Ranks And Insignia Of Indian Army, Navy & Air Force [Updated]

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August 30, 2013

Friends command task is one of the outdoor tests from GTO series. It is conducted normally on 2nd day of GTO testing. The test comprises a short talk with testing officer and one obstacle or problem similar to PGT and HGT. As test part is similar to PGT hence same rules apply here. The only difference is that you are the only candidate under GTO’s sharp observation now.

Things tested under this test are how you act as a leader of a team, how good you are in application of your mind and quickness in making decision. Almost 10 minutes are given to each candidate to cross the obstacle. GTO calls candidates one by one, in a random manner, when one candidate is performing other will sit and wait.

In the command task each candidate has two roles to perform one is commander and other is subordinate.

Role as a commander: this is the only time when you and the GTO will be all alone on the ground. He may ask you questions relating to your introduction, PIQ or performance. Answering him confidently will make a good impression. He also shakes hand with candidate. He talks to candidate about what he is doing these days, about preparation of SSB, weakness; family. But the talk will be short. He explains all structures and helping material, and asks you to call two sub ordinates from your group. As soon as your subordinates reach, your time starts and you can move to attend the task.
Role as a sub ordinate: here you need to be alert when candidates call your chest number you need to be quick and reach to the task. You are also under observation; you must obey all the orders of commander. Do not speak to commander when he speaks to you. You are supposed to leave an impression of being an effective subordinate.
Important aspects of command task:

Command task is pre-selected and different for almost every candidate.
A good candidate will be given a difficult command task.
GTO not only spends more time with good candidate but also asks him for more and more ideas. Whenever GTO ask you for more ideas, or give you penalty during command task. Do not take stress and be happy that it is the best time to show your skills.
Your subordinates should be the one who are doing good in GTO tests.
Always have your reasons ready for choice of particular candidates, officer always asks reasons for your choices.
Always brief your subordinates about your task and your idea to attend the task don’t directly start working just after they reach you. Explain them idea and then move with them to tackle the task.

Take this task as an opportunity as you also get idea from this test how you performed in eyes of GTO. If you are interrogated here for more and more ideas it is good for you. GTO sometime tells candidate only 1 minute left while candidates have just started the task, this is to test you under certain constraints, and if it happens to you then take it as an opportunity and show your best performance there.

Also Read

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.

Group Discussion Topics And Tips

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August 30, 2013

Friend Group Discussion G.D. is first test of the GTO series in SSB interview. It is an informal discussion among group members on a current topic. Most important thing to keep in mind is IT IS NOT A DEBATE. There are two discussions in first discussion candidates get choice and in second discussion candidates don’t get any choice. Generally both the topics have 3 subtopics. For both discussion 15 to 20 minutes are given to discuss.

A candidate is free to speak whatever he wants to speak and as many times he wants to speak. For example

According to you which is the biggest problem our country is facing today:

Illiteracy
Poverty
Population

Few tips: Things under observation are interpersonal skills, group behavior and knowledge. There are certain Dos and Don’ts which can help us to show our qualities in an effective manner. These points are:

In 1st G.D. when a choice is available always try to give reasons for choice of particular topic to group, generally group members jump to a topic skipping the discussion part in deciding the topic. Giving your thoughts and helping the group to select a topic gives you an advantage. Giving 2 to 3 reasons in favor of the topic of your choice is always beneficial.
Every time you speak you must speak for 25 to 30 seconds, giving one idea clearly.
Be active throughout the discussion and speak at regular intervals. For doing this you can follow this technique after you finished a point, allow 2 or 3 members to speak and give next point after that.
Giving positive ideas always.
And when the time is about to finish try to speak one point in favor of each sub topic.
A good body language is must to follow.
Never regulate and never indulge in 1 to 1 discussion.
Loud and clear voice give you advantage in discussion , when all are members are speaking at same time or when someone is trying to interrupt you in between your point your voice will support you if it is enough loud and clear.
Crux of the GTO is knowledge+communication skills. And good thing is that both can be developed by working over it.

