SSB Screening Test: A Detailed Guide by an Ex-NDA Cadet

I am writing this post with the experience of being an ex-NDA cadet. It took me 6 attempts to clear SSB. 5 times out of these 6, I had cleared the screening test. Once I failed to clear screening and that experience is equally useful as I write this.

Day 0: Reporting and Initial Formalities

Day 0 is when you report at the SSB center somewhere between 1300 hrs - 1500 hrs. Your documents/call letter is verified and you fill up PIQ form which requires information regarding your education, interests, family background, achievements, previous SSBs etc. You are allotted a chest number which you have to wear at all times when you are outside your dormitory. Chest numbers are in a sequence starting from 1 till the number of candidates who have come for SSB. If there are 70 candidates who have come in, chest numbers would be from 1 to 70. Candidates who have earlier appeared for SSB generally have their chest numbers in a sequence. They are called repeaters. So if there are 17 repeaters, in all probability their chest numbers can be from 1 to 17. One tip here: do not waste time in making friends on Day 0. It's good to casually interact. Keep yourself focused.

You are already briefed on Day 0 to be ready for screening test post breakfast on Day 1. You are also asked to keep your luggage packed before screening test starts. It has to be kept at a designated area outside your dormitory. This is because candidates who fail to clear screening, must not spend too much time going back and packing their stuff.

Day 1: Screening Test - OIR and PPDT

Screening test starts in an assessment hall with a couple of aptitude tests (OIR - Officer Intelligence Rating). I shall not waste your time in writing ways and means to clear these tests. These are very basic and enough material is available online to prepare for this. Although, I feel no preparation is required to clear these tests. If you have been an above average student, you would by default do well in these tests.

With my experience, the make or break for clearing screening test is PPDT (Picture Perception and Description Test). This is where your fate is decided in terms of screening test. In simple words, PPDT is a combination of story writing and group discussion.

In the same assessment hall after the aptitude tests, you would be shown a blur image through a projector. The lights would be off for 30 seconds and you would be able to concentrate on this image for these 30 seconds. You would see some people in this image. You would also be able to see some kind of a scene happening in this image. You may feel that it's floods, fire, riots, celebration, sports or anything else. For e.g. you may feel it's a sport in progress, while someone else might feel it's fire. Some other candidate might feel it's some people on a picnic. This is the whole point behind showing a blur image. So that every candidate gets a different perception and writes a different story. After these 30 seconds, you get about 4 minutes to write a small story on what you saw in the image. You are given a piece of paper to write your story. On the top of the paper, there is a rectangular box. In this rectangular box you have to circle area where you saw the hero of your story in the image. For e.g. your hero was seen on top right corner of the image, mark a circle on top right corner of this rectangular box. Inside this circle you have to mention age, sex and mood of your hero. If you feel your hero is around 25 yrs old, is male and is in a positive mood, inside the circle you would write (25, m, +ve). If he is in a neutral mood, you would write (25, m, N). If there are 3-4 people who were visible in the image, it is not necessary that every candidate would select the same character as the hero. You can select the hero as per your perception. There is no right or wrong answer here.

Tips on Story Writing:

1. They are not recruiting writers, so they are not looking for brilliant English, screenplay or sentence formation.
2. You have to just write a simple story that you can read and people can understand. 10-12 lines is good enough.
3. Your story needs to have a hero, there should be a practical problem or a challenge, which your hero resolves in a practical manner. In this solution he can obviously take help of people. He need not do everything alone and neither is that practically possible.
4. Hero is not a superman or a batman, he is someone like you and can do what you can do.
5. It's a hero and heroes do not work for rewards. Don’t always end your story with a bravery award or something similar.
6. You would not be allowed to wear a watch during screening test, so be fast in writing but keep your hand writing in check. It should not be artistic, but something that can be read.

Group Discussion for PPDT:

After story writing, your piece of paper would be taken away from you. Then you would be divided in groups of 12-18 candidates in a sequence of chest numbers. Typically there are 15-16 candidates in one group. This would be your group for group discussion which would happen on the story that all of you have written. The idea behind this group discussion is to come out with a common story that all of you in the group can agree upon.

You would be made to sit in a semi circle. The piece of paper on which you have written the story would be already kept on your seat. This group discussion would be for around 15-20 minutes and it would start with all the candidates reading out their story one by one in a sequential manner. If you have missed out something while writing the story, you can add it while reading out your story. During this time no candidate would interrupt the one narrating his story. After every candidate is finished with reading out his/her story, the group discussion would start to come up with a common group story.

Tips to do well in the Group Discussion:

1. When you go and sit on your seat, do not start looking at your story. You already know what you have written. Look at others, observe them, relax and maintain a good positive posture.
2. Most important, listen to everyone’s story very carefully. Identify the good stories and the chest numbers who have written it.
3. Open your piece of paper only when your turn comes, read out your story confidently, with appropriate pauses and loudly enough so that everybody can understand it. After reading out your story, go back to the business of listening to other stories.
4. Maintain eye contact with every candidate in your group. Do not waste your time in looking at the assessors. They are experienced enough to judge you.
5. When all the stories are narrated, group discussion would start.

Remember, an entire group can clear screening or an entire group can be washed out. There might be 5 selections from a group or there might be 8. Assessors do not sit there with a fixed number. They would select everybody who is worth it. So the best thing to do is to create a fantastic group discussion.

A Crucial Final Tip

One common tip for all candidates and a very important one: Groom yourself well and be in formals for screening. Respect the occasion, only then the occasion would respect you. It creates an impact.