Hello friends, this was my first attempt for SSB and it was the most exciting, memorable, enjoyable moment of my life. Those five days have taught me many of the things, and their I came to know the real meaning of unity in diversity, which India has. In my family there was no one from military background, I never got any of the information about how to join this, but one of my college mate, Krishna, told me about AFCAT and even filled my form, I’ll always be thankful to him. later when I cleared my AFCAT written, my NCC sir, and other friends Nikhil, Â Ranjit, and Dipak helped me with their guidelines for SSB preparation.
According to me, the one who is desperately willing to join defence can easily crack SSB, only the thing is we have to analyze our self, don’t hide anything or tell lie about your achievements, the people there are experts, they can easily catch it!
Even I was unable to handle the command task, but didn’t hesitated to ask for help, and even I always kept encouraging my group candidates while performing the tasks. I think, may be this was my pulse point. Our group was the best one because we had co-ordination among us, and that is what required in defence. Even in GD we didn’t had quarrels, instead helped others, one who were unable to speak, to put forward their points. I thank Swathi for helping all of us by giving basic information and preparation tips.
Those five days were the best days of my life as I was bestowed with three very good friends, Shilpy, Amritha, and Ann.
Day 1 : We were escorted to AFSB from railway station, when we reached their, we were given chest numbers and started with our test aptitude, PPDT these were the screening tests, in which out of 180, 90 candidates were screened.
Later we  had Picture perception test (PPT),Word association test (WAT),Situation reaction test (SRT),Self description test (SDT) even PIQ’s were filled. It’s better to go prepared for this tests, at least have the overview of some solved examples. I was not knowing this but Ranjit (SSB recommended) told me this before.
Later we  had Picture perception test (PPT),Word association test (WAT),Situation reaction test (SRT),Self description test (SDT) even PIQ’s were filled. It’s better to go prepared for this tests, at least have the overview of some solved examples. I was not knowing this but Ranjit (SSB recommended) told me this before.
Day 3 : Day 2 was a break for our group, on day 3 we had our personal interviews, my interview continued for 1 and half hour. The questions in the interview were general, about family, friends, colleagues, achievements, but were rapid fire type questions, we need to be keen listener and attentive, before replying I categorized all may answers, this had helped me in giving better performance . And one thing is to be remembered, the answers in the PIQ, SRT, SDT and the one you are giving in interview should match. The interviewer is very calm, he appreciates our answers.
The favorite question of my interview was “if I place Tr. Annie (favorite teacher) on 1 number, on number scale, which teacher will you place on number 7 ? why ?”, and I replied “Tr. Sumitra on number 7, because mam Annie taught me the values of life, and mam Sumitra encouraged me for my activities “.
Day 4 : Our GTO was conducted on 4th day, in that we had some Indoor and outdoor activities.
Indoor activities : In this activity the GTO showed us the map and explained the situation in the form of story, and we had to find the solution and perform all the tasks. later we were given time to write the solution individually and finally had to get the combined plan for the operation. Thanks to my group mates, they were very supportive, each and every one of us were able to explain our idea. and finally got to the conclusion.
Indoor activities : In this activity the GTO showed us the map and explained the situation in the form of story, and we had to find the solution and perform all the tasks. later we were given time to write the solution individually and finally had to get the combined plan for the operation. Thanks to my group mates, they were very supportive, each and every one of us were able to explain our idea. and finally got to the conclusion.
Outdoor activities : Here we had Progressive group task, Half group task, Individual task, Command task, Final group task, and we were provided with helping material such as balli, rope, plank and a load, which we had to carry along with us while crossing the obstacles. There were some color codes to the obstacles.
- White : Helping material as well as candidate can touch.
- Yellow : Candidate can touch but helping material can’t.
- Red : Neither Helping material nor candidates can touch.
Progressive group task : 5 hurdles were to be crossed with increasing difficulty, at first I
went numb, I was thinking GTO as easy think but everything went wrong here, I was not  getting even a single trick to cross the obstacle, but then I decided to just follow Swathi as she was good at logic.
Half group task : In this task we were divided into group of 5, even number in one group and odds in one, and again we were given a single hurdle, and Thank God! luckily Swathi was in my group. so crossed hurdle easily.
Command task : In this task every candidate is called and she has to overcome the  obstacle, and she can take two other candidates as her sub-ordinates, this was my  biggest tension, but then I again called Swathi and Shilpy as my sub-ordinates and as usual both helped me out.
Individual task : Now this was where I was perfect, in this task we had to pass over seven obstacles within 3 mins, they were high jump(1pt), ramp walking(2pts), monkey crawling(9pts), jumping through tyre(7pts), rope climbing(10pts), Burma Bridge(5pts), and walking on the wooden bamboo(4pts). I had crossed 5 out of 7 obstacles.
