Day-3 & 4 (SSB)

What happens in day 3 and 4 of SSB interview

Day 3 & 4 - Group and Ground Tasks

The day 3 & 4 of SSB interview is full of fun and josh, because after 2 days of boring tests, now candidates get a chance to perform both physically and mentally in the ground with team as well as an individual. The candidates supposed to wear white half sports-T shirt and short with white sports shoe and socks pair.

Each group is assigned a GTO-Ground Testing Officer. He judges the candidates here on the basis of 15 OLQ's- Officer like qualities, by conducting a series of 8-10 such military leadership and group coordination based tasks. The tests are mentioned below they might not be in the proper order. These tasks mainly focuses on group as well as individual's ability.

¤ Group Discussion 1&2 (GD)

This is a kind of informal discussion, exchange of thoughts and views related to a particular topic among the group members .The group does not have to arrive at a common conclusion .Its duration is generally 15 mins. GTO gives two topics to the group and gives 30 seconds to select one, here majority wins while selecting the topic.

Generally, topic in the GD-1 is something about which everyone can speak something  because it does not demand much knowledge about facts. For eg: What is the most important thing youth can do for the development of nation- Taking up jobs, following social values or Business? 

In GD-2, the GTO officer gives topic of his choice to the group. It is mostly related to politics, current affairs ,countries relationship and wars etc. This demands a deep knowledge of facts for effective points.

¤ Group Planning Exercise(GPE)

In GPE- planning ,dealing stress, memorizing power, effective intelligence etc., abilities of candidates are tested by putting them in fictitious situations and problems. The GTO explains a map consisting basically 4 situations and places, explains candidates everything related to scale, distances ,situations and time limit usually of 7-10 mins and then you are given 5 mins to re-examine the map.

 In this task every candidate has to make an individual plan to solve all the problems priority wise and reach the destination and write in a sheet of paper within the allotted time. After this every candidate has to discuss his plan to other group members and prepare a final group plan and one has explain it to GTO as a group representative.

¤ Progressive Group Task(PGT)

A good plan always demands a better execution and progression. Now this task is designed to check the group's problem solving, coordination and especially progressive ability. 

The group has to cross 4 obstacles using limited helping material such as wooden rod ,plank, rope and carry fragile load with them. All these obstacles have to be crossed and with all its group members have to reach finish line within 45-50 mins by following a certain set of rules like two helping materials cannot be tied together, material shouldn't touch red/ blue region, candidates are not allowed to touch  the ground while performing this task etc. which are well explained by GTO before the commencing of task.

¤ Snake Race

This is a fun loving segment of GTO task. The group has to carry 2-2.5 metre long cylindrical cloth bag called Snake and has to cross all obstacles and reach the finish line but certain rules have to followed such as every time while crossing each obstacle minimum 3 members have to hold the snake and no member can proceed to next obstacle without his group. Helping is allowed in it.

The main aim is to test  candidate's team-spirit, motivating, competitive and rule following ability.The obstacles are as follows-

¤ Lecturette

Stage-fear and lack of confidence is most of ours problem. Similarly the SSB has designed this task to test candidate's public speaking skills, presentation ability, body language, thought & voice-clarity and confidence.

 Each candidate of group is supposed to pick up a card which consists of four topics, have to choose one, tell it to GTO, prepare it for 3 mins and then deliver a lecture on it for 3 mins.This test follows a particular order clockwise or counter-clockwise chest numbers .The difficulty of each topic varies accordingly and each card has different set of four topics.

¤ Half Group Task(HGT)

This task is to check candidate's compatibility with group members and willingness to grab performing opportunity. 

GTO feels that in PGT some candidates were not able to put up ideas, execute plan and help the group due to overcrowding ,so to give them a fair chance HGT is conducted, in this task the group is divided into two by even/odd scheme.

It helps in better assessment of individual candidate. Similar obstacles and rules like PGT are followed here.

¤ Obstacle Task (OT)

After so many group tasks now the candidates get a chance to showcase their planning & execution ability and physical fitness. This task consists of a series of 10 obstacles, time limit is 3 minutes. 

