Monday, December 24, 2012

SSB experience

I had my first stint with Service Selection Board for the selection into the Indian Army. After clearing the first hurdle and getting shortlisted from my college, I got my call letter for 20 SSB at Bhopal.

The journey to Bhopal was an eventful one as I met a few of my co-passengers also going for the SSB.
We exchanged quite a bit of knowledge and the vagaries of SSB testing during the journey.

Day 0: We reached Bhopal at about noon and there the Army bus had come to take us to the SSB centre. We boarded the bus as on our way to the centre saw the rural and the old Bhopal studded with serpentine bylanes, dusky markets and quite a few mosques. We reached the centre at about half past 1 and were randomly allotted rooms. We had stayed in the rooms for about an hour or so when we were asked to report with all our documents for verification. After the verification were done, we were given chest nos. and were briefed about Day 1 or the day of the Screening test OIR and PPDT.

Day1: Day 1 began early as we were asked to assemble at the conference hall by 5:30 in the wee hours of the morning. After having breakfast, I reached the hall on time as I was Chest No.4 and was among the first students of the batch.
We had a verbal screening test followed by a non verbal one. Both the tests had 45 questions each. I was able to solve most of the questions. There was a 15 minute break and after that the PPDT commenced. We were asked to write a story on the slightly blurred picture that was projected before us    after which all candidates were segregated into groups of 20 and a GD was conducted.
On that day after lunch, results were announced as well. I was amongst the lucky ones to make it to the final stages of selection.
Though, these results marked the end of the day for most students(selected ones) but I was told by the JCO that I'd be having my interview too at about 7 PM. So, I got ready for the interview and was there in the waiting room at 6:30 PM.
My interviewer was the Dy. President of the SSB. Contrary to my dwindling expectations, my interview went smoothly as I answered most questions with coherence and confident.


*to be continued

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