Should you leave the job for SSB preparation? Is it a wise decision?

 In many graduate, defense aspirants, there many who are working and pursuing their dream of joining defense as an officer parallelly. After certain time and few rejections they unfortunately start doubting on their efforts and get dilemma of weather to leave the job or continue. they often think if it right to work on two tracks parallelly or should they only concentrate on defense leaving the job.

I often see many aspirants saying that they do not get time to prepare for SSB due to their day job. and often they loose interest in their job and many of them want to leave it.

This kind of self doubt phase has crushed me and many of  my friends too.

One line answer to end this dilemma is that DO NOT LEAVE THE JOB, It is a foolish decision to leave job giving SSB preparation as a reason and infact if you do not have a job, please get one. 

In this blog we will see more about why it is not a wise decision to leave the job to prepare for SSB full-time and also we will see some tips along the way.

What ssb is lookin for in a candidate? 

Mature candidate with clear sense of his/her roles and responsibilities; roles and responsibility as a student, as a son/daughter, as a citizen and as a employee that is it.

Basically Selection board needs a fit and average candidate with fair general awareness and good attitude nothing more than that. They need a person who can take responsibilities and complete them efficiently. what about OLQs? as a candidate do not worry about all that. just keep in mind if you know all your roles and responsibilities correctly, you are taking care of all of them and if you are fairly fit, no one is there to stop you from getting recommended from SSB.

now the question arises in you if it is fairly simple then why so many candidates get rejected in SSB?

As many candidates started showing interest towards joining defense as an officer. So in late 90s SSB started conducting screening to test only candidates with traces of OLQs. facts apart this screening sometimes not sometimes conducted properly as there will be huge number of candidates reported and only few testing facilities so it is most likely that many talented candidates get rejected in the screening process and so SSB selection seems unpredictable and most of the time we will not even know why was a candidate screened out or conferenced out.

and the ratio of candidates giving the exams to requirement is so low that it is highly impossible for all the deserving candidates make into forces despite all the handwork they put in. to give small number comparison

candidates taking entrance: 10,00,000 around

candidates clearing entrance (10% ) : 1,00,000

candidates reporting at one center at one batch: 200

screen in max : 30 (some centers does even more)

recommendation is 1or 2 on top of the many get rejected in medical tests and many get merit out during merit listing during joining.

**facts were mentioned not to discourage aspirants but to make them aware about the reality.

but due to demand in the market all the coaching academies and others(so called experts) say that if you have it in you no one can stop you from joining forces and candidates are falling for that.

Defense is surely a better place to be but the approach which candidates and coaching academies are following not quite correct. We all know the SSB is personality test and candidate should work on developing his/her personality. but I see most of them are working on polishing their responses for questions/tasks at SSB.

If the test is of personality candidates should work on personality and personality expands by taking extra challenges and responsibilities.

Eventually what happens is a graduate reaches 26+ years of age with no significant working experience or skills, all he or she will have is how to write TAT, PPDT, SD and what not.

In parallel I know candidates getting frustrated about their work and saying "what am I doing here?" all those self doubts and negative thoughts are common. It is what it is- you will have to work and try for defense as a side gig.

add on to it, by having job, you will become financially independent from parents trust me this will give you whole another level of confidence.

Now we know that it is not a wise decision, to leave job to prepare for SSB full time,

how can we better manage work and SSB preparation/entrance preparation?

If you are working you will spend at around 8-9 hours a day at workplace that leaves you with 15-16 hours in hand; and if you cut 10 hours in sleep and other routine activities you will have good 5 to 6 hours for preparation, self development and fitness. weekends and holidays are add-on to that.

Now question comes- how can we better utilize that time?

This is when concept of time management and timely decision making comes into picture. Below are some wage tips to initiate your thought process.

1) Prepare a Routine and follow it religiously:

Have a routine set up and follow it religiously. Routine should have all the works you should finish, all the readings you want to accomplish and don't forget the entertainment. I know it is hard to follow the routine, It will be tough for few days but no other options, trust your plan and stick to the routine.

2)Make use of weekends and public holidays:

At all workplaces in general will have off in the weekend(Saturday and Sundays), close to 25 holidays and enough paid leaves. Make sure to utilize them efficiently and get most of the studies done in them.

