How Do We Study for the Situation Reaction Test for An Ssb Interview?

How do we study for the situation reaction test for an SSB interview?

I was recommended from 1AFSB Dehradun for Afcat 1 2021, this was my 2nd attempt, first one was in December last year in which i was conference out. Sorry it is long So i will be telling about my Dehradun experience and will relate it to my first attempt. Day 1 SCREENING (PHASE 1) My reporting was on 5th july 2021, total 270 reported and 55 of us were screened in. Firstly OIR was conducted 2 OIR sets and for both we got 27 mins and each had 50 questions. As there is not negative marking so i do as much questions i can then for those i have left because t were taking much time or i could do, i see those questions and if i cant i just guess it and in both attempts i did 100/100. Then we were taken to the hall and shown picture for PPDT it was a general pic where we could see 4 person in total and it was a very clear picture because in Varanasi it was an extremely blurred picture, which most of us could not make out anything of, but in the last few seconds i saw that it is actually 3people standing photographed from above and thats why i was seeing only 3 black balls. This time i could clearly see all the things and make my story accordingly. But during the narration i upgraded my story by just listening to other's story because then i could relate to their stories better during discussion and a consensus will be made, but this is something which comes naturally to me, many people will be very stressed at that phase and may not even listen to other's story as t will be revising their own story in their head. But there is something strange about the stories of most candidates, t tend to make stories ehich t think is good and their OLQs are being displayed, but that is them getting them screened out, because clearly in the instructions t say stories should me made only on what you see in the picture its past, how t reached in this scenario and what is going to happen after. So we have to be restricted to the picture. And that is my basic rule 'stick to picture’ and that is how i write my story. See i am telling you all this about phase 1 because if you dont do good in this part you are not even going to see the part which you have prepared actually fro i.e INTERVIEW, GROUND TESTING, AND PSYCHOLOGY TEST. So prepare well for OIR, improve your communication skills and practice some picture and STICK YOUR STORY IN AND AROUND THE PICTURE, DONT STICK YOU PICTURE AND AROUND YOUR STORY. And OIR are easy, like any reasoning test, but you can practice it online, there are many platforms for that. And OIR do have a very important role to play in you getting screened in, you can check videos about this matter in youtube or google. So then it was time for the most dreaded thing, DISCUSSION, so now me being a repeater and sitting in a group of 15 with many experienced cand. With 10–20 attempts and what not was very stressed and what was supposed to happen happened, there was a fish market nobody was bothered about other's story but i did my part and tried to bring consensus but in no vain. Yet i ch no. 117, 118 and another cand. Were screened in. Biggest relief as i thought i would not be through after the discussion. We were given phones for 2 min, i messaged my family, because every time in these type of moments t never pickup call😂 even after i got my recommendation. Then a good thing happened as when we were being alloted the chest no. For phase 2, groups were alloted on the basis of conference attended rather than the nornal DOB basis. And i was grouped with people having just 1conference experience just like me. My group was of wonderful people in which chest no. 27 was previously recommended from the same board and was waiting for merit, i was chest no. 25 Then we were to report back in the auditorium by 5.30pm for psych testing. I was honestly very very exhausted as i could not sleep the night before so at that moment i thought this will have negative effect on my performance. So as general TAT,WAT,SRT AND SD was conducted i did fairly well as i completed everything except 57/60 srt and all my responses were blunt and whatever came in my mind i wrote it down as i was very exhausted and couldn't think much. Later i realised being exhausted actually worked in my favour. Then PIQ was filled and we were taken back to mess and i slept as soon as i touched bed. DAY 2 GROUND TESTING There was a thing about our group, we hanged around with each other, talked more within group, had friendly interaction with all other groups even made many friends in those groups but we within our group got along amazingly good. Ground testing was conducted and i did fairly well in all the tasks. I consider GT my forte as i performed very well in my both attempts, Gd was smooth as all were very cooperating PGT is very imp. Because you shoulf be able to see your group through, i gave many ideas and was also inplementing them regularly. CT was a bit tricky but i was able to do that as well, it was actually load retrieval. And all the other tasks were also performed fairly well by not just me but everyone because we were coordinating, motivating and counselling each other. Day 3 was also GT where individual obstacles, command tast, FGT lecturette was donr Day 4 INTERVIEW Last time my interview went very bad and i consider it reason for me not being selected in my fresher attempt, this time also i was dreading it, so this time it was not very bad,not very good but somewhere in between as this time i did self evaluation and introspection and other than that there is no difference between my 2 attempts, but getting to know myself better and i honestly think ssb is all about that. First question he asked me was this only, what have you improved in you that you think will get you recommendation, i told him sir i got to know myself better and that is it. He asked me what, how ,what have you got to know that you didn't about yourself. Told him earlier i didn't even knew what my weakness is, i never thought about it but last attempt the IO asked me that i actually couldn't think of any, and that was also somewhat my arrogance that made me never think of that, so i also tried thinking about me and started noticing my behavior. I started judging my choices in life, why i did something at that particular period etc. General questions were asked, there were some moments when i got better of the IO and mostly he was the one grilling me😂. He asked me why do you want to join the armed forces, and as soon as i said 'Sir my whole family has been in the army as i come from garhwal hills of uttarakhand which is known to have a soldier in every house’ he stoped me and very seriously said, not your whole family but many members of your family, i was taken aback as cursed him for ruining my perfect (as i thought) response, then i paused for a bit