We were gentlemen once…and young..and slim also..Part III
Part III
Day
1: (Screaming Screening day):
The
day starts early, as early as 3 am sometimes (the earliness is inversely proportional
to the water availability).
As
I groggily walked down the corridor to the bathroom situated at the end of it, I
am stricken by a strange sense of warmth and camaraderie as I greet total
strangers with a cheerful “Good morning”, share a genuine smile, and sing along
to some of the most out of tune singers.
Lakshya’s
theme song used to be the anthem for Day 1 and sometimes beyond for us.
After
a quick cup of tea and a not so quick moment with yourself in the washroom (you
better do the ‘do’ or else you will regret it enormously), the next big thing
is to shine the shoes. If only I could have a dollar for every time I lent out my shoe shiner I would be a richer by
a good margin.
After
all the above is accomplished there is just one more activity left to do before
leaving to face the judgment. Packing your bags. Packing the bags has never
been a great feeling for me. It’s like signing your death warrant..ok ok I went
a bit overboard. It’s not really like signing your death warrant but the dread
of going home on the very first day is nerve-wracking. You never know who is going
back, whether the genial fellow in the next bed will be eliminated today itself
or worse still, will it be you?
After
the entire luggage has been packed you drag it along with you to the
examination hall. The time is 6:00 am.
Now
you have to neatly line up the luggage on the corridor and quietly take a seat
in the induction hall, waiting for the examiners to arrive. The wait is the
most dreadful part of the day, first you wait for the examiners, then the exam
itself and then you wait for the result. I am not a very patient man by nature
and these waits just break me down inside.
Anyways
after nearly 45 minutes you thank God when the examiners finally show up. The
examiners for screening day normally consist of a psychologist, a senior Group Task
Officer (more on this later), the President of the board (generally a very
intimidating and imposing fellow irrespective which board you attend).
Soon
you start with the first series of tests for the day, an OIR or Officer
Intelligence Rating test. It’s divided into two parts, verbal and non-verbal
with around 50 questions each and 30 minutes per paper and is akin to IQ test.
There are no pass marks. The best part about the test is there is no negative marking so just make sure
you do not leave anything out.
Immediately
after the OIR test, you would be greeted by the psychologist will walk you
through the next test which is the PPDT or ‘Picture Perception and Description
Test’. The name is pretty self-explanatory. You are given a very hazy picture
to observe for 30 seconds and in the next 4 and a half seconds you have to identify
a main character, specify his name, age , gender and current mood and then spin
a story around the picture with the protagonist.
This
test is meant to measure you as a person so understand that the character you
have chosen is essentially a reflection of you or at least that’s how the
examiners will see it.
After
the PPDT there is a 10 minutes break in which you will be organized in groups
of 15 to 20 depending on the batch strength and this will be your group for the
next and as I see it, the most important round of Day 1, the ‘Group Discussion’
In
this round your group will be made to sit in a semi-circle with the examiners
sitting just a few meters away. A word of caution, ignore the examiners,
whatever be the case do not reach out or greet them. This will be conveyed to
you before the commencement of the GD round anyways.
The
topic of the discussion is the story you have written during the earlier test,
the PPDT. Now you will be given a chance to go through your story once again
followed by individual narrations.
If
you feel you were not able to perform well in the earlier test this is the
platform which can grant you redemption from your earlier sins.
As
a personal example in my first SSB in Allahabad I ran out of time was unable to
complete the PPDT. ‘Unable to complete’ is an understatement, what happened was
time ran out by the time I finished the first line “Rajesh was a young man...”.
Obviously I panicked but thank God for that inbuilt survival instinct that we
have, I was able to recollect myself in the GD I made up my story and narrated
the same fluently. I passed Allahabad screening! Anyone familiar with Allahabad
board’s reputation would know what that means.
The
GD tends to be tricky especially if you are a repeater because more often than
not it becomes a fish market. In that case it’s best to speak once or twice articulately
and sit down rather than getting drawn into a shouting match. Whose story gets selected is not important; more
often than not the GDs are inconclusive. It’s how you conduct yourself during
the GD that matters.
Remember
I had mentioned building relationships on Day 0? This is where that will come
in handy. While I have had my
interaction with total douchebags most candidates are nice people and if you
had gone that extra length to form a bond, they may even back up your story
which may be counted as a plus point and also that extra support will give you
that much needed confidence boost. That is the secret of how I cracked
Allahabad even with a piss all PPDT.
The
story narration can be hilarious at times cue random dude two seats away “..and
then Ram went and doused the volcano with two buckets of water and villagers followed”
hahaha still can’t forget that one.
The
entire battery of above mentioned tests is over by 11 am max and as such you
have nearly 90 minutes to kill. Have some tea, relax and catch up with your co candidates
and wait for lunch.
Post
lunch after a short speech and nerve wracking 30 minutes the results are out.
Typically the intake these days is around 50% of the batch. If you are amongst the
lucky ones who cleared, you will be assigned new chest numbers and for those
who couldn’t sadly they will have to leave immediately. The Board’s bus will
drop you off at the railway station immediately and so while confidence is a
good idea it’s always better to book two return tickets, one for screening and
one for the fifth day. Avoids a lot of hassles.
For
those who cleared you will be taken to another large hall for some more paper
works and then you will be directed to your new accommodations for the next
four days. This is when you will really embark on the journey called SSB.
Cont’d
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