3)Balance both:

You are preparing for something aside does not mean ignore work. you will have to balance both; sometimes office work demands some extra work from you then dedicate some time to finish work responsibly and vice versa sometimes you will have to ignore some unnecessary team meetings and calls,

4)Use office environment as an opportunity to learn team work, improve presentation skills. volunteer for challenges:

Think office as a place to learn soft skills apart from technical skills you learn. Take additional responsibilities and challenges to showcase and in turn learn skills such as public speaking, presentation skills etc. this will increase your power of expression.

5) Join various clubs and initiatives:

Take part in various initiatives such as CSR activities and there will be lot of clubs in the office try to join them which ever interests you this will not only help you to open up your horizon of thoughts but also gives you an opportunity to network with others.

If you are in a toxic work environment and spending 12+ hours at work that is a different story.

Sometimes what happens is young graduates end up in toxic corporate environment filled with dirty politics or they will be forced to work for 12+ hours trying to meet unrealistic targets and deadlines, then that is a different case all together.

One has to leave such tiring job and find themselves a different job, such toxic environments are not suitable for anyone even if your employers are paying you shit load of money.

Bottom Line:

bottom line is that it is not a wise decision to leave your day job giving reason of SSB preparation. In fact if you do not have a job please find one for yourself because having a job will give new  dimension to your life and it teaches you many values and soft-skills as well. 

5 core qualities of a good leader

Most of us unfortunately, tend to lead a life of a follower. This tendency of following instructions without questioning had been ingrained in us by our poor education system, which is designed to produce industrial workers. 

Midst of rapid rat race in corporations, we mostly find managers of numbers rather than leaders. however there are few qualities, which radiate out of a good leaders. those qualities separates them from crowd.

In this blog we have listed 5 qualities of a good leader in modern world.

1)Art of story telling: 

Influential way of communication has always been main weapon in arsenal of a leader. Story telling is a classical way conveying  thoughts, ideas, beliefs and values. 

From long time we are teaching moral values to our kids with stories; but some how we tend to ignore the power of it. We have almost forgotten that all the ancient scriptures are nothing but values and life lessons conveyed with stories. Point here I wanted to make is storytelling is a powerful tool to influence followers. 

It is observed that we tend remember or get convinced, when the lessons are ingrained with emotions. Story is nothing but play of emotions and imaginations.

Good leaders are good storytellers too.

2)Empathy:

A good leader is often a empathetic person, Before leading his subordinates/colleagues he should be able to understand what they are going though, how they think. Metaphorically a leader should put himself in shoes of his followers.

Even though Its important we rarely find leaders who are empathetic. Most of modern corporate mangers often fail to understand their subordinates but pass orders.

Empathy is under rated but extremely important quality of a leader.

3)Adaptable : 

A leader often has to lead his/her subordinates in unknown situations. If situation demands he/she has to lead from front with example. For that one has to be a quick learner and adapter.

So leader should be extremely adaptable with quick learning capabilities.

4)Allocation of resources: 

Optimal allocation of resources is important for efficient management. resources could be anything we use, it could be any commodity, money people or even time. Choosing right person for right work allocating right time for it is key.

5)Original thoughts and opinion oriented:

Leaders are always original and structured thinkers. Their ideas, decisions and opinions are often derived by their values and beliefs. They are not driven by success, fame or by money. but those will be definite/obvious products of their work.

their thoughts often will be clear and rational. With this they try to lead their team by example not paying attention to unnecessary noise.

Bottom-line:

There could be other various traits of a leader; but it broadly fall under above five. With these qualities leader becomes effective team player with vision in mind.  I believe leadership is a trainable skill; we can all be leaders in our own way by becoming little more of above 5 ideas every day.

How to approach SSB? from a 10 times repeater's experience

For Screening:

We will have 3 parts in screening:

1.       OIR

lets clear one thing first, If you ruin your OIR, you are not going to get screened in.

 This test is very easy, just practice before coming to SSB and you should be good. Watch some YouTube videos and solve at least one pdf, it has really helped me in solving faster. Solving PDFs fast and watching OIR questions on YouTube makes your brain to get adapted to patterns and expectations.

2.       Story writing

This is simple and yet complex at the same time. According to me, the tip to write a good story is already told directly or indirectly by the assessors themselves.

