The Self Description (SD) entails asking the candidate to write down, as to what, in his/her opinion the following people think about him/her:

Your parents.
Your teachers.
Your friends.
You yourself.
The candidate is required to write down his/her own opinion about what the people mentioned in all the above categories think about him/her.

Both, the positive aspects of his/her personality and the areas that he/she feels needs to be improved are required to be mentioned in three to four lines for each category.

Salient aspects to be borne in mind while writing Self Description (SD):

Do not write more than three 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.

In case during the interview, the IO asks 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.

Conclusion-

Finally to sum up, you must remember that the responses given by you in different psychological tests will be assessed against the information given by you in your PIQ Form, which will further be cross checked during the Board Conference with your projected behaviour in GTO and Interview technique.

Since, you are required to give your responses in the form of “thoughts, feelings and actions” and you are made to give your responses against the constraint of time, you will not be able to “fabricate responses” and hence, your true self will get clearly revealed.

Therefore, I would advice all aspirants to always do a ‘timed practice’ and be ‘true’ to you while carrying out self practice for psychological tests. Also, it is essential to discuss your responses with a professional mentor, who can advise you to modify your natural thinking.

Here, I would also like to caution you that non-mentored self practice or guidance from an unprofessional person may irreversibly harm your psyche, as the mindsets once formed are very difficult to change.