SSB Handbook

8/10/2019 SSB Handbook

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A TREATISE ON SERVICE SELECTION BOARD (SSB)

Based solely on my 6 day experience in batch D-AFCAT(M)/188 1 AFSB Dehradun in November, 2014.These are my own views on the service selection board and is intended to help the general public in abetter understanding of the toughest military entrance exam in the world.

INTRODUCTIONSSB can be looked upon as a rejection board, to create a foolproof system so that only those people passthrough who can at least become an average officer. The converse of this is not true i.e. you may have apotential officer like qualities and maybe it so happens that you are not recommended by the board. It isimportant for the SSB to ensure that only the deserving candidates get through and nothing else, noteven if it costs a few deserving candidates not getting selected.

This point must be kept in mind for a ll those patriots who want to get through SSB. They should keeptrying and if you have it in you, sooner or later you will make it. The two people who were selected in

my batch were both repeaters with a repeat count of 3 and 7 respectively.

Again this means that one person who gets recommended by the board once, may not getrecommended the second time. I saw this happen first hand when one of the SSB cleared candidate gotstuck in medicals the previous year and was repeating this year to get through. It came as a surprise toeveryone when he didn’t got selected this time. This again brings our attention to the dynamic nature ofSSB testing procedure.



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OFFICER LIKE QUALITIES

What makes an officer? There is no clear answer to that, greatness is not defined. Rather we should beasking what to look for if a man has to be an average officer?

The answer lies in disciplinary conduct, leadership abilities and gaining trust of people. There is a verysimple way to check if the person really has these qualities and is not faking them for one odd week. Themotto for the SSB:

“Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action”

See how this test of character and personality brushes close to Buddha’s noble eightfold path. Do notconfuse this with the studio album by Franz Ferdinand.

1. Right thought ensures that you have the right bend of mind for serving in the armed forces. Thisis the most difficult aspect to project during the SSB. Make best use of the psychology test to letthe board know about it. Be yourself, be practical.

2. Right Speech comes right after right thought. The importance lies in communicating yourthoughts effectively via verbal and body language. Language is no barrier as it is just as fine tospeak freely in Hindi if you want to. The central idea is to let your thoughts out, let others seewhat’s going on in your head. This is the only way you will lead your team-mates by convincingthem. So, just let your thoughts flow freely.

3. Right Action is the most important aspect of the three. What you do defines you. How good areyou at converting your thoughts and speech into live action. You may have a brilliant idea thatyou communicated well to your team but what good it does if you are not the first one to act onit? Therefore it becomes very important to have the will to see things thorough and not justmake castles in air. A lot of guys were giving lot of suggestions but not acting on it, thisbehaviour goes very negatively on your scorecard. The SSB is not a test; it’s an evaluation of whoyou are.

These three qualities form the blocks for the pyramid of human character, with right thought as thebase and right action on the top. In order to form a healthy pyramid, you must perform your actions

which you have communicated properly which you had thought of initially. The pyramid would crumbleif any of the blocks is weak. In order to grow your pyramid, make the base the strongest and grow on it.However, I hope that right thoughts would not be a big problem for all the patriots out there. You guysmust be having an amazing base block, just build upon it to reach new heights in your personality.



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DAY BY DAY WALKTHROUGH

DAY 1

Reporting time 6:45 p.m. near MCO at Dehradun Railway Station. Few officials will call out your idnumber followed by admit card verification and boarding the bus to AFSB. After reaching AFSB, you areprovided with a light snack. Then people are grouped into teams based on id and repeater/fresherstatus and assigned a chest number. This follows with filling some basic info forms and 2 sets of OITtests. The OIT (Officer’s intelligence test) gauges your quick decision making. Maintain your speedthrough some simple problem solving. After this follows the major attraction of the day, the pictureperception and appreciation test. You will be shown a blurry image, make whatever story you want.Keep it practical, positive and concise. Remember you will have to convince others too in the group

discussion that follows on the story you and others made out of the blurry picture. Figure out the maincharacters of the story, their mood, gender and age, give it a solid title and spin the yarn. It’s importantthat the story is practical, uses original ideas. In the group discussion that follows, wait for your turn andmake a convincing story for others to hear with what you have written earlier as base material. Thediscussion which follows could be chaotic, try to find order in chaos. Avoid large hand movements anddon’t be greedy. Applause good in others stories and encourage them. Make a concluding statementbefore GD is over. Don’t fight for the concluder status, support others if need be. It is a good idea toknow the people of your group before hand and establish a connection.