First thing is observing the picture for 30 sec (at least for 20 sec) and simultaneously try to think of story around the picture. This takes a while to develop, so practice, please practice this at least 5-10 times before the SSB.

Second thing, in the instructions itself assessors will mention that you need tell the feeling, thoughts and emotions of the character in the story. This is very important as whole SSB is a test of personality and when you give emotion and thoughts to your character in the story, you are enabling assessors to know more about you;

the way you think, how much can you relate it to real life (exposure), etc.

here is One way to proceed with story writing

 That is to think of the picture shown as one of the slides of your whole story. 

Say you are shown a picture of an accident of a car and a tange wala. That is just one moment of what all happened or will happen in that story. 

Now it depends on candidate's perception of the picture- One may write that car driver was drunk and probably can make a story around hit and run case. 

Other can write, it was small accident and car driver was apologetic of it and helped tange wala with money, medication and so on. 

Another case could be, after accident crowd started to gather and was just shouting at car driver eventually making the traffic even worse but there was a person lets say, Tanay, who immediately helped them get up, gave first aid and dispersed the crowd. 

These are just few of many speculations and each story will tell about your personality (subconscious personality).

Even though the theme is exactly same in all of these cases. It is all perception that changed; trust me none of them are wrong neither they are right.

3.       Narration and Group Discussion

One thing is for sure is that all these tests are there in the selection process for a reason, our aim should be to perform our best in all of them.

For narration, we usually get around a minute to talk about the number of characters we perceive, their age and mood, action of the story and the story. Sometimes, the assessor will say ‘next!’ even before you finish your story. 

It simply means- either your story was too long and your time is up or assessors understood what you wanted to convey 

but usually it’s because you ran out of time. 

There will around 15-20 members in a group and even if they give 1 minute to everyone, it’s going to take at least 15-20 mins plus the GD will still be left.

Goal is to somehow convey what you have perceived but before that, make sure what you have perceived is right, hence observe the picture at least for 20 secs. While narrating, your story should be as close as possible to what you have written, 

definitely you can improvise it while speaking but it has to come naturally without stammering. Maintain a nice tone and body posture you should be good with Narration part.

Usually, the instructions are to stat the GD as soon as the last candidate has finished narrating his story. This is the time when at least 2-3 people starts at the same time and it will be chaos if more than 2 people will keep on speaking. Take pause and see if anyone made sense. Don’t get the group stuck in deciding 

the no of members and their GD, always try to add something to the GD so that it the discussion will move forward. Give reasoning as to why a point should be accepted, it’s better if it is observation based or logically correct and makes sense.

If you are able to add 2-3 good points, you have done your job. During the GD never make eye contact with assessors or get hyper or slouch. Be genuinely interested and participate to the best of your ability. 

Through GD, assessors try to observe how does a candidate behave in the group, how does a candidate react in chaos, does anyone in the group has the ability to become a leader naturally?

No one likes a person who is very dominating or who seems not at all interested. Be average, be polite, be logical, be a listener but be an opportunist, hear for the other candidate’s points and you will be able to recognize when does a person is about to complete his points, take this opportunity and chip in your points smoothly. Don’t think that in fish market like situation assessor will not note your points, they are very well trained and are experienced too. If in case it becomes too loud they will divide the groups into half so that you have better stand.

Remember that no one will give you the opportunity, you will have to be smart to grab it although there will be some candidates who might ask the group to give opportunity to you or some other candidates but it’s not very useful to you. They are looking for leaders who have the officer like qualities, just be one. Be gentle, confident, smart, have a slight smile and just do your best.

At the end of discussion, one candidate from the group has to conclude the story for the group, for this you need to make sure if you are the one to conclude, you should narrate the story which the group has finalized and not yours, ensure to add multiple points discussed during the GD and conclude confidently. It’s a myth that the person who concludes will surely be screened in, I am a 10 times repeater I know this by experience.

Click here to read more on screening process

Psychology Test:

I have said it earlier and I will state it again and again, SSB is a personality test. Neither intelligence nor English fluency nor even any other quality. 

Let’s take a moment here to understand this before we proceed on how to approach for the test.

By Google search “Personality refers to "individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving”.

A personality is never right or wrong, just different in its own way, hence there is no right or wrong answer to any of the tests being conducted in the SSB. For example, a person can be a bit introvert and he/she might still handle a group of people effectively, while another person can be an extrovert but might not be effective in managing people. A person can be an introvert and might not be able to speak up resulting in poor management, but an extrovert might handle people effectively just because he can speak out important things.

