What the TTCT measures, and what it does not

The TTCT is the assessment most often used when a school screens for creative thinking. It does not ask a child to find the right answer. It asks how many ideas they can produce, how far apart those ideas are, and how far each one is carried — which is why it cannot be marked the way a spelling test can.

Two forms, different measures

The Figural form works from drawings, the Verbal form from words. They do not score the same things, which is worth knowing before comparing one child's results to another's.

Figural

Finishing and building on drawings.

FluencyHow many relevant responses a child produces. The manual calls it one of the most critical parts of the test: no other score is given for a response until it is first found to be relevant.
OriginalityHow statistically infrequent and unusual the responses are — whether a child produced common, expected answers or unexpected ones. Combining two or more figures into one image counts for more.
Abstractness of TitlesWhether a title captures the essence of a drawing rather than just describing it — the manual treats this as evidence of synthesising and organising thought.
ElaborationHow much detail is imagined and worked through, beyond the minimum a figure invites.
Resistance to Premature ClosureStaying open long enough to make the mental leap that original ideas need, rather than jumping to the first conclusion available.

Verbal

Answering, asking and supposing, in words.

FluencyHow many ideas a child can produce in words.
FlexibilityHow varied those ideas are — whether a child can shift from one approach to another rather than staying in one groove.
OriginalityIdeas that go well beyond the obvious and commonplace.

Flexibility is scored on the Verbal form only. Elaboration and abstractness of titles belong to the Figural form. The two are not interchangeable.

Thirteen creative strengths

Beyond the five scored measures, a Figural booklet is also read for these. Each is rated 0, 1 or 2, and they are pooled with the scores into a Creativity Index.

Emotional ExpressivenessStorytelling ArticulatenessMovement or ActionExpressiveness of TitlesSynthesis of Incomplete FiguresSynthesis of Lines or CirclesUnusual VisualizationInternal VisualizationExtending or Breaking BoundariesHumorRichness of ImageryColorfulness of ImageryFantasy

Try the Idea Workshop

Three questions with no right answer. Your child lists as many ideas as they can; we count them, group them, and show you what they said.

Everything on this page is drawn from the TTCT Interpretive Manual, Scholastic Testing Service, Inc., 2018. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking are copyrighted by their publisher; no part of the test is reproduced here.