Services Selection Board (SSB)

SSB is the main hurdle you need to cross if you aspire to become a commissioned officer in the Indian Army/ Navy/ Air Force and Coast Guard. The SSBs located at Allahabad, Bhopal, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Gandhi Nagar, Kapurthala, Mysore, Kolkata, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam operate round the year and screen/ recommend candidates for commissioning. The assessors posted in the SSBs conduct intelligence and personality tests over a period of five days to look for Officer Like Qualities (OLQs) in you. The selection process in the SSB is as follows:

Day 1 – Stage 1 (Screening) – Intelligence test and Picture Perception & Discussion Test (PPDT)
Day 2 – Psychology Test/Interview
Day 3 – GTO 1/Interview
Day 4 – GTO 2/Interview
Day 5 – Conference (for discussion/selection)

Note:

Stage 1 PPDT is a quick and challenging screening test and the candidate has to be proactive, confident and communicative to clear it and be retained for the next four days to face the complete selection process. Interview is held on Day 2/3/4 depending on the given slot.
If recommended in the Conference, the candidate will be sent for medical tests at a Medical/Command Hospital. Candidate will get the final call letter to report for training only after successful completion of medicals and on being placed high in the merit list. Therefore, you should aim to get recommended by all the three assessors in the SSB to be high in merit.

Psychology Test

The Psychology test is one of the three tests conducted at the SSB, the other two being Group Testing and Interview. It is a test of imagination and is purely a written task of about two and half hours duration. Your responses will be assessed by the Board psychologists after the test to judge your OLQs and your suitability for the Armed Forces. It consists of the following tests:

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): In this test, a series of 12 pictures will be shown to you for 30 seconds each on a screen and you are asked to write each story in 4 minutes.
Word Association Test (WAT): You will be shown 60 words one after the other and instructed to make a sentence for each word in 15 seconds.
Situation Reaction Test (SRT): This test requires you to respond to various life situations given in the test booklet. 60 situations will be given to be responded to in 30 minutes.
Self Description (SD): You need to write five paragraphs on what your parents, teachers/employers and friends/colleagues think about you. You are also asked to write your opinion of yourself (strengths & weaknesses) and your goals for the future. This test is to be completed in 15 minutes.