The question is ‘do you have the personality which is required for the armed forces?’.  And thus, they say ‘we are not looking for the best fit but the right fit’.

Hence, it’s not important to look for a correct answer but to sit, think and introspect to analyze what exactly ‘your personality’ is. If you have the 15 OLQs, in fact from my observations even if you have 10-12 OLQs no one is going to stop you from the recommendation.

Click here to know more about OLQs

Things like stamina and physique can be developed in the academy and even if you have a bit lesser stamina it’s fine but say if you are not a team player, then it’s gonna be a tough game. In fact in such a case, we should realize by ourselves that this profession is not suitable for us 

and it’s absolutely fine as there can be a person who likes to work alone and maybe he will become a better and faster coder or writer or artist or athlete or anything else.

Now lets discuss approach for TAT, WAT, SRT and SD

For TAT it’s simple, same as PPDT follow the instructions and write about the feelings, thoughts and emotion of your characters.

For WAT, practice before hand else it will blow up. Since we will have to see the word and form a sentence within 15 seconds, we won’t get much time to articulate the sentence well. I will tell you what to practice here.

Let’s say the word is HUMBLE and let’s analyze few sentences of it. 

(PS: Analysis is based on my little naïve brain’s capacity, not a professional one.)

Sentence 1: Ram is a humble person.      

Analysis 1: Maybe Ram is your friend and you think he is humble but it’s your personality test. What is assessor supposed to do with it.

Sentence 2: Being humble is appreciated.  

Analysis 2: You are aware and acknowledge that being humble is a good thing and preferably you practice being humble.

Now SRT, a situation will be given and you need to write a response to it. Again, no response is right or wrong, people behave differently in same situations. There is a nice anecdote to this, say if we put a potato and an egg in boiling water, potato becomes soft but the egg hardens, it’s their natural tendency. those are what it makes an egg or a potato. 

It’s the same case with us, we react and behave differently depending upon how we are in real life.

Just practice before hand to attempt as many as you can. Preferably try to write short and crisp responses, saves time. For advice I will say, make sure your responses are not fluctuating much in similar situations, say if you fight back in one situation, you should be definitely fighting back in another ‘similar’ situation.

In SD (self-description) write whatever you feel like, it’s better to prepare it before SSB as time is less and we might miss out on something important to be written or we might get stuck in thinking and collecting points. Just remember one thing, at each and every step it’s only about knowing you and assessing how well are you aware of yourselves. Write both your positives and negatives/improvements.

Click here to read more on Psychology tests in SSB

GTO Tasks:

A lot of people say (perhaps its a myth) that GTO scrutinizes few candidates after the two GDs & GPE and thereafter his focus is only on those. Well, I am not sure, if it’s a myth or not but I too believe it to be true although his focus is always on everyone.

Let’s talk about how to perform well here. To start with, be updated with the current affairs of at least a couple of months before the SSB, usually topics are from the latest news and have an opinion of yours as mostly candidates just keep on blabbering something without making any sense but might feel good as they were able speak more than others, no bro, no points for it. Don’t shout, never shout, period. Modulate your pitch here and there but don’t shout at all. You will only end up stressing up your neck’s veins that is it, nothing more nothing less.

No need of repeating the same point again or someone else’s point framed in a different way again and again, you can agree for sure with a point and maybe support it with an example. Aim is to get the discussion to a positive direction by listening to others as well as by adding constructive points. Be polite but strongly put your point, if needed give examples, anecdotes and scenarios. remember- Aim is to get the discussion to a positive direction.

For GPE, practice is the only way. Prioritize the problems to be tackled well. See for the hidden resources in the problem story, calculate rough distances mentally and hence the time. Solution should end with what you had achieved at last, for example if you were going to attend a tournament, your solution should end with attending the tournament on or before time.

Click here to read more on GPE

Coming to physical ground Tasks, first task is Group Obstacle Race or the Snake Race where a snake like 2-3-metre-long cylindrical sack is given to each group and they compete with each other. To perform better in this task, have JOSH keep on shouting your war cry from till the very end. Help each other in getting over the obstacle, make sure your and your groups morale is high and everyone including you should be fast in clearing the obstacles while not violating any rules. Your group’s dynamics and a lot more is checked in this task. 

