NDA Candidate. (T.E.S Recommended)
I joined No Frills Academy in January 2022. I got recommended in my 6th attempt on 25 March,2023. The motive behind joining NFA was to find a place where I can practice consistently engage in discussions. The online mode suited me. It saved both my time and money. I was keen to join the defense forces so that I can play sports at a good level.
I practice in NFA group activities extensively. The different age peer group helped me understand how opinions and arguments change as we age. This gave me a solid background in group discussions in my SSB’s. I was always rest assured that group discussions would all be fine for me. Individually, I consulted Nehru sir only thrice. Whenever I thought of asking any doubt to him, I somewhat have the answer in back of my head.
From the very beginning I was very confident of the methods shared in “The Practical Guide to Become an Officer.” I never believed in coaching academies. It is a good way to familiarize oneself with the SSB process but does not help ultimately. I have also been to a few of them after a bout of screen outs, in total 4. It was at this time that I really thought of my future. I chose either to be a teacher or in defense. I felt less anxious now and had a sense of direction.
I joined an Engineering College. Not taking a drop year was my best decision ever. While in the hostel I learnt independence, travelling, dealing with people, time boundedness etc. I shaped my daily routine around two things physical fitness and studying. I went to the gym and did self-study for 90 minutes as a rule each day. I picked up writing as a hobby and wrote about 700 words on a daily basis. Newspapers and tv discussions now served me discussion content and I stopped participating in NFA group activities.
This helped me to get recommended. In my screening test I was able to do well in my reasoning and PPDT. Interview was the easiest thing. The interviewing officer was very polite, and we had a good conversation for about 40 minutes. It revolved around my family; daily routine likes and dislikes etc. In psyche test I wrote complete stories, 59 WAT and 53 SRT. My daily writing habit helped my psyche test and not practicing on a picture from the internet (I wrote anything which was there in my head). In GTO I had an interesting group, all shades of people were there. 2 were very aggressive, 2 were trying to help the group cross (they got recommended!) and the rest were trying their best. I was able to do 9 individual obstacles comfortably. In command task I was called last. I called the least intelligent speaking group members as my subordinates. I told GTO that they would be the best teammates and he looked surprised. While in lecturette I spoke for exactly 2:30 minutes packed with content. In the conference I had no clue which side of the line I was. I never felt like discussing this with anyone.
The best part of my five days was the sports I played there. I learnt basketball and table tennis to some extent and we watched T.V in the common room after dinner. A piece of advice to young people like me is to know very early what sort of career you want and then craft your daily activities around it. Things are simple but not easy. Following things which are important and rewarding gives me the drive to keep moving on. In pursuit of this I used almost every method of personality development from sir’s book. I have found that every person works differently, and we have to choose the right environment to flourish.
Thank You.
–BY LAVESH BHANDARI, RECOMMENDED CANDIDATE
