Hello friends, Its my pleasure to share my SSB experience in depth for all who are willing to be GC’s and LC’s. For sure this is going to help someone or the other and that is the main motive behind writing this. I will cover my eleven days journey in the following order –
– Day 0 – Arrival & Documentation
– Day 1 – Intelligence Test & PPDT
– Day 2 – Psychology Tests
– Day 3 – GTO 1
– Day 4 – GTO 2
– D-Day – Conference
– Medical Examination
As soon as the SSB Centre allocation list was uploaded on Indian Army website, like all the others I was eagerly waiting for the call letter and SMS to find out reporting date.
My college friends and I from the same college got Bangalore as our SSB centre and we were very excited as soon as we got our call letter, next challenge was to book a ticket and get a reserved seat within short period of time. Its was not at all easy. There is no direct train from Jammu to Bangalore. So I decided to go via air and booked a ticket with Indigo Airlines. The air travel is very much exciting, not because we are in the air but due to beautiful air hostess at ur service… heheheheh….
Day 0 – Arrival & Documentation – 05/01/2015
I reached Bangalore on 4 January and went to one of my cousins for a night. I slept till 8-9am and then had break-fast and around 12pm left for the railway station. After waiting for a half-hour or so finally the bus with the ‘SSB Bangalore’ written in front came, we all boarded the bus and within 15 minutes reached the centre.
As soon as we entered the Centre, our eyes were stuck on the chest number with a ‘+’ on them, medical candidates who were going to the mess for lunch and I thought in my mind…SARDAR can you get that…. We got down and kept our luggage in the waiting shed(I am sure this is the only time when all of us will happy take our luggage and keep it in waiting shed), as we were instructed so and made groups according to our roll numbers.
In our group, there were 78 candidates. we were sent to 24 SSB Board, which has a unique color like all boards – Red. After checking the call letters, ustad sent us to the 24SSB living area. We made our self-comfortable, went around looked here and there. Had our evening tea and then made arrangement for next day. We didn’t open our much of our luggage, just took out the necessary thing and kept it like that because next day we had to take it to the most hated place – waiting shed, keep it here & then go to Screening Test.
Day 1 – Intelligence Test & PPDT – 06/01/2015
Some of us woke up as early as 4:30am and started getting ready for the screening test. I got up around 5:00am and found people around me packing and getting ready. Its was quite cold in the morning, we had to report at 6:45am near waiting shed with our luggage after having breakfast by 6:00am. We had tea after finishing everything in the barrack and submitted blanket and bedsheet and checked out of the barrack.
By 7:10am the first test – Intelligence Test(Verbal) began and then second test – Non-Verbal began and got over soon. I found the paper easy and had attempted most of the questions except 4-5 questions. I expected dice question but not even a single dice question was there.
Then our psychologist came and briefed second test – PPDT began and we all wrote our stories, came out of the hall and as usual most of the candidates started asking the theme of their group mates’ story and began discussing each other’s story.. Some of them were trying to memorise their story by repeating it in their mind while walking front and back. That nervousness and fear were visible on everyone’s face.
PPDT Picture – A man with a gun at the left-bottom side of the picture looking at some people working in the field, It appears to me as farmers working in their fields near international border in a village at Jammu and the man is an army officer [That’s what I perceived it.]
After that one by one all the groups went in for the group discussion. Generally the discussion lasted for about 10-15 minutes for each group. We went inside sat on the chairs arranged in a semi-circle form in clockwise order but it was not a semi-circle at all, the chairs were kept in a more of straight line, we had difficulty in seeing each other’s face while addressing the group during discussion. After settling down, one of the four officers(I guess there were two Psychologist and one GTO and one IO) gave us instructions and asked us to start narration. One by one all of us narrated our stories. There were few candidates who couldn’t narrate a complete story in time. Though even I was little nervous but I used one minute properly and finished my narration in time in a calm and cool manner while maintaining the eye contact with my group mates. There were one or two candidates who were addressing the officers instead of the group. ( Always address the group, not the officers.)
As soon as the narration got over, without testing officer’s instruction some of my group-mates suddenly started SHOUTING. We were all amazed. I think he was in a hurry to finish the discussion and wanted to prove himself as a leader. While discussing he literally stopped others from speaking by placing his hand in front of his neighbor candidate’s chest and during the whole discussion he didn’t let those speak who wanted.It was a blunder. Other then him everyone was cooperative, we had a healthy discussion and decided to go with the combined theme of border vigilance + saving people from the flood, but we couldn’t come to a common story.
After all the group finished the discussion, we were asked to wait near 24 SSB Conference hall. After waiting for three hours or so, somewhere around 1:30pm results came. Only 24 candidates out of 78 were screened in. I was happy as well as sad. Sad because two of my friend got screened out.
