“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going” SSB preparation is altogether a different way to test your potential, your qualities and your abilities for a job that is so different because it teaches you not to live for yourself but to live only for your motherland.
Many of us have the dream to join the defence forces be it either army, navy or air force, but there is a great hurdle which tests you for your qualities before you can reach to that uniform. That hurdle is SSB which test you on their parameters of psychology, personal interview, and GTO. This test runs for 5 long days and whosoever faces it knows the magic of this test. These tests are designed such that you will never realise what the assessors are looking to test but they will extract everything out of you without your awareness.
Practice is only the success mantra for such an exam. You will find a lot of material and lot of myths in the market and you will hear different people saying different things for the exam but don’t listen to anyone. Just practice and get assessed. I don’t say that coaching is necessary because in coaching you will be sitting in a group where you will not be able to explore yourself. Just find a mentor for yourself who could be a senior official or a person who has experience in this field and can guide you. SSB is so individualistic that preaching’s in group does not work except few group activities. You need to bring about a change in yourself as per the norms of SSB as you are the greatest change to yourself. You have the only power for self analysis and realise what needs to be done. The mentor can only show the way but the real power lies within you.
I still remember that an officer at SSB said “we don’t look for any extraordinary people in our forces, we look for ordinary people who can be moulded into officers and then they can do extraordinary work when the time comes” This statement clearly specifies what they are looking for and what their requirements are. Work on your personality and improve it as per OLQ’s needed. It’s a time taking process as it cannot be done or undone in a month, so start preparing for SSB early, don’t wait for a call letter to come, have confidence in your capabilities and ensure your success. Normally a call letter comes just before a month and if you analyse yourself and there is a flaw you need more time than you would really have. Work as it help to enhance you and become an officer.
Jayendra Pratap Singh is an Alumnus of IIM Ranchi, specialized in Human Resource and is a die heart counsellor, advisor and mentor for defense aspirants. He was recommended in the first attempt for Indian navy UES entry and is willing to help aspirants to make use of his experience in this field.
