Dear candidate, first of all congratulations for clearing the written exam. Now the biggest hurdle is standing in front of you - SSB Interview. I have mentioned some of the most important tips that could help you to clear the interview -

Current affairs

Current affairs are the key to get success in psychological testing, lecturette and personal interview phase. It is advised you to write a story in TAT and sentences in WAT influenced by the current affairs and during lecturette, you should choose only that topic on which you have detailed knowledge and latest updates on it. Most of the candidates avoid reading current affairs. But current affairs can be asked at any stage of the SSB interview. Hence, make sure that you go through the headlines of newspapers daily. For this, you can purchase ‘Pratiyogita Darpan’ magazine and ‘The Hindu’ newspaper for reading current affairs.

Besides these, there are lots of online resources through which you can prepare for the current affairs. Few names of such websites are as follows-

- Jagranjosh.com

- currentaffairtoday.com

Practice and develop essential habits for ground tasks

Ground testing is the most important stage of SSB interview as you are going to spend two days in it and GTO is going to check several attributes in you. Hence, go through all the stages one by one in detail and identify what kind of OLQ the GTOs are expecting from you? Each step is unique in nature. Hence, you should collect information for all the tasks and practice as much as possible.

To qualify all the stages including the GTO testing, psychological testing, and personal interview, you should keep on practicing for each stage and develop a habit of improving your skills. You should devise a strategy to qualify the SSB interview so that during the visit in SSB board, you can feel confident in what you are going to do and how you will attain success in each task.

Develop a thorough knowledge of some topics

In SSB interviews, there are some common topics that are generally asked. These topics are- History, Geography, Politics, Current Affairs, and Armed forces in India, etc. such topics are very helpful during the personal interview and GD round. Before going to SSB interview, make sure that you have read these topics extensively. Preparing your own notes is the most appropriate method to gain knowledge about such topics because you can carry these notes in SSB venue with you. With the help of the Internet, you can get all the relevant information at free of cost in preparing these notes.

Technical and Academic knowledge

Many times it happens that Interviewing officer asks questions from the academics (10 +2, etc.) or technical stream in which you are graduated. By asking such questions, the interviewing officer (IO) wants to confirm that you are a good student and studies the concepts thoroughly.

Know your native place better

Having detailed knowledge of your hometown and native place where you are born, is very essential and helpful. Interviewing officer will surely ask some questions about these places. Therefore, it is advised that you should collect information about your town or city including the famous places, famous personalities, government organizations, major industries, population, historical significance, religious places, and languages, etc. you can note down all the information in a separate notebook so that you can revise it whenever required.

Time management

Time management is very important in the SSB interview. In all the stages, you will face the shortage of time. Hence, I advise you to practice for each stage with a time clock so that you can measure your performance in advance and find the areas of improvement.

Confidence and oratory skills

At every stage, your level of confidence is also measured. Hence, building confidence will surely help you in all GTO tasks and interview. In addition to this, oratory skill is very necessary. It is observed that if you are very good at writing, you can do well in the interview but if you are good at speaking then you can surely ace the interview. Oratory skills play an important role in showcasing your overall personality. Finally, you will be amazed what an excellent oratory with confidence can give you throughout the SSB interview.

Physical fitness

Do not ignore this aspect. There are two days for GTO tasks in which you have to deal with the obstacles. Here, your physical fitness put to test. So, maintain a good level of fitness and physique. In order to remain fit- Eat well and exercise regularly!

All the best

Hope this helps