Greetings to all the defense aspirants!
I am Avinash Shukla and I have cleared my SSB in my first attempt from 21 SSB Bhopal for Indian Army. I had applied through NCC Special Entry with All India Ranking 5. I will try to provide you the insights of my SSB to the best of my knowledge so that all of you can gain from my own SSB experience.
189 aspirants reported on the 26th of December in Bhopal.
SSB started from the 27th to 31st December.
SSB Day 1
PPDT Test:
- Be confident when you narrate, Make valid points and have eye contact with your batchmates, Allow others to speak as well ( listening skills count), Never look at the officers who are assessing you during the discussion.
- 32 got screened in out of 189.
Psychology Test:
- The tests include WAT, SRT, TAT and SD (Self-Description).
- Try to answer the maximum in WAT. (I attended 60/60).
- Quality matters a lot in SRT. So kindly do not rush to complete the answer sheet and maintain quality in each question. ( For example : Ram was going to office on his bike and he saw a man bleeding on the road – Your answer should not be “ That he provided medical aid from his bike “ rather give a brief idea of what Ram did till the end – Ram provided medical aid/took him to the hospital ) I attended 52/60
- Ensure your stories are realistic, do not be a Shaktimaan in the story, avoid creating negative scenarios as much as possible. Three factors should be present in your story.
- Past
- Present scenario in the picture
- Ending which results in an achievement/ lesson/ completion of a goal.
- Self-Introspection is the key for SD. Take help from your friends / parents / colleagues. Always works.
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SSB Day 3 and Day 4
- GD is on current affairs so read newspaper, editorials.
- GPE is all about prioritizing the given scenarios and after which the team have to come down to discussion and at the end a common story point where one team mate will be volunteered to narrate the course of action which has been agreed by the team.
- PGT and HGT – If you have not taken any coaching, grasp the briefing given by the officer before the commencement of the tasks and try to learn and pitch in your ideas at the earliest.
- Individual Obstacle Tasks (IOT) contains 10 tasks each having a certain number of points. (Stay cautious while using the ropes as they can end up giving you serious cuts in your palms).
- Personally I consider Command Task to be a life saver if you haven’t performed well in the PGT and HGT. Learn from your mistakes if you have done any in PGT and HGT and prove your mettle.
- Snake race was my favorite. Multiple groups will be made with each having their own war cry (Our group had “ Durga mata ki jai “ ) You have to complete the tasks in a group in the shortest amount of time.
- Individual Lecturette is all about speaking confidently and making crisp points. It’s not necessary to pick up the toughest topic rather choose the one in which you can make the most number of valid points (I chose Sex educations in schools).
- My personal interview was with the President of the Board which went on for 1 hour 10 minutes.
Know your strengths and weaknesses. If you have had a setback in your life accept it but also show them what you have done to overcome it. Never ever lie in the interview. If you do not know the answer to a question “I don’t know sir’ is the best answer.
SSB Day 5
- Conference is “The Day”. If you have not been able to answer any of the questions during your PI then be ready with the answers. I was made to wait for around 10 minutes before my chest number popped up on the screen. That’s when I realized I might have a shot to clear SSB. When I entered the room, I smiled at all the officers and then looked directly at the President of the board and greeted with a “Good morning sir”.
The President asked me to answer the questions which I was not able to answer in my PI and later asked me about about my stay in Bhopal. He then asked me if I have any suggstions to make to which I replied with a “No sir”. ( However two of my friends Jerry Blaize and Shubham Jain who got recommended with me, During their conference round did tell the Board that Aloo Tikki for breakfast should not compared with an Egg which was received by a big smile by the board J)
Words cannot explain the moment my chest number was announced. It was sheer happiness with tears in my eyes. At the end three of us got recommended and all the three have been deemed medically fit and are looking forward to march into OTA this April.
I have been part of NCC since my school days. Having an ambition is easy however working towards it daily is the difficult part. After graduation, every day I told myself that I shall start preparing for Indian Army tomorrow but as it’s rightly said “Tomorrow never ends”. And after one year of being in corporate sector and all the excuses, I finally mustered the strength and started preparing every day on my current affairs and towards SSB. A majority of the credit for my SSB preparation goes to SSBCRACK.com especially the SSB Tips and Success Stories section. Every time I was low on morale, I read the Success stories and it always helped. Dream yourself donning the uniform and that’s all the motivation you will ever require. I do believe coaching helps but self-introspection and self-preparation are much more important. I sincere thank you to all the friends I made in SSB for helping me during my stay in Bhopal. Irrespective of what you are doing in life, if your dream is donning the Indian Armed Forces uniform then get rid of the excuses and start working on it every single day till you achieve it.
As rightly said by Walt Disney “If you can dream it you can do it”.
Good luck aspirants.
Avinash Shukla
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