Decoding SSB and AFSB

Hello aspirants,

I have seen many new aspirants who are yet to attend the interview process are often confused by the process of conduct of the SSB/AFSB. So, in this post, I will try to cover all the crucial details which even I was confused about before attending the SSB. This post will clear all the doubts and will be very helpful for all the aspirants.

1. Decoding the Name

• SSB stands for Service Selection Board, and the candidates are selected for Army in particular.
• AFSB stands for Airforce Selection Board and recommends candidates only for Indian Airforce, i.e. flying or ground duty.

2. Age limit

• SSB the minimum age limit for the army is 16.5 yrs (NDA) to 24yrs(CDSE) at the time of reporting for training.
• Whereas AFSB entertains the candidates for minimum age within 20-26 yrs(AFCAT).

3. Education qualification

• Candidates who have passed graduation or appearing for their final year are eligible to apply for CDS exam provided they submit a relevant certificate of passing the examination at the time of commencement of course. Candidates having appeared or appearing in class 12 (10+2) examination are eligible to appear for NDA.
• Considering for AFCAT entry – Graduation (min 3 years) in any discipline with min 60% marks and have passed Maths and Physics as a subject at 10+2 level B.E/ B.Tech from a recognised University with min 60% marks.

4. Different exams

• For attending SSB, the entries are- NDA, CDSE, UES, TES, TGC, SSC-tech, NCC
• For attending the AFSB board entries are- NDA, CDSE, AFCAT

5. Boards for SSB/AFSB

• Selection Boards for SSB are-Bangalore, Bhopal, Allahabad, kapurthala(Punjab), Coimbatore, Vizag.
• Selection boards for AFSB- AFSB Gandhinagar, AFSB Mysore, AFSB Dehradun and AFSB Varanasi.

6. Call-up letters and date selection

• If we talk about SSB most of the candidates who manage to clear the exam get a call-up letter by post to the address they mentioned in the online form but some of them might not get the letter, but they can download it from the official site of Indian army.
• The board decides the location for the SSB, but the candidate can choose the desired date they want to attend the SSB.
• Now talking about AFSB the call-up letter is to be downloaded from the official site of airforce and no call-up letter is sent via post.
• In this, the candidate gets to select the board as well as the venue for the interview.

7. Reporting

• SSB- most of the entries ask the candidate to report one day before the process(2:30 pm) at the railway station MCO but some exceptions are there for few entries, and they call the candidates in the morning to the centre.
• AFSB- the reporting time for the procedure is mainly in the morning(6:00 AM).

8. Selection procedure

• SSB- when the candidates are called a day before then the documentation is done for all the candidates beforehand, and the dorms are allotted for an overnight stay and the primary process, i.e. PPDT begins the next day.
• AFSB- the selection process of screening starts the very first day after few document verification.

9. Duration

• SSB- the period is of 5 days excluding medical.
• AFSB- the duration is of 6 days (5 +1 for CPSS) excluding medical.

10. First day

• SSB- the first day is screening, and the selected candidates are required to fill their PIQ forms, and they are done for the day.,
• AFSB- the first day consists of screening, PIQ, PPDT, so all these are conducted on the very first day.

11. Obstacles in GTO

• SSB- as per my experience I felt that the size of the barrier for SSB is smaller compared to the AFSB and the size of helping material is also not that heavy.
• The process is almost the same for both the boards but there the minor difference in the individual obstacle in AFSB.
• There are different obstacles like monkey crawl, jumping across the screen, parallel beam for balancing are few that I can recall as of now.

12. Conference day

• SSB- last day is only for the conference, and then the results are announced.
• AFSB- the last day includes conference but for some batch, they might have GTO day two tasks left, and after that, they will attend the conference.

13. Recommendation

• SSB- selected candidates will go through the medical procedure
• AFSB- candidates will have to give CPSS if opted for flying and then medical take place at dedicated medical hospitals.

These were some of the significant differences that I witnessed during my selection procedure. I hope this post helped you.

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JAI HIND