Types of Questions on the Torrance Tests of Creativity
The Torrance Tests of Creativity (TTCT) can be taken in two different forms: Verbal and Figural.
Figural
- Figural TTCT: The Figural TTCT includes three activities and is designed to assess five mental characteristics: fluency, originality, elaboration, abstractness of titles, and resistance to premature closure.
- Activity I (Picture Construction): The test taker is presented with a gray, kidney-shaped form and asked to make a picture out of it. This task measures the ability to see the unusual in the usual and transform it into something different or imaginative.
- Activity II (Picture Completion): Ten incomplete figures are provided, and the child must use these figures as a starting point to complete the images. This task assesses the ability to elaborate on an idea and the capacity to use context to give meaning to the image.
- Activity III (Parallel Lines or Circles): The child is presented with a page of parallel lines or circles and is required to create pictures using these shapes. This task is designed to assess the ability to break away from the usual and move towards the unusual.
Verbal
- Verbal TTCT: The Verbal TTCT also includes three parts, with each part comprising several subtasks. The tests assess fluency (number of relevant responses), flexibility (number of different categories of relevant responses), and originality (statistical rarity of responses).
- Ask-and-Guess: Children are asked to guess causes, consequences, and improvements, which requires them to think about situations from different perspectives.
- Product Improvement: Children are asked to think of ways to change or improve a toy or another object, encouraging them to think about how things work and how they might be made to work better.
- Unusual Uses: Children are asked to think of as many uses as they can for common items, like a cardboard box or a newspaper, which fosters flexibility in thinking.
Practice Questions for Torrance Tests of Creativity
Wondering what kinds of questions your child will be asked on the Torrance?
Here is a practice test with five examples.
IMPORTANT: While the Torrance sample questions shown on this page are representative of what your child will see on the exam, they aren’t taken directly from the actual test that’s being administered this year.For more Torrance Practice, check out our 100 Free Questions.
Torrance Sample Question #1
Parent, say to your child: “Let’s do some drawing. Here are some squares with little figures drawn inside of them. When I say ‘start,’ take your pencil and try to make each little figure into something else. You can do whatever you want with these. You can make them funny or beautiful. You can add words. You can use more than one at a time – whatever you want. There is no right or wrong here. Ready, ‘start.’” Give your child 5 minutes for this exercise.
Torrance Sample Question #2
Ask your child what is happening in this picture. Ask him how did this happen? Then ask, what will happen next?
Torrance Sample Question #3
Have your child generate as many uses as possible. Ask: How many new ways can you think to use a water bottle?
Torrance Sample Question #4
Ask your child: Suppose you could be invisible for a day. What problems might that create? What would the benefits of being invisible be?
Torrance Sample Question #5
Listen to this nursery rhyme. How would you solve Mother Hubbard’s problem?
Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor doggie a bone,
When she got there
The cupboard was bare
So the poor little doggie had none.