Final group task : This was also very easy task and we accomplished it within 5 mins.
Day 5 : On this day we had our conference, this was the best experience I’ve ever had, nearly 20 to 30 IAF officers were seating in a conference hall in a semicircular manner, and I was given a chair in the center, write in front of the president and one of the officers just next to president sir, started asking me questions. I quickly Identified the one and replied. the question was, “How was your stay at Mysore? what places have you visited in Mysore?”. It was just of 30 sec, but when my friends came up they told me that the time taken for discussion was much, I was getting tensed and was eagerly waiting for results and after an hour the DSO sir came with a result sheet in his hand, my heart started beating very fast, was nervous. He started telling the results of recommended one’s, chestno 1, (some 5 girls were in middle)…. chestno 22 and directly chestno 44, I crossed my fingers and started praying coz I was in despair, as no one was recommended from 30ties, but soon sir said chestno 46,47,48 and me, Shiply and Gargi were selected and chestno 44 was of Swathi. I was very happy as 4 candidates from our group were selected, and 20 candidates from our batch (M-AFSB/83).
later on DSO sir said this was the best batch there, coz many times the batches of girls get washed out totally, and only our batch had recommended 20 girls.
In the evening we were given a dozens of forms to fill and I was missing Amritha and Ann.
Day 6 : On this day we had our PABT test, for which 9 girls appeared and 6 were selected as pilots. I failed the exam but Shilpy has cleared.
Day 6 : On this day we had our PABT test, for which 9 girls appeared and 6 were selected as pilots. I failed the exam but Shilpy has cleared.
Also Read: My Medical Examination Experience
Author:Â Komal Pawar:Â I’m an engineering graduate, from Information Technology and working at a software company in Pune.
Felt elated to read such a wonderful experience. Wish u more success ahead in life.I will appear for AFCAT 2 and want help from you on how to prepare for sure success in d exam I am about to write next month.
Warm Regards,
Siri
i’m a resident of mysore,can i attend air force ssb,mysore????
i m frm varanasi and here is not better afsb coaching .plz help me about which coaching is better for preparation
hii.. i have afsb fr ground duty on 3 rd march 2014 .is any afsb coaching should i join for preparation.
Congratulations komal..
I hope you have joined and doing fine in IAF Aeronautics course..
Can you please let us know what kind of tasks flying officers are supposed to do ..
What they are supposed to be good at ?
hello Komal, congratulations
I have a question that how much difficult is the screening questions [verbal and non verbal types]
Does it becomes very important to be a sports person when it comes to join defense forces.
i’ll wait for a reply.
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hi komal.can u tell me how should we answer questions like which was the most saddest moment of your life and hw did u overcum it?wat was ur answer fot this question?
My saddest moment in my life was after my father got paralytic attack, before that he was one of the most successful businessmen in the town, but later, after the incident he is stuck to the bed, we were to small to understand that, but only were facing the consequences out of that, but my elder sister made us realize our condition she was always the motivation for us. And later as we were growing we started saving and subsequently we three sisters started earning to fulfill our educational needs.
hey komal.can we make sentences like good cooperation is out come of good company,for the word cooperation?by advisory senteces u mean we shud nt use shud cud,wud. ryt?kindly suggesr
Yes you can write such answers, infact it is the best answer
hi komal
heartly congratulations to you..
i am going for AFSB on 28th may13.Currently i am working in Suzlon Energy Ltd.i really want to join IAF and I don’t want to miss this chance so plz help for this..i have some questions …
1.was there any technical questions in your PI?
2.did u provide NOC?is it neccessory for private org.. and What information should be there in NOC like designation,salary,time.etc
3.should i join SSB coaching?what would you suggest?
4.is there any forum or platform so that i can get in touch or discuss with aspirants who are appearing for SSB.
thanks a lot in advance…
and extremely sorry for bothering you..
regards
pushkar
Hey Pushka,
No sorry and Thanks for helping, its all my pleasure.
1. No there were no technical questions, be calm about that.
2. No need of NOC.
3. If you refer some books you can easily handle the SSB, no need of coaching, but still if you want you can go for that, it will always prove beneficial.
4. This site is best one to get information about anything, try to cover every blog on this site you will get sufficient idea about SSB.
refer the books of Arihant and Upkar publication, and try to create stories from the scenes and situations around you. No need of giving special time for preparation.
Best luck for cracking the test and be prepared for medicals
Hi Komal,
Congrats for ur dream coming true…n all d very best for the merit list!!
