I attended PSB for Indian Coast Guard Assistant Commandant 01/2016 batch at Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (west), Mumbai. The drive was to be conducted for 6 days starting from 22 June to 27 June 2015. Mine was on 22 June 2015 and there were two batches exclusively for the GD branch on that day, one in morning session at 0800 hrs and other in the afternoon session at 1200 hrs. To begin with, I was in the morning batch for which 400 candidates were called but only 54 reported due to the heavy rainfall in Mumbai. The procedure started at sharp 0800 hrs by letting us enter the headquarters compound on production of acknowledgement cum admit card that coast had sent to us online. It is very important to take two copies of the same.
We were all seated inside a tarpaulin made shelter arranged with chairs inside. A lady officer of the rank of Deputy Commandant comes and gives us all the instructions to be followed. A grueling session of document verification is held afterwards for 3 hours. It is important to carry educational certificates of 10th, 12th and graduation alongwith documents that are mentioned in the notification. Also carry two photocopy of each and every document, those who did not have the photocopies were asked to get them by 0900 hrs. After the document verification a set of photocopy was retained by them, the original and a photocopy was handed over to us and we proceeded to a waiting area and then we were instructed to memorize our roll no. and proceed for the first round of testing i.e., Mental ability test for which we are allowed to carry only a pen. We stood outside the testing room and one by one our names were called out and we were given OMR sheets in which our name, father’s name, DOB and roll no. were mentioned. We then cross checked it and then entered an AC room with a projector and a chair on which the psychologist was sitting and reading some newspaper magazine. He started with a brief introduction about coast guard and a motivation talk to make us feel at ease, the instructions were also given. The test consisted of 80 questions divided in seven sections. The first six sections had 10 questions each but the last one had 20 questions. It is more or less like OIR in SSB.
The very important factor here is the time constraint, because you get atmost 60 seconds, some questions even has to be answered in 5 seconds while others within 10 seconds which includes looking up to the projector, reading the question, processing the answer, looking down to answer sheet and then filling the option which is square in shape instead of oval, making it more time consuming. An internal clock is set for every question and soon after the time allotted for that question gets over the next question appears and you don’t get a chance to get back to a particular question unlike SSB, much or less like the impracticality of taking bath twice in the same river water. As a whole the test was not good for me and was obviously far more difficult and time consuming than OIR in SSBs, but I made every effort to attempt all questions. After the test we were sent back to our waiting area and within half an hour our results for the first round were declared. I was had a mixed feeing of shock and excitement when my name was called out. In all 27 out of 54 were qualified for second round, remaining were asked to try again with a positive hope and were sent back. Others went for lunch and were asked to report back by 1345 hrs. At 1430, 27 candidates were now given chest no.s, mine was 2 and then taken to the same testing room, now the same psychologist was sitting there and he instructed us about the PPDT round. We were given a sheet just like what is given at SSBs, and we are supposed to fill in our particulars. A picture was then shown to us on the projector where a woman was on the bed and a man was standing beside her with hand on his head and face turned on other side. After the story writing our story paper was taken back we were again made to wait in the waiting area till 1530 hrs. After this we were divided in a group of 15 and 12 candidates.
I was in the first group having 15 candidates. We proceeded to the conference room of the headquarters and waited for around 1.5 hrs and then we entered the room. First everyone was supposed to narrate their stories after they were permitted to once again see their stories for 10 seconds which was kept on their respective seats. Once the last person had his narration over, a discussion was supposed to be started and we had to come to a common conclusion. I did not take the initiative, though I spoke for 4 times, bringing back the opposition views of others to a common agreeable point and justifying the scene in the story. We did come to a conclusion which was narrated by chest no. 8 as chosen by the group. Everyone agreed and we were asked to leave. After that we went to the terrace, clicked photographs, talked about our performance while the second group was having discussion in the conference room. After they came, we all went to inside a theatre room with sofas to accommodate 30 people. We waited for just 15 minutes and the psychologist came. He started announcing the results by calling the chest numbers and we were supposed to call out our name and stand beside him. Chest no. 1, chest no. 2 and I was like….yeaa I made it and remaining chest no.s were called out. In all 15 of us were FSB recommended for 22 June 2015 0800 hrs batch. The remaining were asked to return and try again. After that we were sent to a room for furnishing our biometric data’s, including our photo, right and left hand thumb impression. Document verification was held once again for us and we were asked to keep ready our provisional degree certificates and last semesters marklist (for those who were are 2015 passouts ) before appearing for FSB. Waiting for my FSB dates!!(Dedicated to all the diehard defence aspirants and my groupmates)