SSB Interview Group Discussion Topics

I have tried to recollect topics I and some of the aspirants like me and you have faced at various selection centers; I hope these topics will help you to practice at home.

In past few decades it is seen that people from Indian villages are migrating to cities very fast. According to you what is the reason behind this exodus:

Better education in cities
Better life style of cities, or
Better employment opportunities available in cities

The corruption in public life is increased in India in past few years; this problem is growing day by day. According to you what is driving factor for the corruption in our day today life.

Greed
Need
Any other reason you find suitable

India has several states and some of them have progressed very fast, but at the same time some states have shown slow pace in development. According to you what is the basic reason for this disparity:

Different governments at state and center
Different level of availability of natural resources
Any other reason

India has witnessed a sudden increase in divorce cases. What is the basic reason behind this:

Western influence
Effects of cinema
Office romance

Educational institutes are growing at a breathless pace in India, even many big companies have entered the education sector, but problem of unemployment is still growing ,what is major cause of this growth in unemployment:

Mismatch between jobs available and job required
Education system is not able to train the students
Expectation level of MNCs are high and student are not able to perform well

Which political party you think will be successful in upcoming lok sabha polls

Congress
BJP
Third front

Public violence in our societies caused by various issues. Who is responsible for this outrage:

Police
Judiciary
Media

Crime against women in at height in present days. What should be done to empower Indian women:

Education
Entry of women in politics
Strict laws and harsh punishment

Migration of Bangladeshi people to India has been a big problem for the border areas and people living there. This also generates anger in people of India. What is solution to this problem

Deporting back the migrants to Banglades
Deploying more forces to Indo-Bangladesh border
Solving it with corporation of both the governments

Also Read

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.

10 Special Questions Asked In SSB Interview

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August 30, 2013

The interview is a general conversation between the candidate and interviewing officer. The majority of questions in the interview are from the PIQ form. The ultimate aim of the interview is to assess the leadership or OLQs of a candidate. The IO tries to evaluate the training potential of a candidate. As the interview lasts for 30 to 45 minutes or more it is sufficient time to ask questions from various parts of the candidate’s life.

Most of the questions are prior known to us because of the material available to us and thanks to this portal, but sometimes candidates face some spontaneous questions, I term these questions as “special questions”. Sometimes answering these quick questions appropriately can help in showing a good presence of mind. I tried to collect this kind of question from aspirants who have faced interviews at different boards and as well as from my own experience. I have tried to enlist some of them:

Which is your favorite state in south India? And when you name any of them next question is give 5 recent news related to that state?
Which movie you watched last in theater with friends? Who were actor, director and actress?
How many social media friends you have? Do you know all of them personally?
Which magazine do you like? Tell me about most recent article you read from that magazine?
What is your routine during weekends?
If you don’t drink, how you adjust with your friends in parties? And in the profession you are opt most of the officers drink, then how you will adjust? And if you drink which is your favorite brand?
What are qualities that you have but your father don’t have?
Utilization of pocket money or salary, how much you spend on yourself?
Any disagreement you had with friends, and how did you solve it?
Any mischief you and your friends did in college? Describe.
What are dimensions of this room?
Give an example when you were in problem and your friends helped you?

Friends every SSB is a new opportunity to learn analyze and correct our approach. All such questions are to check our observations and presence of mind. Any question can be handled if the mind is cool and calm at that time. Confidence, smile, being attentive and good command over language is key for making the mind respond appropriately. The best way to achieve this is to inculcate these things in day to day life.

PSB In Indian Coast Guard

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August 29, 2013

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Friends this time I want to share my experience about PSB of Indian Coast Guard. Actually it is similar to the screening process of SSB to which many of us are familiar. But in coast guard it is little bit different as it has two elimination rounds, so it is also beneficial for a candidate if one wants to know where he is lacking to get screen in, in SSB. As I mentioned it is a two phase process i.e. one OIR test and one PPDT. It takes 2 to 3 days depending upon number of candidates present there.