and told him very calmly, 'Sir,you are a soldier you must be having a wife. Is she sacrificing less than you? I think not’ and that was it, he didn't come back to that question then he asked me 'tab to tumhari army he obvious choice hogi?’ i very confidently said YES SIR! He literally smirked on my face and said then why Airforce. As i am a pahadi so i used to live in my village in my childhood, i told him sir when i was small i never saw navy neither did i see fauj, just my father's and my grandfather's photos of fauj, i just saw the Airforce aircrafts which used to go to china border as it is not very far from my place so that makes me want to join the Airforce. Then a bit chit chatting about GF college fantasies etc and i was done. Then he asked me what if i dont get my first choice that is flying, i said sir i will go in to Administration branch, then he asked me about work profile of it, i actually didn't knew it, so i told him sir Air traffic Control, then sirrrr, sirrrr sir isme bhi nahi jaana, I will opt for GARUD COMMANDOS if i get administration. He started laughing and in a taunting tone of his voice he said parr tum kaise jaoge, kyu jaoge bhai. I had thought of this since my highschool, when i got aware of armed forces, if i was to get into army, no other battalion but my father's Garhwal Rifles then volunteer for 10PARA’s (dessert scorpion) and then get into NSG (51 SAG) my father was in it, these were aspirations 😂 And if i got into Air force then for a pilot entry otherwise the special forces, so told him accordingly with some sentimental talks about how my father achieved that with the small background he has and how i want to do what ge did on a scale better. Then he asked me but are you physically and mentally fit? I told him yes, but friends IO is very smart, he will check some of your answers from different perspectives, side and see if you are reacting same and that happens only if you are true to your answers. So then he talked about other things and thats when i realised he was way too smart, he asked me about my hobbies from PIQ and asked your hobby is walking? I said yes sir, to he asked me why dont you run, to i told him sir i run also but as i cant run the whole circuit as it is 15–16 kms to i run and walk in that, to sarcastically he said yaar your father was a commando and i am sure he would haave run the whole circuit, then i thought a little and tolf him sir i suffered from covid so was home isolating and gained tremendous weight so right now i am recovering, so as soon as i come in a better shape i will run not only 15 but 20 kms in a one go. I could see, he was satisfied with my answer. It was the deputy president who took my interview, i was literally cursing anyone and everyone who came in front of my, i was cursing my group mates whenever t asked me about my interview, i literally had the feeling that he will reject me, and the things i mentioned above were only the high points😂 Then came conference, i was made to wait 10–15 mins i was called in and just normal questions, i literally was thinking after conference ki bhai ab firse padhae krunga acche se, will prepare (actually prepare) for ssb and will comr back because i am getting rejected as in my first attempt in Varanasi also sane thing happened, i was made to wait 20–25 mins and i was rejected. Then we were made to wait in auditorium, there i chest no. 35 whose father was also in Garhwal Rifles and chest no. 36 were just having fun time together as find both of them to be too much of my type 😂 good memories Then came the results time, DSO came in his dashing uniform and he directly started taking the chest no.s of recommended candidates, Chest no. 1, i thought wow pehla banda he rec. Ho gaya Chest no. 7, yaar mera bhi 7 he tha first time, kash us time bolte ye. Chest no.25, and i went blank. We were supposed to shout our name and dob, believe me i couldn't. Then he again said chest no. 25 and somehow in a voice of a child i said my name and dob and i actually dont remember walking from my seat to the stage, and i dont remember listening to other chest no.s, and when the DSO started handing us the Airforce caps , tears started rolling down my eyes, this was a 5year old child's dream who used to see his father's portrait wearing NSG's uniform and i have achieved my dreams, i was stunned. This is my father when he was 20, i am right now 22. Then we were taken to a room for zillion amount of form filling and given our mobile to inform our parents. I was very emotional, i called my Father, he didn't pick the call, i called him 5 more times when he woke up because as he is in RPF(railway protection force) he had done his night duty and he was sleeping, to he asked ki kya ho gaya, i was trying to control my self and then i told him ki ho gaya, i think he thought ki ssb ho gaya and iska nahi hua but later i again said ki selection ho gaya, his voice changed from sleepy to you can imagine what. As he could sense i was emotional he told chal bdia se reh. Afterwards i called my mother told her, she started crying. Then just after 2–3 mins when i started filling forms you won't belive i got 36 miss calls from i dont know how many different people, whatsapp was full. I am generally solid, never cry in front of anybody but that day even while filling form whenever i was thinking that i have got recommendation, tears start coming, i was not able to sink it in. 7 of us were recommended with 4 of us for flying branch so we were there for one more day and next day in the morning CPSS was conducted and all of us cleared it. At night, none of us 4 could sleep, really it was a lot to sink in. Chest no. 35 (Pradeep) was also recommended for flying, sadly 36 could not. We both have cleared out medicals and just waiting for the call letter. Believe me, very simple and common people like me and you all make it , after that i met many recommended candidates, even met captains lieutenants in many stages like medicals, air headquarters visit, i saw one thing that answers somr of my questions, that these are just normal people like me and you, just t are more clear in their thought and are good person, all people are like that ,we tend to forget that whoever is selected has travelled the journey of ups and downs and we all have it, just we are not aware of our capabilities. There is nothing more wonderful than to achieve ehat you have dreamed of. Generations of my family has severed only as sipahi, my father after army is working as a head constable, nobody from my family, or my village, or the area i come from has been an officer,but t are good people around whom i grew up, listened stories of, i cant express how proud i am of my roots which gave me foundation to grow. I owe all of me to the all of it. Medicals was another wonderful experience in Delhi, if you people want i will write about it also. Thank you, Jai Hind, Jai Badri Vishal These are during our medical