Mayank Bhardwaj – 19 SSB allahabad

If you fail, never give up, because fail means first attempt in learning*,This quote by Dr Apj Abdul kalam sir always motivated me to follow my passion.

My name is Mayank Bhardwaj, I have just completed my engineering in electrical and electronics, from the initial days of my childhood, I always wanted to join armed forces of India, I got recommended in my 3rd attempt for Ssc tech 51 course from allahbad. After the completion of intermediate board exams, I also became a part of rat race, and missed a golden opportunity to give Nda. From there onwards I opted engineering and the passion, the urge to join defense forces keeps on pushing me. So in the year 2016, I had started reading about how our defense forces are working, I gained a lot of useful information about all the three forces in this span of time.

In third year of engineering I came to know about different entries for btech graduates, and in 2017 I had applied for Ues – 27 army, I got selected for campus interview round. On 10th January 2017, I appeared for campus interview but I was not able to give my best. From there onwards I started working on my communication skills, knowledge part and subsequently on maintaining physical standards.

Finally in 4th year of engineering, I had applied for two entries, one is for Tgc – 127 and other one is for Ues navy, I appeared for ues navy campus interview and this time I got the ssb call letter, so within a month, I had two ssb lined up in February 2018. My journey for first ssb started on 5th February from delhi, my train got delayed by 5 hours, I had to report at 6:00 am at MCO and I arrived at allahbad jn at 9:00am, though I managed to reach at the center but I got screened out in my first attempt. Still I had one more ssb at coimbatore for ues navy, again I got screened out. I realised that I should give a break of 4 to 5 months for next ssb & analyst where I am lagging, as I was in final year of engineering. I was busy in college chores, project work, assignments etc,but I started reading self help books and it helped me a lot, slowly and gradually it became a hobby. There is a skype group where many defense aspirants come together for group discussion, ppdt narration so I had joined that group and participated in sessions. I would like to thank my fellow skype mates Shubham, Chandrashekhar, Nilesh, Akshay, as they always motivated me.

So this time, when Ssc tech – 51 notification came on 17th Jan 2018, I had applied on the very first day, and finally again I got allahbad center for ssb, I made up mind that I started from allahbad, let’s end on allahbad by proving that yes I have it in me. This ssb was totally different from previous experience because this time I was not worry about end results, I was focusing on journey not on the end destination.

Day 1

Oir test – Perform good in oir tests, generally question come from dice, series, basic quants. For ppdt, listen to the instructions carefully, most of the time we dont listen it properly due to some pre conceived notions and commit mistake while penning down stories. Personal advice – Oir and narration part of a story is something which is in your hand, so give your best, because in group discussion. Sometime it happens that in a group of 20 candidate chaotic condition arises, wait for the right opportunity to speak & these are all myths that speaking first in group discussion will fetch you good results. If you are having logical points then obviously it is an added advantage, but just for the sake of speaking, this will not going to help you.

Day 2

Once again listen to the instructions carefully. Take 10 long deep breaths and think about the journey how you have made it here, think about you closer you are from your goal,you ll end up writing good stories.. Don’t panic if you miss out some word association test, keep on continue writing with other words as time is less. Coming to SRT, try to do in a sequential manner without leaving any srt in between. For Self description test, I haven’t prepared anything, I had just penned down the opinion of my parents, friends, teacher, what they think of me. Also for 12 th tat story, I haven’t prepared any advance story for the blank story.

Day 3

Gto task, I throughly enjoyed as it was more focused on team working. For Pgt, Hgt and Fgt , be very clear about the rules that Gto sir will tell you before starting the tasks. Group discussion and Group planning exercise is important aspect of Gto test as these are first two exercise of Gto that will conduct on first day of Gto, so keep calm, give everyone a chance to give their point of view and side by side stating your points also. Lecturette, for lecturette presentation matters a lot, it never matters which topic your are choosing, the thing that matter is how useful content and information, you are delivering in your speech. For command task, Choose your subordinate wisely, brief them clearly about the helping material and the objective of task. Individual obstacle – This is a test of your physical strength as well as mental ability, prepare a map in your mind from where you are going to start obstacle as time alloted is only 3 minutes. Group obstacle race- 1.Motivate your group members. 2. Keep a check on yourself that you are not breaking any rule, if you do unintentionally, do the obstacle again from where the rules has been broken.

Interview

Interview experience was amazing, it was related to PIQ, hobbies, interest and some technical questions were also asked. Rapid fire question were related to family background, friends, teachers and about previous attempts. Interviewing officer also asked me to do push ups so keep in mind whatever your are writing in your PIQ, you should possess a good knowledge about it.

Conference day

Basic question about stay, friend that you made, places you have visited, this were asked. Finally after a long halt of 40minutes, the technical officer came and gave a motivation lecture and then he announced the chest numbers, mine chest number was first I was feeling like, I am day dreaming, then all the fellow mates congratulated me and subsequently to my another friend who also got recommend. At last I would like to thank defense direct education for giving me an opportunity to share my ssb experience. 

Finally I also like to admire the heros of our country Major Mohit Sharma, Vikram Batra, Mukund Vardrajan, Tushar Mahajan, Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Devendra Singh Jass, their stories of sheer grit, valour and courage always boosted me to do my best. Thank you. For any queries you can mail me at : Mayankbhardwaj1996@gmail.com