The GD is a wild goose to catch. Give it all you got because this decides whether you stay or leave at the

moment. Leave the room in order and wait anxiously. If you are selected for further testing, your chestnumber will be called off. If not, don’t lose your heart, improve upon yourself and keep trying.

In our batch 80 were selected out of 230 on the first screening test. This follows with lunch anddocument verification throughout the evening. Following the verification process, some of you mayhave to postpone their ssb due to lack of documents. Next up is the PIQ form to fill up. This is animportant task for the day as your interview process depends heavily on the PIQ you fill up. It asks forbasic personal information about you and your parents. Maintain a crisp documentation of yourachievements. It is a good idea to remember the town population of where you live in. Give a lot ofeffort in filling up the form; it’s the last task of the day. Take your dinner and retire to your rooms after

checking tomorrow’s schedule in the mess notice board. Get to know your roomies better, will bespending some awesome time with these guys.

DAY 2

Get up at 5:30 a.m. in the morning with the bell, get freshened up till 6:30 a.m. and approach to themess for breakfast. Then, fall in at 7:15. After that, move to the respective task of your group. It could bein any order. In this breakdown I will stick to the routine I faced. We were taken to a hall in the morningfor out psychology tests. This is basically a testing of your “Right thoughts” character.



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It is important to follow your instincts as the test is going to be low on time. Also, get into the habit ofwriting English fast beforehand to cause undue repercussions.

The test begins with Picture perception test, where you are shown a series of pictures to write stories on(approx 4 min per picture) followed by an empty slide to make a story of your own. It may help to cluball the pictures together into a grand story with various chapters with the main lead. However, that isnot necessary and you can write whatever comes to your mind.

This is followed by WAT (word association test), which again tests your psychic instincts reaction torandom array of words (approx 15 seconds per word). Again practice some beforehand to avoid adeadlock.

Next up is the killer for the day, the SRT (situation reaction test), which tests your reactions to a givensituation (approx 30 seconds per sentence). Don’t get fiddly; just write a small line expressing what youought to do when faced with a situation like that. Don’t over think it, just write what comes naturallyand let it flow dude. Remember, this will be the last and toughest test for day 2, act like it. Give it your100 percent.

After this you will need to write about yourself. This procedure will check how you perceive yourself andhow you think others perceive you, do you know your weakness (which is imperative if you want toimprove). Be true to yourself and write off the ups and downs of your life. It’s your life, make it large.

DAY 3After the fall-in, I had all the day to myself. This was my day off. In general, everyone will get a day off inthe whole SSB week. Make use of this to play games, interact with friends, roam the town and relax.However, be disciplinary soldier. Have all the fun you want, don’t break any rules.

DAY 4

Our Group tasks were scheduled for day 4. You and your team need to perform today at their peaks. Thepeople for your group task will be the same people you have been living in a room with. The interactionyou had with them in the previous days will play a large hand in today’s proceedings. The dress code forthe GT is white shirt, shorts and PT shoes with white socks. After the fall-in, your team will be taken toyour assigned room where you will meet your personal GTO. He will instruct you about the rules of thegame which will follow. After a crisp self-description, the initial task of group discussion will start.Remember that this is a test of your “Right speech” personality character; be confident to say what youare thinking about. The GTO will present you with two topics for a discussion and your team has tomutually decide on one. Don’t let anyone make a call for the whole group without consultation. Thesanity rules apply for any discussion at hand. This will follow with a discussion with a topic suggested bythe GTO himself.



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Following the second discussion, a situation will be presented to your team and everyone has to writean individual solution as to how to resolve the issue at hand using the group resources available. Afterthis, you will have to discuss within yourselves to reach a conclusion as to how to solve the issue athand. Gentlemen, it’s of utmost importance that someone concludes in a correct fashion, it doesn’tmatter who does that.