I too wanna join IAF, nt just ‘coz its my dream bt ‘coz it’s my mom’s only dream. N for me her dream is obviously prior to anything in my life. I appeared fr AFCAT 2013 bt made a silly mistake of guessing the answrs n undoubtedly I’d to pay for it. I could nt clear the exam.
I hv learned frm my mistake n I knw I wont repeat it. I request you to please guide me fr my next attempt. I really beliv tht I can get thru this. But it b evn betr if I culd hv some guidence.
Eagrly waiting fr ur rply.
Thank you.
n All d best. 🙂
Hey Sahil,
It will be my pleasure to help you, be free to ask any related questions. I wish you make your mom’s dream come true, best luck
Hi Komal,
Congrats on making ur dream a reality…. ALL THE BEST for ur merit list…. 🙂
Few things i would like you to plz clarify for me-
1. As you were working for an IT company, were there any questions related to your work. If any wht were they?
2. how u prepared for the computer based test held on the first day before ppdt.
3. u had any coaching before hand? please suggest if any.
4 was the picture shown to you at ppdt hazy or clear? (at 4AFSB i gt a clear picture for the ppdt).
5. in case there is a chaos during discussion during screening test, what would have been your approach?
6. in WAT u used proverbs or not?
7. the alignment of my teeth is not perfect, will it create a problem?
Hello Amit,
Thanks for your comment.
1. There were no such questions related to IT sector, but questions related to my work environment.
2. There was no computer based test held.
3. No, I did not take any coaching, I prepared myself, but have taken guidelines from the one who had already been to SSB.
4. The picture at PPDT were very hazy.
5. I would have tried to make firm my voice and increase my pitch,but with a convincing tone. And for doing this one thing is needed to remember, look in to the eyes of the one who is speaking, so that we can predict a bit when he will stop and we get a chance. I did so.
6. During writing sentences for WAT, no proverbs, advice or orders are allowed. I didn’t use proverbs, but during writing the sentences, I had made few advice showing sentences.
7. The teeth Alignment is not a big issue, we just get some reduced points in dental (out of 22 may be 18 or 19)
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hy komal first of all congrts you r bravo ..hope to c you soon in uniform…m also too dsprte to join airforce n i am having some querries regarding the mysore centre mine is also mysore..i am a repeator wana discuss few points with you…answering a lot of que. can bother you but plz help me..
que 1. in ur screening test which booklets you got?? 51,51 or 53 ,54 or 34,35…if u dont remember plz tell me which kind of questions were at majority .cube like unlike,classification or.. any.
que 2:tell me abt ur gd topics both n also lecturette topics whch u got and also ur group mates got…write down whatever you remeber about this..
que.3 :-you gt any srt in ur intrvw??and if ys hw u responded..
Hi gaurav,
Actually I dont exactly remember the booklets, but the were consecutive number, so I think they were 53,54.
and my GD topic was related to government schools and private schools teaching quality, and the second and compulsory one was something related to India becoming super powers, Sorry I dont exactly remember that.
During interview, I didn’t get any SRT, but some questions like which was the most saddest moment in your life and how did you overcome that. and even some questions were to giving mental stress to check how do I reply at those. But be calm before the inteviewr ,
And the best tip is, the night before you go for interview, analyse yourself and think of narrating your life story (specially achievements) to your school frnd who met you after a long
while, may be that will help you and help to remain calm and true.
Best luck, and let me know about the result
Congo……
will it b better to join a SSB training institute before appearing to SSB ?????
Hello Rohit,
Actually, I’d not joined any institute, but I guess its better to join, because we get the better knowledge of the obstacles and all before hand.
Hi komal
Congrats for your success. I have scored 172 and the cut off was 144 in the AFCAT 01/2013. One of my friends working as airmen said I was on the merit list and haa a better chance to get through but I doubt the merit list is the final list of selected candidates. please clarify this
Regards
Sagar
Hey sagar, Sorry but even I dont know much about tht,
hi Komal
A hearty congratulations to you !!! even i have applied for the Indian Navy and hav got my call letter ..i am really scared abt the ssb interview ..like u even i m working in a software company in delhi ..i wanted to know did they ask you y u want to join AF now when u already have a job or y do u want to leave ur current job
hi Komal
A hearty congratulations to you !!! even i have applied for the Indian Navy and hav got my call letter ..i am really scared abt the ssb interview ..like u even i m working in a software company in delhi ..i wanted to know did they ask you y u want to join AF now when u already have a job or y do u want to leave ur current job
Dear Kritika,
They do ask such questions, but their are many reasons you can give for choosing defense over Private sector! Best luck for the SSB, let me know about the results
Hello Ma’am!!
