Hi guys my name is Harsha and I am from Bangalore. In my family, no one is from defense background and it was because of my interest that I applied for SSC in Navy. Initially, I had thought that SSB was very easy to crack as I hadn’t heard from many people about the different procedures that an SSB interview has. As everyone does, I started going to many sites on google and searching for different books available. One fine day I got this book written by Cdr. Natarajan sir and went on to order it online. Later on I got the book home and went on to read the book and started preparing for it. Only when I started reading that I realized the real depth of the ssb. Slowly, I started digging deep into the procedure and I realized that there were a lot of things I had to perfect on. I started reading newspapers and started watching news channel. Not that I was not watching before but this time I was watching it with the intent to remember it as well for the interview. Soon things started getting little complicated for me. I had a thought that the book wasn’t alone enough because it only covered one aspect but a lot had to be covered. Then I started to look for coaching classes and I finally landed with the video tutorials made by Cdr. Natarajan sir. It was good and I learned a lot from it as well. After all the preparation I started going through different experience from ssb recommended candidates telling their experiences and also I used to get freaked out looking at the selection rates as I thought that it was highly unlikely I would get recommended. Finally the day came when I had to go to Vishakhapatnam and I boarded the train. The whole train journey I was thinking what to answer in the interview and how the whole process is going to be like. I was accompanied by my Dad to Vishakhapatnam. He kept on telling me the whole way that it is going to be fine if you don’t make it, it’s okay but I was the one who was tensed all the time.
Screening
Finally after the stay, the First day had come and I was attending the aptitude. I had only attended 30 out of 50 and second also I attended only 40 out of 50. During my PPDT narration, I could not complete the whole story at all and I could only complete 3-4 lines of it as the officer told next. I was a bit nervous as I could not complete the story. I was intensely listening to other’s story and as soon as the narration was over I started the discussion and told about number of characters etc. Mostly everyone agreed. Then I suggested the story of one particular chest no. to be the common story as the theme was good. Soon the discussion started and I also took part in the discussion. We modified the story somewhat and were about to reach a consensus when we were asked to go out. Finally, at the end of the day, I was one of the 24 who were screened in.
Psychology
The next day was psychology test which I did very well. I had understood the concept very well from the book and videos, so I was able to conceive stories quickly. WAT was good as I had practiced a lot to write short sentences from the book. Several words were same from the book so that all helped. I could complete about 49 WAT. SRT was quite simple. I had practiced well and hence I could perform. The idea of writing full action is important I suppose. There were at least 15 SRT which were same from the book itself and the others were somewhat similar. Some situations were repeated and my responses were also more or less same. My SD was normal and was corrected by Natarajan Sir so I just remembered it and wrote it there.
GTO
The 3rd & 4th day was the GTO days. The GTO days were very special for me as I knew I had performed well in Psychology. I did contribute during both the GD and GPE. I kept in mind all the points while writing the GPE answers as explained by Natarajan sir in his video. PGT and HGT was complete fun as I was able to spot each and every solution based on the concept of cantilever explained in the video. Like most, even I felt that worried initially if I will be able to crack these physical tasks but I sailed smoothly. My command task was initially of middle level but as I went on cracking it, the GTO removed some helping material and made the task difficult but I continued with it till such point that I was fixed. Finally, I thought I have done fairly well in GTO also. The GTO did ask me I have attended some coaching.
Interview
Coming to my interview, I was very upset with the way I performed with my interview as it was my first interview. I was literally asked to go out as he got to know that I was very nervous. I was called in again and I went through the entire process. I was very composed this time and answered all the questions fairly well. I could not answer some of the questions in the GK section. Finally, after 4 days of grueling tests, I had come to the conference day. I had a very deep confidence in my mind that I would get recommended. I was asked some of the questions which I could not answer during the interview. I was prepared for it. I was fairly confident during the conference unlike the interview.
At last, the final moment arrived. One officer came to addressed the crowd and announce the result and I was the only one cleared. Omg!!! It was such a feeling I cannot explain with words. Finally I went on to clear medicals and now waiting for my call letter. In the end, I would say, if you prepare well from the book and the video, there is no need to go for any coaching.
Thank you
