Hey everyone!! My name is Swapnil Jain recommended from 20 SSB BHOPAL in July  for National Defence Academy NDA 143 Course in my very first attempt .

For a kid from a complete civilian background who didn’t know what was SSB till a  month before the interview ,it was probably an achievement.

I was actually preparing for JEE and other engineering entrance exam during the time and just filled the NDA written  form just for fun.

After a week of JEE mains, i remembered that i filled the form and solved a couple of previous year question papers and found it easy and gave the exam next to next day.

The paper went well and i didn’t took it seriously an option,since i know i will be clearing it too.

Come June,when i cleared all the exams, BITSAT, JEE ADVANCE for IIT and was joining a prestigious college,my friend told me that i had cleared the written exam since he had also given the same. I immediately looked up result and was happy .

But now came the tough part, since i didn’t know much about SSB apart from what i read online, i  was bit confused whether i should go for it or not. But it was my father’s dream that he Couldn’t achieve, i thought let’s give my best, because there is nothing to lose.

I joined a 5 day course at Amity SSB academy , to know what actually ws involved and remaining time used to newspaper.

Fast forward a few days,my date for ssb interview came, i went on 21st July,to report in the evening. Upon seeing the other candidates who were from military schools, sainik schools,who were preparing for it since a young age, i became a bit of nervous, However, i know that i work best under pressure and hence, took it to my heart to clear this and become the first kid from my family to join Army and mive out of the rat race of packages,and placements.

The 1st day involved PPDT in which our group of 15 fresher’s were shown a picture.

We wrote a story, confidently narrated it,and discussion came which became bit of impulsive. I defused the situation a couple of times and in the end, i provided the conclusion after consensus. After the screening test,I was allotted chest no.1.

The second day began and i completed all my TATs, WATs and 52 SRTs, and immediately after an hour  had my interview. My interview went for 1 hr 15 mins and was asked variety of questions especially technical ones since i had cleared many prestigious exams. Those technical questions seemed a bit unconventional for NDA, but i answered them confidently.

Honestly i was a bit scared because my interview went quite long as compared to others, but i kept that out of my mind and enjoyed with my friends i made there. I also talked to other candidates in other entries, the recommended candidates and repeaters asking them about how to do things and all.

One thing that i understood there was to be completely honest in front of the assessors because they are highly experienced people, and other thing is to keep trying on and be confident in all situations. The 3rd and 4th day went pretty well with our group. We all performed well and supported each other throughout the activities.

The 5th day came and i was both nervous and excited, but stayed calm throughout conference and answered the questions confidently.

Later when the results were announced, i was pretty happy when my chest no. was announced and that ended my SSB journey. My medical was also cleared and now am confident of cracking in top 40 of merit. However, the happiest moment was when i saw my father being so Happy and proud after coming from SSB. I hope my experience will help you guys and motivate others to try these examination with full confidence.

Thank you so much Defence Direct Education for providing me this opportunity to present my experience.

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