OIR Test in Indian Coast Guards

Let me tell you friends near 40 to 50 % candidates get back to home after this test, so it is very crucial for us. Also it is tougher than the SSB OIR test and reason for the toughness is its nature and method of conducting. Test booklet is not given means no test booklet will be there, they show us a powerpoint presentation with 7 sections of questions. Last section consist 20 questions and rest have 10 questions. So a total of 80 questions will be there. Each section and each question has its own time constraints. Only key to success is be quick and be correct while attempting questions.

The OMR sheet is given to candidates and while solving you need to put your responses into that each question have 5 options, and only one is correct. No extra time is given to fill omr sheet.

In section 1st: 5 series completion questions and 5 blood relation questions are there. You are provided 60 seconds for each questions means after 60 seconds, the next question will be on screen and you will not be able to get back to it if you are not quick enough. Same thing applies throughout the test.
In section 2nd: 5 synonym and 5 antonym questions. Number of questions10 and each question is given 5 seconds.
In section 3rd: spelling mistakes or to find correct word .10 questions each given 8 seconds.
In section 4th : memory test- in this a no. or word is shown to you for 4 seconds and it will disappear and in next 4 seconds options will be shown you need to mark what you have seen. 10 questions and 8 seconds are given for each. Length of number or word increases as test moves further.
In section 5th: question on how many words can be formed using alphabets of a given word with some given constraints. 10 questions are there and 60 seconds for each question.
In section 6th: rotation (clockwise/anticlockwise by a specific angle) +mirror image, 10 questions are there and 20 seconds for each question.
In section 7th: there will be 20 in total.12 questions on counting the occurrence of a digit or an alphabet in a given array of digits or alphabets. And for these 10 seconds are given to each question. Example:”BJDGWERYERYTTTJSTTDFGRZASERT”. In the above series, find the number of “T” in that. The answer is “6”
For remaining 8 questions are puzzle type questions in which a object like tomato or cat is in pieces and you need to identify what the object is? For these questions you are given only 3 seconds for each.

After each section you will be told about the next section and you will also get examples to make you adjust for the test. The timings and type of questions will be briefed to you by officer there.

Note: this is not exact timing but approximately this is how the test is conducted and in some sections you will get more or less seconds than that of I mentioned here. But the pattern of questions is followed in this way.

Result of OIR Test

After 2 or 3 hours wait they declare the result and who got selected move for PPDT at the next day. I observed that a average candidate can crack it easily if he is quick in attending questions will advice you, to try to do 60 corrects out of 80.no negative marking is there so attend all of them but try to attend correctly and fill OMR sheet fast and meticulously. One more thing I would like to suggest that OMR have rectangles instead of ovals so it also takes more time to fill it.

PPDT and Final Result

This PPDT is similar to that of SSB screening, but usually clear picture is shown instead of hazy picture. You will get time of 4 minutes to write a story and then groups will move to discussion .with a strength varying from 15 to 20. And after discussion results are out in 10 minutes. And those who get selected will be screened in. and when psbs are over selected candidates will be called to attend FSB.

Also Read

CDSE 2 2013 Syllabus

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August 29, 2013

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CDSE 2 2013 exam is appearing near, hope all you of are doing preparation for CDSE exam. Well, it is good to have the syllabus of the examination you are going to write, though there are no changes in CDSE syllabus of 2013, but we are writing this post for the candidates who are new and do not know the syllabus of CDSE 2013.

CDSE 2013 Question Paper Pattern

CDSE consist of three papers namely, English, Maths and GK. If you are applying for OTA, then you need not attend Maths paper.

Below is the rough estimation of number of questions appeared in last year papers.