Later on, we filled the PIQ forms and TA(traveling allowance) documents and submitted. Our CHM sir told us that interview will start from next day. So after filling forms, 5:30pm onwards we were completely free. We took our luggage, went to our living area, kept our luggage and then went to the canteen to eat because no lunch was provided to us that day.
After having dinner at 9:00pm, I slept.
Day 2 – Psychology Tests – 07/01/2015
It was 7:00am, after having breakfast all the lucky candidates gathered near Hall for psychology test. We all stood in line and then we were divided into 3 groups – one each for freshers, screened-out and repeaters. After settling into the hall, we went outside and had a group photograph. Soon after photograph test started.
TAT – I got sufficient time for writing all the stories and relax for 30sec. I found TAT easy. I wrote 3-4 stories on Army, 3 on adventure, 2 on organizing fest & picnic and the last one was based on personal life experience, but out of 12 stories 9 were directly linked to my life.
WAT – This test was mind blowing, during this test I had little problem in managing time because words were coming and going within fraction of seconds. But somehow I managed to attend all 58 out of 60 words. For every word I gave positive/neutral response. For two words I wrote… don’t know the meaning…..
SRT – I answered 36 SRTs in the given time, as far as I know all were positive response. I was satisfied with my performance but could have done better then that. I did not leave any situation blank in between. (Note: If you leave a situation in between its shows that you are running away from the problem. So always avoid skipping SRTs in between.)
SD – I had prepared my SD well in advance. I wrote all the five para’s (about myself, parents, teachers, friends and strength & weakness.) in time. I didn’t use any fancy words like hardwork, sincere, faithful, courageous, disciplined.. nothing like that. It was quite simple – in all the para’s I wrote 4 good qualities and 1 bad quality. All of us know – we are not perfect, all of us have some negative points. I suggest you that don’t hide your bad qualities. Present them in a good way.I was feeling very light after psychology test got over because I think I did well. Later that day some of us had interview and rest of us enjoyed moving in streets of Bangalore.
Day 3 – G.T.O 1 – 08/01/2015
Woke up early morning at 4:30am, the normal tap water was cold. Thanks to the hot water facility, took bath. Everyday by 5:30am bed tea use to come, after drinking that and arranging our bed, all of us went to eat breakfast at 6:30am and then to GTO ground by 6:55am. We were all lined up in different places, each group had different GTO. Our GTO was a very young officer. He was looking smart. In my group some of the guys were very cooperative.
GD – We were free to choose a topic from the given choice by GTO. We had a healthy discussion. I spoke for 3-4 times, allowed others to put forward there points. The second GD also went in a similar way like the 1st GD.
GPE – Second task in GTO was GPE, because of cold weather our hands freezed. I was very disappointed with the group as we couldn’t come to a common solution to the given problems. People had their own egos. No one was ready to listen to others. I started the discussion & gave some points but I think I could have done better, if the group had been more cooperative in GPE. Even the person who gave conclusion, he spoke just what he wanted – didn’t consider others’ solution at all and he was so slow that he couldn’t tell the final plan to GTO.
PGT – As usual four obstacles were given, till now we couldn’t create that bond between ourself. So we had problem in crossing the obstacle. Everyone was giving their own idea and those who had the helping material didn’t listen to others. They were just trying to apply their ideas. People were literally shouting on each other. In first task i gave ideas and we crossed it easily. In second obstacle it was hard because everyone was trying to go in a different way, so I took the plank and showed the way. After somehow crossing second one, third obstacle was not that hard, but as most of the workable ideas were given by me, GTO wanted to see what the others have in their mind, so while I was negotiating third PGT, he asked other group members that anybody who want to do this task plz come forward.. at that time I saw that there is only place for three people to stand there… so I quietly left that spot for the new guy and went to the starting line. We crossed it and . So in this task we only completed 3 out of 4 obstacles. I was happy with what happened in PGT.
SNAKE RACE – Our war cry was – “Chak De”… all of us were helping each other, during whole race I was shouting.. Shouting.. Shouting.. and made sure that minimum three person are holding the snake as I was either in front or in the end. We won!!(but the fact is each group’s GTO tells them that they won, so everyone is a winner in the end :P). Everyone was happy and appreciated each others efforts. It was overall good.
LECTURETTE – This was a one of the best tasks. I am used to perform theater, debates in college so its wasn’t hard at all. Initially everyone had to introduce them-self – Name, where are you from, what you doing/pursuing, about your hobbies in 30-40 Sec. I performed quite well. Topics were very easy, I spoke on 1st topic and within around 2min 50sec I concluded my lecture.
