Day 1

The reporting time was 6 am. I reached at 2AFSB at around 5:45 am and saw candidates standing in queues and they were being taken in one row at time. I joined in one of the rows with my luggage. Our baggage was sanitized, and we were asked if we carried the original call letter and then taken into the campus.

Inside the campus first we were asked to keep our luggage under the benches and take only a few original documents and a pen with us. The instructor listed the documents (original admit card, call up letter, declaration forms and journey particulars) and we had to keep those docs with us arranged in the order he said. 99 candidates had reported in my batch and we were assembled in rows and given chest numbers. My chest number was 7.

Then everyone was taken inside a big hall with wooden tables and chairs arranged in step manner like in a theatre with a stage and big projector screen at the front. There we were briefed about the Screening process which included the OIT - Officer Intelligence Test and the PPDT - Picture Perception & Discussion Test. Then we had to separate the admit card and journey particulars and submit them as we came back out of the room. Breakfast was being served in the shed where we had kept the bags. Breakfast included puri and potato bhaji and tea. I only had tea.

After the breakfast the screening process started, everyone was taken back to the hall and were give two booklets for the OIT. An instructor explained how the test would be conducted and took a practice test with 10 mock questions given at the start of the booklet. Answers were to be marked on a separate sheet of paper.

The questions in OIT included basic English, aptitude and logic. The level of these questions was similar to that of AFCAT questions, but we had to solve 40 questions in 20 mins. After one booklet was done the complete procedure including the instructions and mock test was carried out again for the second booklet. Then came the PPDT, for this we were given a single page which had a small square box drawn on the top half of its front side and rest was blank. We were shown a picture for 30s on the screen ahead and after that in 15s we had to mark the location along with perceived age, gender (M, F, P) and mood (+, -, 0) in the box provided, then in next 15s we had to describe the action in the picture in one sentence. After this in 4 min we had write a story that we perceived from the image.

Then came the discussion part for which everyone was assembled in groups of 10-12 outside. Groups were taken into separate discussion rooms in another building. There were 4-5 rooms available and they called groups in order from group 1. Inside the discussion room chairs were arranged in C – shaped on one side and three chairs for officers were kept in front of us. We were asked to sit according to our chest numbers. My seat was in the center, right in front of the officers.

The officers gave us instructions about the test. First each candidate had to describe the story he had perceived from the picture in 1 minute and then after everyone had narrated their story the group had to discuss for 10 minutes and come to a common story. I kept revising and thinking about my story from after we had left the exam hall until we entered the discussion room. It helped me during my narration as you need to be quite concise and to the point to get your story out in 1 min. During the discussion part I could not raise any points because there were 2-3 candidates in the group who initiated the discussion and kept speaking too loudly. I tried to interrupt and put a point but couldn’t. But kept listening to everyone carefully as it becomes quite difficult to keep track of the 10 different stories about the same picture that have just been narrated under a tense situation. After the discussion they asked one candidate to narrate the final version of the story. Then we were asked to wait outside.

About an hour passed as all the groups finished their discussions and came out. Then everyone was assembled again as they started calling out the chest numbers of those who had been screened-in and would continue the process further. Everyone else was asked to leave immediately.

I was elated to hear my number and to know that I wouldn’t be going back home on day 1 itself!

40 candidates were screened-in from the 99 that had reported in the morning. We were taken back to the test hall and asked to fill in the PIQ – Personal Information Questionnaire. It included question about the family background, your interests and hobbies, competitions you had taken part in, etc. Whatever you write here would help them analyze you during the upcoming process especially for the personal interviews. Then the chest numbers were allotted again, and we had to submit our mobiles and any storage media before we were taken to the billet where we would be staying for the coming week.

The general order in which chest numbers were given this time seemed to me that freshers (candidates who were attending the process for the very first time) were at the start and those who had previously got screened-out (eliminated on the first day) or eliminated on day 5 of the process were given latter numbers. This ensured that the groups had candidates with similar level of experience. Somehow, I got 7 as the chest number again!

In the billet, rooms were allotted to a group of 6/7 (Although there were bunk beds with capacity of 12, but due to Covid-19 the group size were smaller this time). This group would be same for the entire process. I was lucky to get a group with very helpful and open people. There was a mess in a separate building besides the billet, a small motivation room on each floor which had newspapers, books about the Air Force, photos and small models of aircrafts, a display showcasing ranks, badges, medals, etc. and photo frames all around the top of the room of the current and past Chief of Air Staff. There was a small web room on the ground floor with 4 computers and a few telephones. The web and calling were on pay to use basis and would open from the next day only during 4-6 in the evening. There were notice boards on each floor which had the rules to be followed during the stay and schedule for coming days. Also, every room was named based on an aircraft and ours was called Mi-17 V5. There were posters of jets and helicopters (from old to the very latest like Rafale and Chinook) in the corridors of the entire billet.

So, the rest of the day we talked and got to know each other’s background and discussed the process for the coming days and how as a group we could tackle the tasks. There were evening snacks(bread-butter) and tea at 4 pm and dinner was served from 7:30 to 9. A fall-in would take place at 9:30pm and lights had to go out at 10 pm. We went to sleep not knowing that something quite unexpected would wake us up for the next day at 5 am.