Train your mind to respond quickly and effectively by practicing with word lists. See a word and immediately form a positive, actionable sentence. With enough practice, your mind will naturally lean toward positive associations.
Build a Bank of Ideas: There are certain words like “leadership,” “teamwork,” “responsibility,” and “courage” that frequently appear. Pre-plan positive associations for such words, but keep them adaptable. For example, for “leadership,” you could practice sentences like “Leadership inspires others.”
Use Active Verbs and Action-Oriented Sentences: Sentences that reflect action and proactivity are preferred. Instead of focusing on passive qualities, focus on how you would act in a particular situation.
Example: Word: “Problem”
- Good response: “Problems are solved with teamwork.”
- Poor response: “Problems are difficult to manage.”
Avoid Clichés and Repetition: Do not give repetitive responses like “Success requires hard work” for every word. This indicates lack of creativity or originality. Aim for variety in your responses while maintaining a positive outlook.
Officer-Like Qualities to Reflect: Make sure your responses demonstrate key officer-like qualities (OLQs). Here’s how certain types of words can reflect these traits:
- Word: “Duty”
- Response: “Duty must be fulfilled with dedication.”
- Word: “Action”
- Response: “Action leads to results.”
- Word: “Lead”
- Response: “A leader inspires others.”
- Word: “Group”
- Response: “Groups achieve goals with cooperation.”
- Word: “Danger”
- Response: “Courage faces danger head-on.”
- Word: “Choice”
- Response: “Decisions are made based on analysis.”
- Word: “Community”
- Response: “Community work promotes harmony.”
- Word: “Stress”
- Response: “Stress is managed with calmness.”
Avoiding Common Mistakes
- No Negative Sentences:
- Avoid responses that are negative or show hesitation, fear, or weakness. Even for challenging words, look for a positive angle.
- Word: “Failure”
- Avoid: “Failure is hard to overcome.”
- Better: “Failure teaches valuable lessons.”
No Rigid or Extreme Responses: Avoid rigid or extreme responses, as they suggest inflexibility or overconfidence. The sentences should convey balance and pragmatism.
- Word: “Risk”
- Avoid: “Risk is always dangerous.”
- Better: “Risk should be calculated and managed.”
Practice Regularly
- Practicing WAT regularly helps develop your response time and ensures that you consistently produce positive and relevant responses. You can:
- Take mock WATs: Write down your responses to 60 words within the time limit (15 seconds per word).
- Review your answers: Check if your responses reflect OLQs, practicality, and positivity.
Sample Word Association Responses
- Command: “Command requires confidence.”
- Leader: “A leader motivates the team.”
- Courage: “Courage overcomes challenges.”
- Friend: “Friendship builds trust.”
- Discipline: “Discipline brings success.”
- Failure: “Failure leads to improvement.”
- Challenge: “Challenges are opportunities.”
- Help: “Helping others strengthens bonds.”
- Respect: “Respect is earned through actions.”
- Success: “Success follows hard work.”
Final Thought: The WAT is not just about quick responses but about revealing your inner thought process. If your responses consistently reflect positivity, initiative, and leadership, it will naturally indicate that you possess the qualities of an officer. Practice regularly, stay positive, and develop the habit of forming clear, action-oriented thoughts under time pressure.
INSTRUCTIONS
- You will be given a set of words for practice.
- Fill up your particulars in the answer sheet selected by you.
- Name
- Age and gender
- Type of entry
- Mobile number and email id
- This is again a test of imagination { Idea writing test } most commonly known as WAT.
- Write your answer in English / Hindi in space provided in your answer sheet.
- In this test a number of words are presented to you. We would like to know how you would feel, think and frame sentences with these words.
- There are no right or wrong answers with respect of these words. Everyone is likely to read these words in his/her own way. We would like to know your interpretation and usage of these words.
- Do not spend too much time in thinking out sentences. Write quickly the answer that comes to your mind first.
- You will be given 15 minutes to do the test, which contain 60 words. Try to answer all questions in given time.
- Scan your answer sheets and forward them to our email id, dograssbcoaching@gmail.com. You may also forward the scanned copies to whatsapp number 8178140078.
WAT Test
- Leader
- Trust
- Failure
- Brave
- Hardship
- Success
- Weak
- Discipline
- Defeat
- Goal
- Honesty
- Risk
- Effort
- Loyalty
- Victory
- Determination
- Sacrifice
- Challenge
- Dream
- Teamwork
- Fear
- Strength
- Duty
- Knowledge
- Faith
- Responsibility
- Confidence
- Courage
- Ambition
- Hope
- Perseverance
- Opportunity
- Wisdom
- Respect
- Integrity
- Adaptability
- Patience
- Tough
- Achievement
- Skill
- Future
- Honour
- Commitment
- Calm
- Selfless
- Protect
- Focus
- Learn
- Progress
- Unity
- Justice
- Truth
- Leadership
- Success
- Determination
- Freedom
- Kindness
- Optimism
- Service
- Vision