Hello defense aspirants!!. First of all, a hearty salute to those who are aspiring to take Indian Armed Forces as a career. You can pat your shoulder this very moment if you have had this zeal even once in your life. Trust me you are different!. But then this “being different” loses its soul when you don’t take the “next required step” ahead.  Next required step is not the ssb. When you make your dream dish, you just don’t put “whichever” ingredients you have in the microwave. You don’t think “chalo yaar, jo hai bas yahi hai….ab banna hoga to isi se ban jaega!!”. Because like this, it’s never going to happen. Similarly, for becoming the officer in Indian Armed Forces, you should be the right “masala” which they can cook into a yummy dish (officer).

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• Myths about SSB

1. First you have to know “who are you” (introspection). Because unless and until you don’t know about your own behavioral traits, you cannot know how much far you are from those OLQs. Take your time, and introspect yourself.
2. Now know the OLQs. Know them up to their very best realistic meaning. There are many characteristical traits associated with them, even one OLQ would be having many traits within it.
3. Now third step is to take a leap, and start developing them into your personality. Sometimes you will face difficulties, but be honest with yourself. Start thinking like an officer. Deal with the daily stuff of your life in a way an officer would deal.

1. Thoughts, actions and speech (Mansa, karma and vacha). Your ssb is divided into 3 parts i.e. thoughts, actions and speech. You will find that in some activities of your ssb, like TAT, WAT, SRT etc., your thoughts play the major role. While in group exercises, your actions play the major role. Similarly, in your PI and Conference, your speech plays the major role. Now, the important thing to be considered here is, you have to be a one single person throughout your thoughts, actions and speech. Even if one part is not matching against other two, it means you are being an imposter. Let’s say, a candidate has been picturising the image of an extroverted & adventurous person throughout the activities of ssb. But when it goes in the interview, it was found out it he was hiding his originality, then it can go severely against him. Normally, interview goes up to 45-50 mins, and it is very easy for the interviewing officer to bring out your true self by the end (remember, he is your “baap”, in all respects ;p). Doesn’t matter what kind of personality you are having, always try to show your originality, who you exactly are.
2. OLQs. Now, keeping the above point in mind, ensure that you are the person having maximum OLQs. This is the reason why I mentioned earlier to induct the OLQs in your behaviour in real terms. Because if they are not in your personality, you cannot be the same person having OLQs throughout your thoughts, actions and speech.
3. Trainability. Always keep this thing in mind that they are looking for a “trainable person”. A person who they can train into an officer of Indian Armed Forces.

• Reasoning ability.
• Social Adaptability.
• Cooperation.
• Sense of responsibility.
• Liveliness.
• Courage.

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 About Author: Ashish Bhardwaj

I am Ashish Bhardwaj. Currently, I am pursuing b.tech from Electronics and Comm. branch. I am a defense aspirant and want to become a fighter pilot in Indian Air Force.

• General Awareness – History, Sports, Geography, Environment, Civics, Basic Science, Defence, Art, Culture, Current Affairs, Politics etc.
• Verbal Ability in English – Comprehension, Error Detection, Sentence Completion, Synonyms, Antonyms and Testing of Vocabulary.
• Numerical Ability – Decimal Fraction, Simplification, Average, Profit & loss, Percentage, Ratio & Proportion and Simple interest.
• Reasoning and Military Aptitude Test – Verbal Skills and Spatial Ability.

1. Follow a guide book .guide book can be any but it must cover these subjects.
2. Make your strong subjects stronger, i.e. if you have good command over math and reasoning it will be easy for you to score well, even if you are average in other two.
3. Solve previous year question paper using a timer; it will enhance your speed.
4. Read magazines and newspaper regularly. It helps in improving two things G.K. and English vocab.
5. Make notes about major sports events like grand slams, ICC champions trophy etc.
6. Always target to attend 60+ correct questions. And control the negatives.
7. Brush up your grammar knowledge to attend error detection questions.
8. Some books which can be followed are Arihant path finder, R.S. Agarwal for verbal and nonverbal reasoning.
9. Always keep a wrist watch with you while practicing and in exam too. It helps a lot in managing time.

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• AFCAT 2 2013 Cut Off Marks
• How To Pass CDSE 2013

 Gaurav Vaishnav, Editorial Team

Gaurav is a defence aspirant and appeared for SSB interview 8 times, he is here to share his experience of different selection centres across India. Mail us to join our editorial team now.

Dear Aspirants, even after having sufficient guidance from different sources, some myths about SSB prevails among the aspirants. This article mainly aims at removing all such myths and bad information from your minds. It is the duty of SSBCrack Editorial Team to help you all to get a right perspective of SSB.