After the hoop-hula of group discussions, move on to the “Right action” personality testing. Thefollowing task involves efficient communication and physical activeness in the task. Do what you say.You will be instructed about how to approach the obstacles. In general, you will be provided with aplank, a bamboo, a rope and a package which need to be transported across obstacles along with all themembers of the team. You will have to imagine that there is wide gap in the ground between you andyour objective position and the only way to get there is using the structures in between. Maintainteamwork and cross the obstacles. Once again, remember to do what you say. After a series of fullgroup tasks, you will be moving on to half-group tasks at hand, with a better chance of making youropinions heard. This is followed by a command task where you will command one or two of yourteammates to cross the obstacle. Make sure that in the command task, you are the last one to leave thestart point and the last one to reach the destination point. It is also imperative to get called for a fewcommand tasks by others too, as this shows the level of trust your teammates have in you.

Next up is the individual obstacle task, warm up fellas. This is the last and toughest task of the day. Thistask will test your individual athletic abilities and self-confidence. Get through the obstacles in a fashionmost suitable to you. Remember to make safety your primary concern, use a logical approach to the

tasks. A dead leader is no good to the force. I have classified the tasks into two categories: highstrength/ low time and low strength/high time. A good strategy would be to do these in alternatesequence to allow the body some rest to get ready for the next push. For example, one could performthe rope climb followed by Burma Bridge. You have exactly three minutes to tackle the 10 obstacles inwhatever fashion you want. A brief about the obstacles is presented below in the order of increasingdifficulty and points:

1. Long Jump: Run up to a ramp and jump off to cover a distance and land on the soil ahead

2. High Jump: Jump over a 2 feet high level

3. Balancing on the log: Walk over a horizontal log balancing yourself, go slow

4. Tire go through: Hold the hanging tyre with your hands and go through it leg first

5. Monkey Crawl: Crawl over a hanging log, remember to face towards the direction ofclimb

6. Burma Bridge: Two set of ropes hanging at a height, walk through the ropes using yourarms and feet





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you via camera and microphones but that is more advanced. Hence, assume the officers areinvisible when the exam starts.

You will be monitored for disciplinary conduct throughout the stay at the board, sometimeswithout you being aware that someone is noticing. Keep your natural conduct at all times. Don’teven think of hacking the system. Chances are, you will fail.

While having a pyramidical personality structure is healthy, you have more chances of gettingrecommended if you project a rectangular personality structure where all the thoughts arecommunicated and all the communication converts into action. This is an impossible case but tryto achieve this.

You will be hearing a lot of bullshit in the 5 days of stay at SSB from other batch mates. Listenand have fun but don’t let the bullshit get into you.

Some conspiracy theorists have pointed out that all the mirrors in the SSB have been fitted withcameras and that hostel rooms have been bugged with microphones. Something to think about.

RANDOM POINTERS Use the opportunity to visit the nearby attractions with friends, don’t overdo it though. Follow

the book in and book out timings

You can avail STD and internet facilities inside the hostels too

Get a batch photograph clicked, you won’t regret it

Lots of sports to play in free time, which you will get a lot of. Definitely, learn to play pool fromthe experts.

Follow the lights out timings, it can be difficult to convince everyone but try.

Go see the Indian Military Academy; it’s a place out of nowhere.

The SSB is a great learning experience in team work, leadership and general confidence. It’s aonce in a lifetime experience, don’t miss it.

ABOUT THE AUTHORMy name is Abhishek Ghosh. I hail from a small town by the river Ganga called Batanagar, in the state ofWest Bengal. My dad is an Airmen in Indian Air Force and with him I have been travelling across thelength and breadth of India while growing up. After the boards, I joined IIT Ropar to study MechanicalEngineering. As part of my internship, I have worked on simulation of detonators in Terminal Ballistics



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Research Laboratory, DRDO. Currently I am working on cool simulation projects in an upcoming majorR&D hub TimeTooth Technologies in Noida. I too like you dream about donning the uniform one day.

Documents

SSB Handbook