Other physical group tasks are PGT, HGT, FGT which includes a battery of obstacles to be crossed in group. Since assessors are looking for leaders and problem solvers, points are only for how well you can adapt in the group, give simple ideas, calm your group when required and have the courage to attempt the ideas. Give ideas, be responsible, be careful of your words and make everyone work together or at least make sure you are working to help the group. There’s no competition, you will get enough chances, just look for the opportunity. Listen to the instructions carefully, do not attempt stunts or shut up anyone. 

Most of the task will be bridged by the plank and wooden log you have, do not use rope unnecessarily. Make sure the load (usually a drum) is being carried with group but do not let it become an unnecessary burden, let the group carry it only when it can be completely moved to another end else let it be wherever it is.

Command task, here you need to perform without your group although you will have subordinates to help you. Nature of the task is similar to PGT, HGT and FGT. Before you start your task, you will have a short talk with the GTO and he might ask few questions which will seem to be ordinary but he is still assessing you. You might be asked on how did you come to center (bus, train, plane, etc), how far is the SSB center, why do you want to join the forces, why were you not selected in your last attempt(s), how did you prepare this time, etc or may be a current affair. Once you start the task, make sure you or the sub-ordinates are not violating any rule. Do not call anyone as your subordinate just because he is your friend. Observe the obstacles and see if you will need a heavy or light weight guy or the one who can tie ropes well. Keep your calm even if assessor is changing the rules during the task, this means he is either interested in you and/or wants to observe how do you perform under pressure. Be helpful even when you are the commander. 

Just to burst the bubble, a command task which has a bomb to be diffused doesn’t mean that candidate has performed the best or is going to be recommended for sure.

We have missed one important task of  GTO series, Lecturette. It is something most of the candidates are worried about, and usually happens on the 1st day of your GTO tasks. If you all can agree it’s because either we do not have content for the topic or the confidence of addressing a group in English. Therefore, read before going to SSB, read at-least about basic topics. Just google for the lecturette topics and prepare for it. Lecturette is of 3 mins, assessor rings the bell at 2 mins 30 secs and your aim is to deliver your speech effectively to the group for 3 mins. Best way to do it is to break your topic in smaller parts. 

The way you can break it is by giving some background or historical importance to your topic in first part (say 30-40 sec), your main body of the content should take most of the time. Break this in 2 parts of 1 min each, talk about its pros and cons or past vs present contrast (what’s different now from past), now you would have consumed at least 2:30 mins and assessor will ring the bell, now is the time you smoothly conclude your speech by calling out the take away or by giving an opinion followed or maybe a quote followed by Thank you. Also, keep in mind that you should not make much of your body or hand movement, this shows anxiety. Stand at an appropriate distance, try not to hide yourself behind the chair, if there’s any. Let your whole body be exposed to the audience, keeping your shoulders nice and steady. Voice modulation is important to keep the audience engaged, stress on big points, give pauses and keep a healthy smile (not a freaky one). 

Given a short period to prepare, assessors are trying to see how well your thoughts are organized, can you address a group effectively, etc. And remember, this is just one of the many tasks, your recommendation is not completely dependent on this, even if you speak for 2 mins effectively and logically, you will get ticks for some of the points but give your best in all the tasks including lecturette. 

One last thing, candidates often ask if the top most topic should only be chosen else you will not be recommended, as per my understanding of course the assessor will give more marks if you choose one the difficult topics it shows that you’re prepared and keep yourself updated with current affairs but there’s no point in choosing a difficult topic and not able to speak properly, it will further reduce your chances. The take- away is, chose the topic you are comfortable with, break it into smaller parts, think of some points for each part and just be confident.

Click here read more on lecturette in SSB

For Interview:

IO (Interviewing officer) takes the interview between 2nd to 4th day of your stay at the SSB, rarely on 5^th day too. IO is the one who gets to know you by asking you questions from your PIQ, putting you in situations you normally wouldn’t want to be in, the way you respond to any question or situation and he keeps on cross verifying your responses by twisting the questions.

PIQ is very important as helps the IO know you even before you meet him and it gives an overall impression and idea about your personality, hence its important to give as much as information as you could through the PIQ and it should be honest and correct information.

