Recommended By The Indian Army From SSB Bhopal: Name- Sajal Roy, Age 21- Recommended Candidate (First Attempt)- Indian Army, Bhopal 22 SSB, Short Service Commission (tech entry-43), Merit list rank-1, Electronics and Instrumentation. A soldier is a person who lives by chance, loves by choice and protects by profession. Right since childhood, I was into the fantasy world of trumpets and canons. 9th June 2014 was the day. Reporting time 0600hrs Bhopal SSB and I remember reaching there at 0300 hrs and the man at the gate asked me to sit outside on the bench as I reached way before the time. When books are released they are released with a purpose, I got convinced about this when I was solving the questions of Screen In test. So its always a wise option to practice the numerical, logical based questions from the books, they are available in plenty. Also, the books contain a good glimpse of interview conversation and topics which eventually widen our horizon
1st day- After solving the questions from the booklet we proceeded towards picture perception. Here’s the game point, I followed a strategy to write something good about the picture no matter how bad could it be. It was with a view that such a writing shows the optimistic person inside u which is an essential officer like quality. Moreover in that writing if we link It with something logical and accompany it with facts and figures it becomes even stronger. The picture was a boy picking some load in a factory and a person dressed up in tuxedo standing nearby, so I wrote that this guy is a poor middle-class guy working hard for his educational expenses and now he has cracked some state scholarship exam …….So this sort of thing gives an optimistic edge to the write up and a good impression. Also from experience, I have observed that throwing facts and figures in a group discussion makes u the limelight and in turn everyone gets into an agreement with you (after PPDT , a group discussion is held to discuss the story).
So here I got selected and then the SSB fight for the next 5 days.
The PPDT (psychological and word test) I handled it with the same strategy. The word test is something where one can even write phrases, for example, the word truth- I wrote truth always triumphs, blood- blood bridges the gap between life and death. The situation reaction test is something where one has to be very genuine. For example- A person lying in a road with his bike (clearly indicating an accident ) and u are going office- Reaction- I would dial the ambulance and if at that time no one is attending the man then I would take the man, so it is pretty simple and honest answer. Honesty is always appreciated.
Now GTO is something which I would like to discuss, the knowledge from the SSB books really helped a lot. In the full group task one barely manages to show skills, so half group task is where things become clearer and then the Individual obstacle task & Commander Task (where u get opportunity as a single entity to showcase your skills ). In the individual obstacle task, only the strategy of choice is tested that how well u cover the all the obstacles in minimum time. PS- One need not cover all the obstacles, for example I did only 8 out of 10, but I chose to do all the task which had a higher weighting of points and were somewhat energy consuming like ropewalk, jumps , rope crawl down, pit jump etc. After all this there comes a task where a problem statement is given, one has to write a solution and then discuss it in the group. Here is where the book knowledge helped me.
Let me give an example- The NCC group had to go for a fire shooting festival, on its way they met goons harassing a poor man, another person had an accident and some other stuff. Here as we observe there are 3 objectives, 1- save the poor man from goons 2- take the person who met with an accident 3- deal with the some other stuff, but the right answer is 4 objectives, 4th being the initial objective – going to the fire shooting festival. When I mentioned this point in the discussion it served like a game point. Slowly I was feeling more confident towards the recommendation.
Finally the interview which lasted for 51 minutes, was of the highest duration in mine batch. It was the best interview of mine life. I have observed one thing closely, the Interviewing officer closely observes your listening skills. For example as I entered and sat down he told me – “ I want to know about your schooling about your academics about your achievements about your extra circulars in college and your family background”.SO all this in a row one needs to remember and if u meet the order it’s a good point for you. Since it was a technical entry more question were from technical which I handled well . The next day being the big day “Conference Day”.
Results- Roll no call out going on, heart throbbing and then I heard – Roll no 746199 , chest no 18, Sajal Roy………and then the roar of clapping in the auditorium.
Medically I got unfit on crucial grounds leading to a permanent rejection. I am born without a gall bladder and some dental issues. But what I want to say to all others Is that when in the SSB center, be at your best attitude, a gentleman attitude and have respect for all, be it the man at the gate or the man at the mess. Have a feeling of being the best, being the confident man and that’s what makes the difference. After who doesn’t want a dedicated, passionate, intellectual person. And better be well acquainted with all current affairs before u reach ssb, like I follow some websites like nirdeshak.com and affairscloud.com. Better to be acquainted with the entire army history, the no of divisions and all and the awards and honors like Paramveer Chakra and Kirti Chakra.
Today I do not have the uniform and neither will I be able to join the defense again, but the amount of confidence the SSB recommendation has given me is out of the world.
On Sept 6, 2014: Our merit list was out where I got Rank 1 from Instrumentation Engineering and this is the batch of the Recommended candidates from our batch.
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