Subject	Question Type	2013 Feb	2012 Sep	2012 Feb	2011 Sep	2011 Feb	2010 Sep	2010 Feb
English	Comprehension Sentence-Rearra Synonyms/Antonyms Spotting Error Sentence Ordering	15 20 20+20 23 24	15 20 20+20 25 22	15 20 20+20 25 22	29 20 20+20 17 14	29 20 20+20 17 14	27 20 20+20 19 14	27 20 20+20 19 14
General Knowledge	Current Affairs Indian History Geography Politics Economy General Science	25 19 20 18 05 33	30 19 18 15 08 30	30 19 18 15 08 30	35 14 18 15 08 30	35 14 18 15 08 30	33 14 20 15 04 34	33 14 20 15 04 34
Elementary Mathematics	Algebra Arithmetic Mensuration Geometry Trigonometry Logarithm Statistics	10 25 19 15 18 05 8	10 25 19 15 18 05 8	10 25 19 15 18 05 8	10 28 16 16 17 05 8	10 28 16 16 17 05 8	10 26 18 17 16 02 11	10 26 18 17 16 02 11

Hope this will help you to understand the syllabus of CDSE 2013 exam, for more tips on CDSE preparation, visit the links attached below.

Also Read

How to Pass CDSE 2013
Best book for CDSE Preparation

About SSBCrack Editorial Team

The Editorial Team of SSBCrack consists of a group of Professional writers and aspirants. Their main aim is to provide up to date information regarding SSB Interviews and sharing quality information about Indian Defence to help aspirants. Mail us to join our editorial team now.

What Is Lecturette And How To Perform Well In It

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August 28, 2013

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Hello friends this article is about lecturette. As each test in SSB is equally important same thing applies here. Ultimately GTO wants to collect enough data about our personality, through all these tests, and our aim must be to provide him the things he wants to see in a candidate to pass him. So through a good lecturette you can show him some of the most important qualities of your personality.

As in this test no one is going to interrupt you while speaking, so your performance depends totally upon you. Your self confidence, stamina level, expression without hesitation and not to forget your knowledge about the topic will be tested here.

Lecturette Topics eBook - SSBCrack — Click to download

Arrangements of the test: rest of your group will be sitting and 1st candidate will get up take a card and walk away from the group, now this card has four topics example

What Is Lecturette And How To Perform Well In It

Now in these topics you are free to select any topic. My advice is select average topic and be confident about that. As 2 out of four will be average topics and one will be below and one will be above average. If you have very good general awareness then you can also go for the tougher one. Now you have to select one topic and prepare a lecturette on it in 3 mins. After three minutes the first candidate will come, stand facing the group and will talk over the topic for next 3 min. when he arrive next candidate will take his card and will do the same.

While communicating to an ex GTO I found some useful information which I am sharing here:

Knowledge	Good	Average	Poor
Fluency	Good speaker and expressive	Satisfactory	Hesitation and stammering
Self Confidence	Good	Average	Under confident
Stamina	3 min	Between 2 and 2.30 min	Less than 2 min
Result	pass	Border line	fail

Techniques to improve your lecturette

Most important thing is practice, more practice, and daily practice. And few others are:-

Friends make good reading habits, be updated, talk to your friends in English, make your mastery on the common topics like Indo Pak relations, drug abuse, global warming, power of press, Indian missile development program, etc a list is available on SSBCrack so you can follow that link also.
Be in touch with people whom you meet at different SSB and keep asking them about their all 4 lecturette topics. Make writing habits.
Use camera or mobile phone to make video of yourself wear a short and t shirt and give lecturette on topic of your choice even try to give you introduction. And watch it carefully. Because you can’t watch yourself while speaking. So how you will correct your mistakes. Analyse your standing posture, facial expression, hand gestures and also listen if you are hesitating in speaking. It will help you to introspect, remove your hesitation and also it is a fun activity. You can judge yourself and can be more presentable and impressive.

All the best keep preparing.