Number between 1-10 is assigned to each obstacle indicating the score each candidate will get, if he/she cross it as per the rules. The candidate can start in any order, and no group member is supposed to watch his/her performance, candidate can repeat any obstacle to increase the score, provided he/she has completed all obstacles once.

 • Command Task (CT)

Generally in a war ,officer has to command his troops and make them do as per the plan to defeat the enemy. Similarly this task is designed to test candidate's leadership skills, time & stress management and cooperation. Its difficulty varies according to candidate's performance in previous tasks.

The GTO calls each candidate in a random order, after briefing, assigns a task along with rules. Now candidate after analyzing is supposed to choose 2-3 subordinates from his group to complete the task. Generally 15 mins are allotted. Sometimes GTO raises difficulty for the candidate in between while he/ she is performing to put on stress to hamper his performance.

¤ Final Group Task(FGT)

Last but not the least. FGT is the last test of Day 4, the end of GTO & SSB testing process. This test however does not play a great role it aims to check candidate's active participation, josh and calmness. It is just to once again reunite the group and give them task to cross a set of obstacles. Its structure and rules is same as PGT.

#How did I perform in Day 3 &4 ?

I was very relaxed as my Personal Interview was over on Day -2 ,rest of the candidates were asking me about the Interview, what all questions were asked and bla-bla.That night I took a sweet sleep.

The next day after reading newspaper and taking shower, we all dressed in all whites GTO clothing as per the rules ,we reported to ground area at 0700 hours.Our GTO sir arrived at the area, with an assistant at 0800 hours

After having a short introduction of group members with him, he briefed us about the first task that was GD-1, two topics were given to us and we chose to discuss on' What is the most important thing youth can do for the development of nation- Taking up jobs, following social values or Business'?

The discussion went well, I spoke 4-5 good points, facts & data confidently and actively supported some points of other members as well. In GD-2, I was able to participate actively as I didn't  have sufficient knowledge about that particular political topic. However I managed to speak two good points but that were not enough.

The next test was GPE, I listened to GTO instructions properly and memorize as many clues as possible, I was not able to write my full solution with proper explanation but I discussed it very actively with group, raised one good solution and finished this task.

Next task was PGT, here I performed quite satisfactory as structures were very new to me ,however gave two good solutions, sometimes broke the rules, helped the group sometimes picked the load as well but I felt my performance could have been far better.

Next was the Lecturette, I was very nervous for it, as for the past two years I had not done any public speaking, but when the Lecturette started I observed others' performance and in my turn took a easy topic about 'My favorite sportsperson' and presented this topic very well and confidently about M.S.Dhoni.

After this boring section, we headed towards a snake race. It was a fun task. We chose a war cry Bharat Mata Ki Jai and started the race, In this task I took advantage of my fitness and stayed ahead and help my group members to cross the obstacles and motivated them by chanting war cry,without breaking the rules our group finished this task first and we were very happy.

This was the end of our Day-3 testing. It was already 1130 hours we were sent back to our room and Personal Interview for some candidates have been scheduled today. We went for lunch and then took a deep sleep and in evening went to play basketball. After dinner we were called for fall in by CHM to inform about Day- 4 schedule and playing hours.

The next day it was raining heavily with but same excitement we went to ground area at 0700 AM and after waiting for an  hour GTO sir reached the place with an umbrella, we thought task would get cancel but it is a military premise here rules are rules. 

Day-4 started with HGT, this time I performed much better than PGT gave many solutions and our half group finished the task within few minutes without any injury.

Next was Individual Obstacles task ,in my turn crossed 9 obstacles without any injury, stacked a lot in zig- zag beam structure but tried it twice.

After a short break, our Command Task was started, I was assigned an easy task so accordingly I called my two subordinates , GTO made it a bit difficult while I was performing but I managed to complete it within the given time.

After each candidate's Command Task was finished we were given tea- samosa break and again after 20 minutes we were called for the last task of the day that was FGT, here I did not perform with full josh but gave one important solution which eventually completed the task .Remaining candidates' Personal interview was scheduled today and rest of us were sent back to room.This was the happy end of day-4 testing procedure.