I got 156 only. I hv cmpltd my MCA and placed in Infosys but my joining is in june.I really dnt hv any idea abt AFSB. I have applied for ground duty and administrative brach. Could you please help me in study material or getting some knowledge about tests dat will tk place thr?
Dear kavita,
there are some books available in the market, They provide complete idea about the exam.
Upkar and arihant publications books are better. Best luck for your SSB
Thank You ma’am for answering my question.
one more thing please,does the marks obtained in written test matters at the time of preparing merit list? as i have told you that i’ve got only 156.
Dear kavita,
Yeah those marks do matter i the merit list, and even I have scored the same range marks, so better hope for the best. don’t worry about tht!
Best luck
Hello Ma’am!! I had given AFCAT and got 154 marks out of 300. Cut off went 144. I have completed MCA and I am Placed in Infosys. Ma’am please guide me for AFSB.
Dear Kavita,
I have shared most of my experience in the blog, but if though you have any difficulties i’ll surely help you. which AFSB you have your SSB now?
Congrats 🙂
Thanks!
Thank u so much Komal …
earlier i have read few SSB experiences … but ur explanation was very clear.
Thanks for mentioning the names of Obstacles … 🙂 All the best
Thank you Kiran,
I’m glad to know that
congratssssssss dear komal.and on which day ur ssb started .
Congrats Komal..
I hv Air wing NCC C certificate with A grade…nd i m desperate to join IAF….bt my aggregate mrks in graduation is 58%… I appeared in AFCAT-2013 exam nd i m sure that i will clear it…..should i go for AFSB???
Dear Surgyan,
They have strictly specified that they need at least first class, I can’t help you with this!
Hey Johny,
Our ssb had started on 17th dec!
hai Komal!
i have a doubt that’s why i asked so.I read through ur medical experiz. a big salute to ur confidence and will power komal!. Best wishes for our merit list!. You have any idea regarding the total no of seats and the criteria used for prepairing the merit list?
Hay johny,
even I’m unaware of th seats and criteria, but I heard that medically fit candidates are almost selected. lets see now
Congratulation to you Dear Komal on the phenomenon success. Great Work Keep it Up..!! 🙂
Good Luck for future 🙂
Thank you
Congratulation komal..
I attend twice but both tymes was conference out….i tink m lit bit poor in phsycology tests….can u mail me up some of the samples of WAT,SRT,TAT….i would be very greatful to u nd it vl b a gr8 favour fr me…my mail id…[email protected]
Folks, this is Nitin, just got recommended two out of 173 reported.
ssbcoaching.com is a site that offers free
WAT TRAINING JUST TRY IT.
Hi Komal,
I’ve written the CDS exam in February this year and i’m confident of getting IMA (2nd choice) if not AFA (1st choice). However, my academic performance is average and I have no sports or NCC certificates. Is there a chance for me to clear the SSB interview? Please advise..
If you are truely interested you’ll surely achieve! best luck and not worry everything will be fine!
hi komal, congrats, i am nitin just made it at NCC spl entry, this was my first attempt.
I attended a spl training at defenceacademy coimbatore. My brother in law is a pilot in iaf and he too gave me tips.
all the best for your training at AFA Dundigal
Nitin PSG Arts & Science College Coimbatore
Many many congradualations to u…….I ‘ve given this year’s AFCAT on 24th Feb-2013..I’ve attended 95% of questions & hope to get more than 85% to be correct..How’s my possibility of clearing the written exam???& what steps i must follow to clear the SSB interview as a B.Tech graduate in Electronics & telecommunication??
Thanks Swagat, and don’t worry about the results you’ll sure clear the written, it was easy.and for clearing the SSB refer some books of upkar or arihant publication.
Is there something extra called EKT (Engineering Knowledge Test) takes place in SSB interview especially for Engg. graduates???
No, there is no such thing conducted there
Congrats lets meet you soon in defence :)all the best 🙂
thanks dev, and sure meet you there!
Dear Komal
CONGRATULATIONS!!
Thank you for sharing ur experiences with us.. very valuable for those who are preparing for the upcoming AFSB.. Do they still have EKT for engineers??
Sorry but I didn’t get you, EKT?
Hey komal congrats….can u tell me the no. of students selected frm banglore afsb in flying branch…in ur batch and ur pre…post batches if u knw so
I dont knw about banglore afsb, but in my batch 6 girls were selected
thanks komal….
one more whn u wre in medicals how many of thm passd the medicals
all of them passed and I got a TR but now I’m clear
Congrats Champ… :):):)
What a boastful experience u shared with all of us….. ^_^
God bless U…. 🙂
‘n all the very best for merit list….! 🙂
thank you!
congrats yaar… pune people rockss.. 😀
thank you vijendra
and same to you