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1. Mess Staff: A common myth prevails among the candidates that SSB Mess staff are efficient Human observers and they will report to the President about your conduct in Mess ie How do you watch TV, How you talk with Group mates etc. It is absolutely a wrong notion and your personality is assessed only by the GTO, Psycho and IO.
2. Language: It is widely believed among the candidates that those who are really good at English can get recommended. It is absolutely wrong and Language is not at all a parameter of selection. It will be absolutely a blunder to use sophisticated language during your stay at SSB. It will not create any favorable impression. And it is also wrong that those who cannot speak well in English are not recommended.
3. Education: It is absolutely wrong to believe that those who get high standard education in Convent Schools or Schools in Metropolitan cities. Actually those who come from backward places are found to be more effective at SSB. A high grade is not going to impress the SSB and poor Grades shall not cause a problem in SSB as SSB is not a competition.
4. Coaching Centres: It is widely believed that SSB doesn’t like trained candidates. That is absolutely wrong. And it is also wrong to believe Coaching provides an undue advantage over other candidates. No coaching can improve your OLQ’s unless you try to do so. But coaching greatly increases your confidence and reduces your time consume during Psychological tests.
5. Favoritism: There is nothing stuff in the SSB which can ever give undue advantage for a candidate over others. SSB doesn’t consider whether you are from RIMC or from a Rural School, OR whether you went to coaching or not. SSB is so designed to see that all candidates, whether he got coaching or not, a student of RIMC or a convent school, or from a Village or a cosmopolitan city, shall have an equal chances and no one gets any advantage over other. The pals of Army Officers, or Veterans or a cadet of NCC shall not have any advantage. Only you need to project your OLQ’s. That’s it.
6. Repeaters: Repeaters are also given attention in SSB. It is absolutely a blunder to believe that fresher has a greater chance of selection. But it sometimes happens mainly because their Psycho part remains much natural than Repeaters. So repeaters go ahead. Take care of your Psychology. And it is wrong to believe that once getting Conferenced out will be an end of your career. You might not have been able to project some of Your OLQ’s well. You might get recommended in the next attempts.
7. SSB Evaluation and Individual Obstacles: SSB is not a competition and hence your aim must not be for securing maximum marks particularly in Psycho as you may try to answer maximum questions within allotted time leaving several blunders in the answers most particularly in SRT. So take your time, answer every SRT considering your own Reactions only. Please do not copy any answers from anywhere. And it is wrong to believe that attempting maximum IO’s would increase your chances of selection. IO is an individual task and doesn’t have much importance unlike the Group Tasks. So please don’t start preparation for Individual Obstacles from the moment you get your call letter. Give more focus on Psychology particularly repeaters.

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 Aneesh Jaganath, Editorial Team

A student from Kerala. Aspires to join Indian Army SF through NDA. Has a desire to join Indian Army from childhood. Mail us to join our editorial team now.

Jobs in Defence have such a charm that we never want to quit trying even when we have failed in our previous attempts. This gives rise to a term “Repeater”. Repeaters are such a class of people, who feel that they are the most underprivileged people on this earth. When they go to attend SSB, they face raised eyebrows from the Fresher candidates, who have a belief that Repeaters are the most “Chalu” people of this world. In the very beginning itself they are separated from the whole group, the board people say ‘who all are repeaters please come this side’, it feels like criminals.

Right from the Psychologist to the GTO, don’t give details of any exercises saying that they must already be knowing it. The interviewer insulting and demoralizing them that they didn’t clear in their previous attempts, worst of all they are not even paid the TA. Nobody understands the pain of a repeater.

Folks don’t lose hope; here are some tips which will help you in clearing your SSB this time.

Tips For Repeaters to Crack the SSB Interview

1. Be Confident: I know every other person must be saying this, but this is the thing. Confidence is the most essential part of a successful personality, so take some big bites of confidence before entering the SSB now.
2. Trust yourself: If you’ll not trust yourself then nobody will. Many of us face pressure from family after being unsuccessful in few attempts; don’t lose the trust in yourself. Keep on reminding yourself what you want to do, read success stories of aspirants who have made in their 10th, 12th attempts and think if they would have given up in the first few attempts they might have never cleared it. Success is might be delayed but it never happens that it doesn’t arrives at all.
3. Review: Review your mistakes. Write down all your responses on a notebook. Begin from the beginning, write what all response you gave for psych tests, write the words/situations if you remember any of the picture write its description, write your answers and take expert advice on them. Write the questions you faced in your interview/conference and what answers you gave. In short recreate the whole SSB procedure.
4. Analyze: Analyze your responses. Think about what went wrong in them. Avoid idealistic responses. Think about practical solutions. Note down in points all your analysis; you can even take experts’ advice in your solutions.
5. Make corrections: Now after you have made out what mistake you did, and then make necessary corrections in your responses.  Find out the field in which you think you lacked in your previous SSB’s and work on it.
6. The positives and the negatives: Find out your positive points and polish them more, find your negative ones and work on them to make them positive. Some of you might be lacking in public speaking, some might be lacking in interview so take corrective measures and work on your weaknesses.
7. Dealing with your group: It happens that repeaters group contains people who are in a do or die situation, all want to crack it this time and all are experienced, hence the GT series where you have to work as a group becomes very tough. You just have to maintain you cool and be very balanced while the GT series. Don’t be involved in excessive shouting or bullying others. Remain nice, the GTO knows everything, you’ll cast a good impression by remaining polite and nice and not by dominating others. Make your points strongly but nicely.
8. Stay away from the ‘Myths’: At last stay away from various myths you hear about repeaters chances of success. They want OLQ’s when they see them in you they select you, when they don’t they do not select you. It’s as simple as that. Anything other than this said about the SSB is wrong! Rumors which say that repeaters have less chances of success are simply meant to demoralize you. Stay focused on you path.