To give you an idea, say you have mentioned that you keep on participating frequently in sports but when he meets you, he sees an overweight guy, it’s definitely going to raise a doubt to him on whether you are honest and not. Now during your interaction of 30 mins to 1 hour he will verify them by asking you your daily routine or questioning you about rules and measurements of the sport and in many other ways.

Now let’s come on what is to be kept in mind to prepare for the interview. In the beginning he will first make you comfortable for the first 3-5 mins, then you will be asked some general questions and it usually starts like : Gentleman tell me about your marks 10^th standard onwards, what all competitive exams you have appeared in till date and their results, if you participated in any extra-curricular activities, responsibilities you have held from school till date, which subject you like the most and why also tell me which subject you hate and why, who was your favorite teacher and why , who was the one teacher you didn’t like and why, what are your hobbies and how do you spend you free time, who is you best friend and which of his qualities you admire, etc.

These are basic questions which will be asked in a flow, he may add few more questions or even ask these questions by breaking them in smaller parts (rarely happens). Pay attention when he is asking these questions and retain them while you are answering to these. Other questions will from your surroundings, your decisions on major events of your life, general knowledge and you might be given a situation and asked for your opinion, questions on your strength and weaknesses.

Interview is something which goes in the direction you take it. I am saying this as you are the one who wrote your PIQ, you will tell him about your likes, dislikes, hobbies, major events of your life, etc.

I have to mention again that SSB is a personality test and in interview too there are no correct answers or responses. For a same question you and me might give different responses and still be recommended as I will behave as per who I am and so you will, according to your experiences of life. Responses are meant to differ, depending on your ethnicity, school, college, friends, financial status and many other things. 

Things which help you sail through these interviews are your knowledge about your surroundings including GK, knowing yourself (strength/weakness, decisions), reasoning ability, honestly (or Oscar level acting to lie :P) and confidence.

 

Conference:

Here comes your fifth day at the SSB and assessors have their decisions about you by now but still the game is not over. You might feel like you are not going to make it this time but my friend that is to be decided by the assessors therefore don’t give up for 1-2 more hours :D. Assessors might have doubt about some of your traits and accordingly you will be asked questions to verify them. First thing, get ready for the questions you were not able to answer during your interview or during the short talk you had with your GTO just before your command task. Be calm and well dressed, what’s done is done, keep a happy mind let go of everything but be focused.

 

Bottom-line:

SSB process are simple yet complicated, what you should be focusing on is yourself just yourself, be natural but be prepared, get a productive hobby, get to know what’s happening in the world, country and even your neighbors. Hope this might develop some perspective and give direction to your preparations. You shall receive the crown when you deserve it, not when you think you deserve it.

trouble speaking ENGLISH? A story

 Ever since my childhood I have been quite confident. It was around 6 years ago, in my first year at engineering college, when I had kinda felt hostile and under-confident. Not because I had come out to a different city for studies; neither because of my family’s financial status.

 

I was under-confident because I felt, I was in a different country all together, since everyone around in the class was speaking in ENGLISH, even for a casual talk.

Moreover the lecturing was also in the same medium.

That was something new for me as I was one of few students in the class, who studied their schooling in vernacular language; even teachers in school, never spoke in English.

 

It occurs funny to me now but It was a big deal back then :-D

 

Like many I too received "spoken English" tips like- watch Hollywood movies, read news papers a loud, listen to POP-Rap and start thinking in English etc etc. Tried all of them but did not feel much of a difference and hadn't got much of confidence.

 

Then I reached out to one of my mentors at an educational camp, she asked me one simple question- “How did you learn your mother-tongue, Konkani?”

 

That question forced me to introspect and I asked to myself – “How did I learn it? In-fact, how does a child learn any language and start speaking it?”

 

Answer was simple—the child listens to others carefully; it mimics and most importantly It speaks to express its thoughts & emotions; it never bothers about it’s mistakes. But when the same child becomes an adult, he/she pays so much attention to his/her mistakes and worries “what others think about him/her”.

That is why most of us are scared of committing mistakes before even trying new things.

 

Post that I realized, I had never tried speaking out loud in English (communicated my thoughts in English), I had spent months of time in first year of college, thinking “what if I speak wrong?”

After that realization, things went smooth; I started speaking out my thoughts in English, paying least attention to beauty of expression rather than focusing more on communicating the message and also gotten rid of fear of “being judged”. It is then I gained my confidence back.

