Hi friends My name is Abhishek Lal from Giridih, Jharkhand. I would Like to share my journey of preparation for AFSB with you all. I decided to join armed forces when I was in 3rdyear of my engineering and come to know that I will be commissioned as Lutienant which sounds good.( Lt. Abhishek Lal 😀 in IAF its Flying Officer which I come to know latter :p). I started preparing aptitude and GK for AFCAT written exam, I went to Ambala for my exam with Anshu Pandit (my friend) there I saw an Officer in his blue IAF uniform and aviator, I was amassed by his personality, I was like “bhai aab to yahe chahiye” (I need that uniform).
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Exam went good I was expecting 150+ score and was quite sure that I will pass the exam. Result was expected to come in a month in mean while I start to gain knowledge about defense forces. Result was out within a month and I got 153 and cut off was 143. I was on cloud nine 😀 . I told my parents about the result they were very happy about it and this news went like fire in my family, everyone was happy about my result. I come to know that one of my close friend (Dinesh Kr Saroha) was also qualified, we selected Varansi centre on same date during our summer vacation. We both started our preparation for AFSB as he was from defense background he was having good knowledge about defense service and has SSB experience too; I tried to clarify all my doubts from him.
After our End Term exam I was having one month time left for afsb. I came home and start preparing for GD, PI, Story writing etc with the help of reference books on SSB interview and SSBCRACK website, I sensed that expectation of my parents has rises which was obese, but now I was under pressure 🙁 and finally day come I went Varanasi. I reached Varanasi about 10 am one day before my AFSB after sometime Dinesh came from Delhi, we check in a hotel near railway station and visited to Ganga Ghat in evening, had boat ride in high water of Ganga because of flood in Kedarnath. In morning we check out from hotel about 5:30 am and went to MCO in station.
At 6:00 am bus came and took us to AFSB which was at walking distance from station. We had our lunch, then went for Officer intelligence Test it went good 🙂 and then time came for PPDT an officer give us description about the test and a very blur picture was shown on the screen and my mind went blank :p I was unable to come up with a story, but somehow I managed to write a very simple story which I have read during my preparation . I was not confident about my story And I was Screened out 🙁 .I call my parents and informed them, they told me “koi baat nahi beta come back”. But the question Do you have it in you ? keep on flashing in my mind. I can’t able to clear Phase I of AFSB how will I clear AFSB? And I come back to Ground Zero from Cloud nine :p
But the sprite of “bhai aab to yahi chahiye(Uniform)” was still alive in me, I can’t loss so easily My ego problem ;). I went back to college and started to analysis my preparation and I come up with the conclusion that my preparation was theoretical not practical. So now the practical part started, I started to go for running every evening with Dinesh and the participated in 12.6 Km cross country race held in our college my position was 46 out of around 400 runners and Dinesh’s position was 27, cross-country boosted my confidence . I decided to become CR(Class Representative) of our class to gain some leadership experience and my class voted for me all my friends 😉 , Generally no one wants to become CR (why to take extra tension). I started to know more about myself which helped me a lot in my interview. I stared to analysis daily national and International news, relation between countries. And in mean while Gain some weight because at that time my weight was 52 Kg and height was 176cm that means I was Underweight now it is around 60 J. I kept myself away from negative thoughts and peoples. Watched LAKSHYA movie doesn’t know how many times. I went to Vaishno Devi with my college friends but it was not part of my preparation 😀
Finally time came for AFCAT exam and I again qualified, but I didn’t tell about it to my parents because I don’t want that fire again 😉 . This time four of my friend have qualified it and we all selected Dehradun AFSB on 28th of October, 2013. I called my parents on 27th oct and told them that I am in Dehradun :p for my AFSB and my cell will be switched off for 5-6 days I got my aashirwad which lead me to success. And then that battle begins two of my friend Dinesh and Amrit Kishore got screened out, I and V Vineet Kumar were screened In . My chest no. was 10 and his was 11 J , we got same room, same group and hell lot for fun. whole process went smoothly especially my interview and credit goes to my roommates (Sparsh Sharma, Raman Charak, V Vineet Kumar, Rohit Arora, Abhiram Pandey, Vaneet Verma, Mahesh Sharma, Rajat Banga and Chirag Goyal) who were very friendly and make those 5 days memorable to My life. I was dam confident that I will be recommended and same happened, I heard Chest No 10 and I got my answer “Yes I have It In Me.. 😀 !!” I was very happy but the very next moment when I realize that none of my friend got recommend I felt bad about it 🙁 . 4 recommend from our batch, recommended were asked to collect their luggage and go for form fill-up. We can’t able to meet after result was out L. I informed my parents about the result and it again went like fire again.. 😉 after all I was First one from my whole family to join Defense service 😀 .
After medical I was declared Fit for all branches, i.e. Flying, Technical and Ground Duty. Currently I am waiting for merit list for July 2014 course.
About Author: Abhishek Lal: He is a final Year student of Mechanical Engineering from Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar. Passionate to Join Armed Forces. Recommended from 1AFSB Dehradun for July 2014 course at AFA.
thnx sir,it ws a really inspiring as well as helpful too.sir,i’m currently in my 3rd yr of btech. N keen to join iaf,can i take afcat now(i.e. In my 3rd yr)?
About Author: Abhishek Lal: He is a final Year student of Mechanical Engineering from Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar. Passionate to Join Armed Forces. Recommended from 1AFSB Dehradun for July 2014 course at AFA.
sir entry as pilot to IAF through AFCAT is SSC..but will they get to fly fighter jets if they perform well during training !! pls do answer sir.
thnx sir,it ws a really inspiring as well as helpful too.sir,i’m currently in my 3rd yr of btech. N keen to join iaf,can i take afcat now(i.e. In my 3rd yr)?
Do you have any idea of cubitus valgus ; medical issue related to forearm angle should be less than 15 degree
I have permanent tattoo on hand , will this
affect me in medical test ?
absolutely man. An armed force officer must be free from those kind of bad habits.