How the Thomas PPA works
Each screen shows four adjectives. You choose the one that sounds most like you and the one that sounds least like you. Sometimes all four will fit, sometimes none will; you still choose. After 24 sets you are done.
Your choices are scored on four factors. Dominance is about how you respond to power and challenge, Influence about how you respond to people, Steadiness about pace and stability, and Compliance about rules and procedure. Thomas says there are no good or bad profiles: each one simply describes a working style that suits some roles more than others.
The report shows three graphs. Thomas describes them as your Self Image, your natural working style; your Work Mask, how you adjust your behaviour to succeed in your current work; and your Behaviour Under Pressure. One graph is reported to come from your “most” choices, one from your “least” choices, and the third from combining the two.
Employers send the PPA at different points. Crown Holdings sent it after interviews on its graduate scheme; Robert Walters in the Netherlands sends it after a first phone interview and discusses the report with the candidate.
How to answer the PPA
There is nothing to solve, so the aim is an honest, consistent picture:
- Answer for how you are in your current or most recent job. If you have no work experience, Thomas says to answer for how you behave at home.
- Go with your first reaction. Thomas’s own advice is that it is usually the most accurate.
- When all four words fit, pick the one that fits most often. When none fit, pick the closest.
- Choose “least” as carefully as “most”. Half the profile comes from those choices.
- Do not shape your answers to the job advert. A profile built that way will not match you at interview, which is where it is used.
Tips for the real PPA
- Take it somewhere quiet in one go. It is short, and a steady pace keeps your answers consistent.
- Expect to talk about it. Employers use the report to shape interview questions, so be ready to give examples of how you work.
- Do not aim for a balanced profile. An even spread is not better than a strong lean, and Thomas has no preferred shape.
Practise the PPA on CogniPrep
Our PPA practice uses the real format: 24 sets of four adjectives from our own word list, a Most and a Least choice in each, no clock and no going back. At the end you see three graphs on the four DISC factors, built from your Most choices, your Least choices and the difference between them, with plain-language notes on your strongest and weakest factors. There is no score to beat, and you do not get Thomas’s written report.