 

I believe some of my Kannada/Hindi medium friends can empathize with me here :-)

 

Last week when one of my friends/junior asked me for tips to improve his English communication skills. I started by asking same question – “How did you learn your mother-tongue?”

top 5 things I learnt from SSB preparation

I have been defense(Navy in specific) aspirant for a considerable period infact still I am its just that my age crossed the intake age of Indian Navy. Today I am a Data Analyst at a named MNC but the zeal to join armed forces is still intact. I still get goosebumps when I watch POP parades or RD parades. I feel blood rush when I listen to a soldier speaking with pride or I read a battle ops story. It reminds me of my NCC days and also awakes my imagination of being a part of Indian Navy donning white Crisp uniform with Nelson rings on my shoulders.

On the positive side I feel fortunate that I was able to crack exams and I was able to experience THE SSB interview and learn some bits from its preparation process and experience. At least I am not guilty of not trying. 

This blog is part of such reflections. In this blog I have listed top 5 learnings from my SSB preparation/journey which currently helping me in my professional life or life in general.

1)Story telling:

Most of us as a part of SSB preparation we spend time in writing PPDT,TAT, SRT and WAT responses.  For me this has been wired into my head that whatever I explain or whichever situation I explain in my personal or professional life I tend to follow a structured format of 

• setting premise(what lead to the situation), 
• explaining item of focus (what is currently happening)
• conclusion or action plan (what is the way forward)

essentially we follow the same or similar format in TAT or PPDT.

I would like to frame in a way that 'practicing TAT, PPDT and to some extent lecturette has helped me to inculcate art of story telling'.

2)Structured thinking while faced with practical problem:

Most of the people get tensed and startled when they are thrown with real life practical problem. they get tensed especially when it is time bound. 

SSB is essentially a test of personality involving problem solving - a lot of problem solving. It is a unique interview where a candidates responses are collected or observed while he was put in a problematic situations. The situation could be psychometric involving TAT, SRT and WAT or it could be ground tasks involving PGT, HGT and command tasks core agenda remains the same to find how sorted you are mentally.

while solving or practicing such time bound problems I observed that essentially muscle of structured thinking is getting trained. In way SSB preparation helped me to have a mindset of structured thinking. Today I find myself to be more calm and composed when I am faced with timebound practical problems.

NEXT 3 HABITS ARE SUCH WHICH ARE ESSENTIAL IN ANY CONSIDERABLE PURSUATIONS NOT ONLY SSB PREP THAT NEEDS. ITS JUST THAT I INCULCATED THEM WHILE PREPARING FOR ARMED FORCES.

 3)Consistency and habits:

Not only SSB, Preparation for anything for that matter needs consistency. Nothing significant can be achieved in a matter of few days - Its days of handwork and consistency in it which helps us achieve success of significance.

how someone can improve his/her fitness by matter of days? how will someone improve his/her GK by reading  a book for 4-5 days. but going for a run every day will help getting into better shape. reading news paper and books everyday will improve one's GK.

 Ultimately Its what you do every day that makes you what you are

This is how- I learnt the importance of  consistency and power of having good habits by my SSB/defense preparation.

4)Discipline:

Inline with earlier point about consistency and habit-  discipline is one such integral component of preparation cycle. discipline in simple word is doing things in right way at right time.

THE ABOVE 2 POINTS HAVE HELPED ME TO BE ORGANISED.

5)Planning and staying ahead:

This is not SSB preparation but working towards anything larger than yourself makes you well organized and well planned person. 

For me SSB preparation has taught planning and thinking steps ahead of current situation.  

and when you are planned you are calm, you are punctual and you are so many other things.

Bottom line:

Today when I reflect over my preparation to join Armed forces I feel not a single bit has gone waste. All the effort and hardwork have paid back in making me efficient in some or the other way. In other words all the preparation put towards has made me a better person otherwise it would have taken some time.

How to give any lecturette easily in SSB: Skeleton plan

What is lecturette?

Lecturette is a 3 minute impromptu speech to be given by candidate at SSB interview. It is generally last event of day-1 of GTO tasks(or day-3 of SSB). 

Conduct of lecturette:

Group will be made to sit in semicircular fashion, and GTO sits behind at a distance; candidates are called one after other and given with a chit with four topics in it. 