Also Read

What Is AFSB Interview How To Crack AFSB

By

Tashi Mishra

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August 28, 2013

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When you want to get into the defense forces of India (as an officer) i.e. Army, Navy or Air force you have to go through a process called SSB or Service Selection Board. Your chances of getting into the forces depend on your recommendation in this process. SSB is known as AFSB Air Force Selection Board in case of Air force. Hence basically to get into Air force you have clear AFSB.

AFSB is a five to six day process in which various tasks are held to judge you from all aspect. Your personality, psychology, and physical fitness are tested during these days and so is your ability to perform in a group, group spirit, and leadership qualities.

To crack SSB interview, recommend you to get “Let’s Crack SSB Interview” book from Amazon.

Since AFSB is a process where you are put under pressure and hence only the real you come out. So you have to be genuine. Also the AFSB people are searching for the best and most suitable fit for an officer hence your selection depends on whether or not you have Officer Like Qualities (OLQ’s). Let us see now what exactly the process of AFSB is.

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Screening Test

Generally the number of reporting is high and some of the people who report are totally undesirable for the Airforce so this is a broad filter which takes in such people who the Board feels are desirable and can be tested for the OLQ’s. Firstly you are allotted a chest number after the crowd has been divided on the basis of Freshers, Conference outs and Screened Outs. Then groups of 16-18 candidates are made. This tests consists of two tests Officer’s Intelligence and Rating test which consists of simple reasoning questions and Picture Perception and Description Test (PPDT) which asks you to write a story along with age, sex and mood of the character which you see in the shown hazy picture (picture is shown for 30 seconds, you have write age etc. in 1 minute and story in 4 minutes). Thereafter you are required to narrate your story in front of three members of the board and then discuss and arrive at a common story there only. Then nominate a person who will tell your group story to the members of the board present there. After this results are announced and around 50% of the people are selected for the further testing rest are routed back to the railway station.

Then you are allotted fresh chest numbers and new groups are made consisting of about 8-9 candidates.

Psychological Tests

In AFSB’s psychological tests are generally conducted the same day of screening after the document verification. Hence the candidates are quite under pressure after a long day. This is a battery of four continuous tests which continue for about 2 hour without any break. First there is TAT or Thematic Apperception Test in which 11+1 picture slides are shown and you have to write a story on the picture. Each picture is shown for 30 seconds and you have to write the story in 4 minutes, last one is a blank picture. Then you have WAT or Word Association Test where a word is shown for 15 seconds and you have to see and write your response on that word in 15 seconds, total 60 words are shown. Then come SRT or Situation Reaction Test where you have to give your reaction 60 day today situations in 30 minutes. Lastly you have SD or Self-Description Test where you have to write a paragraph each on what your family, teachers, classmates (friends) and you think about yourself.

GT Series

Group Task Series is again a battery of tests which consists of 9 different types of tests which you have to perform in group and is conducted by a Group Testing Officer. They are conducted in a span of two days. They are:

Group Discussion
Group Planning Exercise (Military Planning Exercise)
Progressive Group task
Group Obstacle Race (Snake race)
Half Group Task
Lecturette
Individual Obstacles
Command Task
Final Group Task

To crack SSB interview, recommend you to get “Let’s Crack SSB Interview” book from Amazon.

Interview

A personal Interview is conducted which is taken by a senior officer or the president of the board. In this exercise, the candidate is in direct conversation with the Interviewing Officer and the Interview is conducted for 35-40 minutes. The Interview is conducted on the basis of the Personnel Information Questionnaire Form (PIQ) which is filled by the candidate on their arrival to the SSB Board.

Conference

This is like the conclusion of the SSB Stay of a candidate. This is the Final day generally (Except for Flying Branch Candidates). On this final day, the fate of the candidate is decided and thus it is an important day. The candidates are required to appear one by one in front of the complete Board of Officers comprising of the President of the board, Deputy President, Group Testing Officers, Psychologists & Technical Officers.

Then in the end PABT is conducted for the flying branch candidates who are recommended from AFSB.

