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Service Selection Board Interview is a 5 day process. During these 5 days, candidates are assessed through various different tests. To give you a quick overview of SSB Interview procedure have a look at the diagram below.
- Stage 1 – Day 0 (reporting day) and Day 1
- Stage 2 – Day 2, day 3, Day 4, Day 5
- Medical test – Day 6
Over the last 20 years the number of candidates getting recommended have reduced to a great extent. The SSB Interview system is meant to see if you have it in you! While it is not the case now as candidates focus more on coaching and trying to pretend to fit in
Being an officer is about being a gentleman. At SSB Interview assessors already have made their minds and have a mold ready to see if you will fit in. So, you need not pretend at all. Being yourself is what you should focus on. The more you try to get coached, the more you will pretend.
You may ask – “Then what if I am not good now and being the same original self will not help me at interview isn’t it?”
It is true. Which is why you need to develop your personality. If you already have it in you, you only need to improve your personality and develop your thinking process.
How do you do that? By practicing for these tests in advance. The more you practice the more you will be able to assess yourself and develop. Today i’m going to tell you about 4 SSB Interview books and the reason why you will need only these to get recommended for SSB Interview.
1.) SSB Interview : The Complete Guide
This is a standard book for a detailed overview of 5 Day SSB Interview process. Use this book to only understand the procedure and tests in detail. It is a very short book and will guide you through the process. While coaching centers will provide similar information about the process, there is no other help that you are going to get at all. In fact, attending these centers can cause you to lose your authentic self, as they may encourage you to adopt a pretentious demeanor rather than genuinely developing your personality.
If you have an SSB interview coming up, then get this book and use it to only understand the process in detail.
You can get this on Amazon, Flipkart or a Bookstore near you.
2.) SSB OIR & PPDT : Complete Guide to Screening
This is a standard benchmark for OIR and infact the first SSB OIR book to be released in India. Proven in last 6 years It has been recommended by Ex SSB president and is used widely in Sainik Schools, Rashtriya Military Schools and RMS and also in few countries abroad. It is the only book with complete OIR syllabus containing all 36 topics.
OIR test is about intelligence and practice. The more you practice, the more quick you are during the test. Solved practice sets of each topic will make you really good at this test. If you have an SSB Interview coming up then this is a must to get hold of!
You can get this on Amazon, Flipkart or a Bookstore near you.
3.) PP&DT Guide & Workbook
Apart from the two books above, this is the first book that will actually help you in developing your personality. One, you will get to know everything you need to perform at your best in this test.
The other aspect of this book is about how you will develop your personalty? Daily lifestyle changes? Working on your Body language? Personality test and feedback to be filled by your parents, brother, friend so that you see yourself from their eyes and are able to lift your overall personality and thinking process.
This is a very short book that will actually help you to work on your personality. Whether you have an SSB interview coming up or not, it’s a must-read for anyone seeking a positive change in their attitude.
You can get this on Amazon, Flipkart or a Bookstore near you.
4.) SSB Interview : Complete practice workbook
All the stage 2 tests are only about practice. Lots and lots of consistent practice is required for each psychology test. So how do you practice these tests!
There are multiple sets of each psychology test. When you practice one test in a given time and then assess your responses you will realise you could have done better in certain answers. You will identify grammatical errors, you will have better alternate words in mind. Use red pen to circle errors or for alternate words or sentences. If you do not then discuss it with your friends, brother parents and see what are their responses. Are you liking their approach better? If yes you now have multiple approach in mind. Practice another set and keep doing this until you get better. You will realise there is a huge difference between the 1st set and last set. Your handwriting speed will increase, your vocabulary will get better, your approach altogether will improve.
In short, this book helps you assess yourself and make genuine improvements. You’ll find that you stop pretending and your responses become more authentic. For instance, if you have a fear of heights, you’ll naturally avoid including scenarios involving tall buildings involving skydiving or other high-altitude adventures in your stories or sentences which you might have included if you had been coached.
How to practice for GTO?
Similarly, coming to GTO tests like GD, GPE, lecturette. If you already have a paragraph of notes on a topic like India-UAE relations, you will merely read it and try to memorize it. However, if you’re given just a topic and have to write on your own, you will first learn about it from different sources, gather your points, and form your views. This will not only make you confident but you will actually be knowledgeable about the topic. Hence, practice is very important for GTO indoor tests. Try giving a lecture on the same topic so you can improve your orating skills. Do a discussion with a set of friends or with yourself in the mirror and you will get far better.
What about the outdoor tasks?
Regarding the GTO ground tasks, both the first book and this book will describe the obstacles and explain you how to perform them. Since these are outdoor tasks, you need to be fit enough to complete them. You may need to learn certain techniques of fulcrum and cantilever but when it comes to outdoor tasks of GTO it is still about your physical mobility. If you can do 20-25 proper push-ups, 5-6 proper chin-ups, 4-5 pull-ups, hang on a rope for a minute, tiptoe, and walk on a zigzag structure then you are fit enough to perform any outdoor GTO task.
Now, coming to Personal Interview questions. Practice the same way, write your original response and after finishing the set see what could have been better. Approach others to see what are their responses and do they align with your thoughts? Do you now have multiple approaches?
Similarly do the Conference questions. Practice multiple PIQ forms so that you fill it up without any mistake, strike, error. By the end of this book you will be completely prepared for the interview.
Remember that if you have it in you, then you will get recommended even if some of your response aren’t great during the actual interview. The reason being that you are original and assessors will prefer you over the coached candidates with superficial answers and pretentious attitude.
These 4 set of SSB Interview books will define your preparation.