HGT – Before starting the task our GTO asked us – How we wanted the groups to be divided? So some of us told 50%-50%, some told odd-even, some told first 5 and last five. So GTO divided the sub group into 50-50. I was very happy with my new group, it was the best group. Before going to task itself we decided that we will not run after helping material and first we will take few minutes to make a plan and then go ahead. As we reached near our obstacle, GTO explained the rules and showed us the obstacle. The obstacle looked hard but it wasn’t. We started discussing, no one got any ideas as to how to approach but I got idea and explained it to the group, they agreed and within 3minutes or maybe less than that we finished the task with everyone’s help. There was very little resistance from the group about following my ideas, as they were workable. It was really a superb task.
INDIVIDUAL TASK – on our first day of GTO this was the last task,we were sitting in semi-circle. I was the last person to go. Before starting itself GTO briefed us about obstacles and rules. We were given 30 seconds to organise/make a plan for ourself. All of us went around and decided the best suitable sequence in which we will be doing the obstacles. Once again we settled down on our chairs. There were ten obstacles – Tiger leap, Burma bridge, Double ditch, Commando walk, Tarzan swing, Screen jump, Balancing beam(Zig-zag), Double platform jump, Double barrel jump and Single ramp. When my turn came, I tightened my shoe lace and on whistle I started with balancing beam, tiger leap, single ramp, screen jump, commando walk, Burma bridge, double platform jump.In total I did 7 obstacles only. After finishing the obstacles, I ran towards the waiting shed. I was completely breathless and my thighs gave up, I did little warm down exercise and took long breaths. That is where it ended. Now all of us did what we could, next thing we were thinking about what the three assessors will do. In-spite of all that, we planned to once again decided to visit the city. We visited Garuda mall, Vishveswariya Museum, and few other places. It was fun, we enjoyed our day and came back to the center. After having our dinner we all went to bed.
Day 4 – G.T.O 2 – 09/01/2015
I woke up at 5:00am, took bath. We all went to mess had breakfast, as usual bread and butter. Today it was bit cold. By 7:00am we were in the GTO ground. We waited for a long time and then GTO arrived, briefed us about the various task we were going to do today.
COMMAND TASK – We all sat in the waiting shed near GTO ground, we were called randomly by GTO. My group-mates called me four times as a subordinate during the whole task. When I went as a subordinate, I kept quite and followed what the commander said – In one case I knew that I will fall if I go forward but still I did because the commander asked me to. But GTO interrupted and asked the commander – “if anything was wrong with the idea”, so he said – “it was unstable”. When my turn came, initially GTO asked me few questions relating to my family background, hobbies etc. the obstacle had three paths from start line to finish line, GTO asked me to call your subordinates (I thought in my mind that each commander called most of us except chest no 9, he was a bit heavy guy and that must be the reason no one called him ,, but in my mind I thought that if it is my team then everyone should get the chance.. so I called chest no 9 and 14). As soon as my subordinates came I addressed them as a commander,(Hello friends I m your commander for this task, are you ready to help me…. Then I shake hands with them and told them to start helping me). I negotiated the structure within 3 mintues, then GTO said that okay commander the structure on which you were moving damaged now what will you do? I said I can use other structure nearby… then GTO said go to the start line again and use another structure… as I was negotiating the second structure.. GTO turned many things in red and blue, but still I was able to come out of it with my ideas. At last point as I was going to cross final line GTO said that okay commander as you were going to cross final line you came to know that there are landmines between you and your final line and you are left with only 30 seconds move fast . I quickly made a bridge and at this GTO interrupted me and said,” how you can make bridge over landmines, I said, sir landmines are under the ground not above it, I can make a bridge over them without touching that area.. he was convinced and said okay move out only 10seconds left.. I told my subordinates to move out first.. GTO again stopped me and said what are you doing.. I told you there are 10seconds left and you are making your men to move out… then I said , sir I m their commander it is my responsibility to take them out safely and at last I will come… he was happy and said well done commander.
FGT – By now our group was completely united and had mutual understanding. Through out the task I was in front, exchanging ideas and applying them. When two of us reached in middle of the task GTO asked me what was my plan. I told him my plan, he said – “Its workable, your task is complete. Keep the material and go.”
INTERVIEW – As soon as GTO task for day 2 was over, I had to report for my interview. I went to the 24 SSB Board where my interview was going to be held. One person was already inside the interviewer’s office.I waited in the room across the corridor. I sat there relaxed, took deep breaths, kicked everything out of my mind and was reading a magazine which was lying there on table. There was one another candidate (atul nalage) we started taking with each other and asked rapid fire questions to each other.I told myself that I am going to meet my friend and not a interviewer. My interview went on for 25-30 minutes. It was very good(90% on my PIQ and 10% on GK).