To crack SSB interview, recommend you to get “Let’s Crack SSB Interview” book from Amazon.

15 Recent SSB Interview Questions Asked By IO

By

Tashi Mishra

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August 28, 2013

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During your personal interview, you may face several questions from interviewing officer; some questions are general which everyone has to face. Other questions like general awareness or on personal life, depending on what you have written on your PIQ form and how or what you’re answering. Aspirants, here are some of the SSB interview questions which were recently asked in the SSB interview by the IO.

Recent SSB Interview Questions

Meaning of your name, good and bad qualities of family members.
If you have done Graduation in some discipline then why you want to leave that field and enter into a field(defense) where much of your knowledge will not be used(like if you have done B.Sc. IT or B.Tech Computer or BCA)
Your reason for joining the forces (practical reason they want and not typical answers like uniform or passion etc.)
View about Indo-Pak Relations.
Reasons and views on fall of currency value in India.
How you prepared for SSB.
Does taking coaching or following a website dedicated to SSB helps?
Technical field Candidates are asked about RADAR technologies and other technical questions related to their subject.
What do you know about Airforce, Army, Navy (new knowledge other than commands, ranks etc.).
Difference between a fighter and an attack plane.
About Recent Induction Rafeal, Tejas, Aircraft etc.
About issues in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Israel, Afghanistan.
Recent Defense deals and up gradations.
Explain three farm bills.
What do you know about CAA?

Hope these questions are helpful for you. From there you can get some idea of the type of questions you may face during your personal interview. Please share personal interview questions faced by you recently, in the comment box below.

Overview Of AFCAT 2/2013

By

Tashi Mishra

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August 27, 2013

Hello friends! So all done with the most awaited AFCAT 2/2013? Well I hope you are and I hope that you would have done well. Here is a brief analysis of the question paper of AFCAT. This analysis is very important because AFCAT question papers are not given to the candidates to take with them. Hence its only on the basis of memory that we can recollect and give an opinion on what kind of paper it was. This analysis is also important for those who are aspiring to give AFCAT in future since they will get an idea of what kind of paper it’ll be.

To begin with there was English comprehension as the set pattern is. There was a paragraph and five questions based on it. The language was the paragraph was not very difficult but it was above average. But certainly it was difficult than previous papers of AFCAT. So a person with a normal English and vocab can do it easily. Then there were three questions of Synonyms and two on antonyms. They were above average difficulty level and slightly more difficult than previous AFCAT papers. After this there was sentence correction and word completion which were all normal ones

Then began the General Awareness part of the paper. Its level was certainly higher than previous year’s papers. Many things related to awards were asked including awards like Padma shree, CK Naidu award, Dhyanchand award etc. Two questions were there on 2010 commonwealth games. Simple questions were there from history and science which you can answer easily. Also they asked about the missile recently successfully test fired by Iran. There were two questions from Astronomy. No question from Indian Polity was asked. Origin of river Narmada was asked from Geography area.

Then the Math section began. The number of questions was nearly about 15-18 and some of them were very simple. Some were tricky. They have certainly raised the bar for this section as well. Remember to revise all basic algebra formula’s before sitting in AFCAT also revise questions from Profit & Loss, Ratio and Proportion, Percentage etc. There were good numbers of questions from theses sections.

After Math section there was verbal ability test or verbal reasoning. It was simple and consisted of finding the odd one out from the given pair of words and simple analogies. You can do this section well by practicing before. Then the last was Nonverbal reasoning. They have a set pattern of giving questions on completing the series, finding the location of the dot, finding the hidden figure in given figures and completing the missing part of the figure. They were fairly simple and can be easily done with little concentration.

Thus the bottom line is that the IAF is raising the bar of AFCAT with coming years. The question paper is getting tougher day by day hence a good amount of practice is required to be done. Also the section of GA needs to be paying attention on and a good study is required for excellence.

Also Read

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.