It contains one easy topic (ex. my hobby)

two moderate topics (ex. global warming, Mobile technology)

one high level topic (ex. G-20)

The time given to prepare the speech will be approximately 3 min. Candidate has to pick up one topic from the chit and he/she is expected to give a short and sensible speech on chosen topic of 2.5 to 3 mins in-front of remaining group members.

How to choose the topic among four?

As we know 4 topics will be given. In four topics generally;

1 high level topic

2 average topics

1 easy topic;

In the market it is told that if you choose high level topic you will be given with extra marks; this is a misleading idea. It is obvious that if we choose difficult topic over easy one it will have impact provided if you deliver the lecturette sensibly. Whenever happens so it shows you are well read and confident about your knowledge; 

but

what is the point in choosing the difficult topic, if you can not speak over it confidently. So, it is sensible to choose the topic on which you are confident to speak on for at-least 2 minutes+. Be it be easy one such as my hobby, my best friend and my pet etc.

As most of the students become nervous and go out of thoughts while delivering lecturette. I have come up with a simple framework(mind map) to deliver lecturette on any topic fluently and confidently.

How to give a lecturette: Skeleton plan

There are four phases explained below, by following which you can speak on any topic sensibly.

Phase-1: Greetings and Why have you chosen the topic? 

This is the initial phase of the talk; where you will pass the greetings of the day and give one prominent reason of why have you chosen the topic and why it is important to talk on the topic. 

Duration: 20 sec (2-3 lines)

Phase-2: What is the topic about? brief intro on the topic

Give brief introduction into the topic and state what is it? You can also tell what are you going to discuss in your talk and why it is important?

Duration: 30 sec (3-4 lines)

Phase-3: Advantages/ disadvantages | scope of improvement | cause and effect

This phase is main body of the talk. It should contain your thoughts, opinions, advantages and disadvantages etc. You can also make your point by stating the cause and effect or you can even deliver a personal story or anecdote to convince the audience. 

Duration: 90 sec (elaborated part)

Phase-4: Bottomline | conclusion

This phase is concluding part of the talk. Where you can state conclusion which you have drawn from your thought process. This is wrapping up part of the talk. 

do not forget thank at the end with a smile.

Duration: 30 sec (3-4 lines)

Things will get clear after reading and relating to below example.

To show the implementation I have taken example of an easy topic - Mobile Phone below is write-up

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Good morning gentelmen/ ladies. The topic which I have chosen today is mobile phone. I personally believe, we youth always complain that; mobile phone is wasting our time and our parents are also having the same notion; that is why I felt it is important to choose and speak over this topic.

We all know that mobile phones have made its way into our life in late 90s. Now we have smart phones with touch screen capabilities. As every things under sun have good and bad attached to it. Smart phones also have its own list of advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

*with growing technological advancements, pretty much everything is available just one tap away. I am sure you must have used e-commerce websites such as flipkart and amazon so no need to explain power of smartphone any further.

*We have seen during wake of COVID-19 pandemic it is the mobile phones and apps such as Arogya -setu which enabled us to collect data and draw statistics.

Disadvantage:

*Parallely with advancement of technologies such as AI and machine learning the social media sites are coded in such a way to latch the user into it. Which is kinda unethical. It is actually killing lots of productive time from our pocket.

*With the wake of social media the privacy also has become big concern. lets not forget that.

Bottom line is; Everything comes with advantages and disadvantages it is left to us, how do we make better use of anything. I strongly believe teachers and elders should guide younger generations on better use of mobiles or any piece of technology for that matter.

Thank you!

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How to prepare for lecturette at home?

1) Start to use the above trick in write ups, answers and in normal communications etc. so that the format becomes habituated.

2)Take a list of 10 topics, allow yourself with  3 mins preparation give a lecturette; try to record it and listen later and analyze;

3)Read news paper and articles to increase your vocabulary and knowledge-base.

Bottomline:

It does not matter which topic you choose, if you are able to convince/motivate the group and effectively deliver the content. SO level up your knowledge and effective communication skills.

Below are links to write-ups of some common average level topics,

SSB Lecturette: Sports in India

SSB Lecturette: Global warming causes and effects

SSB lecturette: crime against women

SSB lecturette: AFSPA

SSB lecturette: Artificial Intelligence (AI)