D-Day – Conference – 10/01/2015
Finally the day came, which all of us awaited eagerly. Previous day itself we were briefed about all the procedure of going in, coming out and saw the conference room also. Once again we packed our luggage and kept it in the waiting shed. Soon after that, somewhere around 9:30am conference started. When the first bell rang, it was scary.. I was little nervous & in a dilemma as to what is going to happen inside. While waiting I stopped thinking all that, took few deep breaths which helped me relax. The person before me came out within 5-10sec. Once again bell rang, I stood up, walked with all the confidence I had, pulled the door and went inside. Two officer’s were sitting in front. I stood in front of chair, wished good afternoon. I was asked to sit down. I thanked and sat.
These are the various question(with my reply) I was asked during my conference –
Q1. Tell me about your experience of 5 days here?
Ans. Sir it was very good , I enjoyed the testing process a lot.
Officer –“Tell us in detail..”
jaspal – sir GTO’s were good.
Officer – “GTO’s were good or GTO tasks were good( and everybody started laughing)?”
jaspal– “(with a smile on my face I said sir, both GTO tasks and GTO’s were good).”
Q2. Tell me in detail about the tasks you enjoyed most?
Ans. I said sir, snake race, command task, PGT HGT and lecturette were best.
Officer – “where you think you could have done better ?”
jaspal– “I could have done better in GPE. It wasn’t that good, though I gave some solutions, the group was not able to discuss all the problems properly. I wanted to give more ideas but couldn’t.”
Officer – “Why were you not able to give the ideas, was there something wrong with the group or something else stopped you?”
jaspal– “The whole group was discussing the problems very actively. So, I didn’t want to disturb the group that’s why I didn’t give more ideas.”
Q3. If I tell you to chose a best candidate from your team, whom you will chose?
Ans. I said, sorry sir I cant do that.. GTO is a team effort and each member play an important role… so as far as my group is concerned everybody was best.. it was a great team.
Q4. No no you have to name somebody who performed best among you( don’t worry we don’t tell anybody that you told his name)?
Ans. I again said sorry sir I cant do that.
Q5. He said why you cant do that?
Ans. I said Sir, board is the better judge.. it is the board, who will decide who is better or not… for me my team members were best…
Officer –(with a smile on his face), he said … good gentleman.. how was your stay and any suggestion.. “”.
jaspal– “I said no sir everything was fine… he said thank you jaspal (I said thank you and came out..)”.
During the whole conference there was a smile on my face. As far as I know it went on for approximately 3 minutes only. Before I went inside the conference room, assessors took 3-5 minutes. After coming out I was feeling very light. During conference I wasn’t asked much questions, no SRT’s.. So I got little idea as to what is going to be the result. After everyone’s conference was over, which took a lot of time. Everyone one was dying to hear the result. We were sitting in Hall, after waiting for a long time.. finally one officer came. He told us not to loose heart if some of us don’t make it and many other things to motivate us. At last he told that out of 24, only 4 candidates got selected. He started announcing chest numbers… and asked the selected candidates to come and stand in front.. First number announced..(he was atul kumar chest no 6).. second number announced..(the guy with whom I had rapid fire round at waiting room chest no 8).. third number announced..( Yes!! It was me.. CHEST NO 16)).. Next and final chest number announced..(he was mk ganesh chest no 20..)
While I was walking towards front, my mind completely went blank, my heart was filled with so much emotions that I felt like crying and shouting.. but I controlled myself. We all congratulated each others silently, rest of the candidates left the hall. Officer congratulated us and briefed us about the further proceedings… received our new(medical) chest numbers. It was completely a different feeling to wear that chest number with a ‘+’ mark on it. Even though I said so much about those last moments, but still I am not completely able to express that feeling.. of getting selected. You have to feel it yourself. After getting the medical chest number we were not even given few minutes to speak to say goodbye to rest of the buddies who couldn’t make it this time and inform our loved one. We were asked to keep our luggage in new medical candidate line and report back with our documents and then it started… filling up of forms.. OMG!! So many forms.. so many… Somehow all four of us filled the form. We were briefed about our medicals which will start next day.
Later while having dinner, all of us were looking at each other in amazement.. as to how this happened..” We all kept wondering.. Came back to our barracks and slept off by 10:00pm after chatting for a long time..
Medical Examination – 10 to 16/01/2015
We had to go for medical at 8:30am, so I woke up late. It was 8:00am but the weather outside was telling something else only.. As I looked out of the window, I saw nothing.. just fog.. more fog.. everywhere.. visibility was less than 8 meters. After getting ready we went to the Command Hospital Air Force..
Our medical was conducted in this order over next 4/5 days –
Day 1 – Blood test, Urine test, Chest x-ray, Ultrasound..
Day 2 – Ear, Nose & Tongue(ENT), Eye
Day 3 – Surgical
Day 4 – Eye, Dental
Day 5 – General Medical(Height, weight, blood pressure, heart beat) & Medical Conference
Once medical conference got over( declared medically Fit) we were free to go home. So, in the evening we said goodbye to SSB Selection Center, Bangalore and back to home.