In the end utilize your experience. I believe that any repeater has more chances of success than a fresher this is because they know the whole process and have gone through it. Hence any repeater who works hard and is able to identify the mistakes of previous attempts correctly can definitely clear the SSB.

We shall overcome Someday

Deep in my heart I do believe that we shall overcome Someday.

Good luck

Also Read

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• Do SSB Really Need Preparation?
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 Tashi Mishra, Editorial Team

She is a defense aspirant from Varanasi completed her BCA. She has attended SSB Interview at 1 AFSB Dehradoon and has more SSB coming up. She is confident about joining Defence Forces one day. Here, she is sharing her views and experience. Mail us to join our editorial team now.

In the hunt of some guidance about SSB preparation, I met a number of people who are currently officers in army and many aspirants. Whenever I asked them about their experience about SSB, I got a different answer and my view towards SSB fluctuated. Thus I collected a number of views regarding SSB and was in a serious dilemma; what should I prepare for SSB. 

SSB is something that needs a serious preparation. Whenever you are appearing in any examination, don’t forget that there are thousands of aspirant in queue and waiting for just one opportunity to gain success; your efforts are going to make the difference between selection and rejection. To get recommended in any SSB you need to do serious efforts. One of my friends asked me what it takes to clear a SSB and my reply was I am still an aspirant but if I have to answer what it takes, I would say it’s just a combination of hard and smart work. All of us had prepared for exam but we need to triplicate our efforts for SSB. It’s something much superior to just examination.

• Know your surroundings well.
• Current affairs
• English (both grammar and vocabulary)
• Confidence
• Physical strength
• Personality
• Leadership skills
• Mental ability
• Positive attitude
• Motivation

1. Know your surroundings well: Yes it may be helpful because sometimes in PI you are asked about the place where you live and even the place of SSB u visit. So keep your eyes open and just grab a little bit about the places so that you are not numb at the PI.
2. Current affairs: Well to keep an interactive PI and other phases of SSB current affairs are must. The topics given in lecturette may cover current affairs. You must be known to what’s happening around the globe.
3. English: Guys don’t believe any myths regarding this one. You are going to be an officer in army; you need to have a stronghold on English. They expect you to be fluent at this very language. Though it’s not compulsory to do every activity in English but make it a habit, it will help your lifetime. Work out grammar, vocabulary and specially the tone because your tone to speak makes a lot of difference. All in all develop good communication and writing skills.
4. Confidence: One must maintain one’s confidence level. If one is confidant his facial expressions, his way of talking and reacting will be different. Although being nervous is obvious and evident but one must not let his nervousness overcome his capabilities. And this can be inculcated by practice.
5. Physical strength: A vital and demanded ability of defense aspirants. Your physical strength contributes a lot to your personality and is very helpful in GTO and other physical tasks. Maintain yourself physically fit; do jogging, pushups, chin ups to gain strength and stamina.
6. Personality: don’t confuse it with your looks and your “hairstyle”. Common guys you are appearing for a decent job interview where personality differs in meaning. Personality in simple terms matters with your attitude, the way you talk and deal with others are you disciplined. A healthy personality is always noticed in a group. And you can always get an example from army persons around you what a personality they have. Always have a clean shave and get your hairs cut properly before you appear for SSB.
7. Leadership skills: A big yes to this quality. It is one of the OLQ’s that one must inculcate. You are going to be a leader in future. You will have to lead and command a group of soldiers. You need to have the guts and decision making skills to lead a troop and guide them to attain results. The command task specially recognizes these skills. Some people say that you are born a leader or leaders are not made they are born with these skills. Not a 100 percent true, if you believe that you can; you will definitely develop them.
8. Mental ability: The figure and simple mathematics questions that are asked during the tests conducted on screening days requires this skill. A person with average skills can do them but don’t forget most of the screening occurs at this stage. So prepare well for the questions, practice well because you are stressed and short of time in these questions and you need to work out faster and this can only be achieved by practice.
9. Positive attitude: “Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determine what we can be”. Well guys these lines have a serious hidden meaning in them. Always go to a SSB with a positive attitude. Be ready to take challenges and believe in you. Don’t get distracted and always stay focused on your aim.
10. Motivation: Never give up guys; it’s never an option. A positive attitude toward life will certainly help you to be successful in any field. Be motivated it will keep you energized and enthusiastic about your aims in life. Watch motivational movies or videos or whatever you feel can motivate you.

 About Author: Pravesh Ahlawat

I am a serious defense aspirant though failed a number of times but never gave in. I wish to join “the global force for good” i.e. Indian navy.