GTO days are days 3 and 4. Let us go over them task by task.
GTO group is approximately 8–10 candidates and GTO day starts early around 0530–0600 in the morning and finishes around 1030–1100 before it becomes too hot outside.
Group Discussions:
GTO puts the group through two Group Discussions (GD). For the first GD GTO gives two topics to the group and the group needs to decide on one of the topics. If for some reason you do not like a particular topic you may not be able to say so as it will not be taken kindly by other candidates. You will have to be smart enough to say “gentlemen this topic seems interesting ( the topic that you prefer), let’s discuss on this” and hope a few more candidates join you in that. Else you will end up discussing a topic not too close to your heart. For the second GD GTO will give the topic and there is no choice in that. Remember during a discussion you must participate and do that regularly as many times as you can manage to support your side of the argument. If you do not participate GTO has no instrument to find out what you have in your mind. Do not become a referee and try to control the speaking of candidates. This is not your job leave it to GTO. And there are no points for regulating the discussion. You don’t have to wait for a candidate to finish before you speak. If you want to oppose the candidate you can say, “ chest number 24, I don’t agree with you because….) and give your point. If you support the view and still want to speak you can say, “ chest number 24, I agree with you but would like to add…) and give your point. A fish market-like situation is purposely created there so do not get perturbed by this. In a controlled environment in the presence of assessors, everyone would behave like ‘Raja Beta’ (good kid) your real behavior comes out when you are angry and no one is watching you. I can’t make you angry but I can definitely allow it to become a fish market that agitates most of you and your real behavior tend to show up. At times GTO would apparently lose their temper and shout, “ do not make it a fish market, I will throw the entire group out” then there is pin-drop silence, and also the right time to start giving your point as everyone is scared and listening but this silence would stay till you don’t make a mistake while speaking and then it’s back to the fish market:). In the same way another GD topic is discussed.
Now let’s see MPE /GPE (Military Planning Exercise/ Group Planning Exercise)
You are given various tasks, normally 4 to 5. First of all, you need to put them in priority. Though writing the priorities is not required unless you prioritize you can’t make a sound plan.
Suppose you have 300 rupees with you and you want to buy a book that cost 210 rupees, buy a notebook worth 30 rupees and eat a burger that cost 50 rupees. So in priority, it is book followed by notebook and then burger in that order. You find that all three cost less than Rupees 300. So you have sufficient resources to do all the tasks. Now even if you want to eat burgers first you can do that. That’s exactly what priorities do for you. Tells you whether all the tasks are possible with the given resources or if some adjustment is required. Suppose in the above example the book was 260 then it would not be possible for you to have the burger.
The point is you are prioritizing to see if you have sufficient resources or not. In execution, the sequence may vary i.e. if all the tasks are feasible (book, notebook, and burger) now even if you have burger first is okay.
Your Priorities MPE need to be based on a number of human lives involved ( in real life various factors will determine your priorities but for MPE base it on a number of human lives involved and generally you will be on right track). For example, if a railway bridge is broken and a train is likely to pass over that and there is a damaged road bridge and the bus is likely to pass over that. And you can save only one so which one do you save. Obviously, train because it is carrying more people. If in addition there is an accident that has happened and two persons are injured. So the priority will be the train, followed by the bus and then injured people ( based on the number of human lives involved). But while executing you will have to take the injured to the hospital first because if you do not give them medical help now they may not need it later being dead. Here don’t get confused by priority that was to see if you have sufficient resources or not.
If you want to pen down the priorities do it starting with the words To ie To stop the trains from going over the damaged bridge.
To stop the bus from going over the suspected bridge.
To take the injured to the hospital.
In terms of resources, you may get personnel, arms and ammunition, vehicles, etc. If terrorists have poisoned a water tank and water is distributed at 4 pm and the time now is 1 pm. So you have 3 hrs for the task so here even time is a resource.
There are certain reasonable assumptions that you can make. Eg if five persons are moving on the road in New Delhi is it fair to assume three out of them will have a mobile with them. Actually, all five may have one. In a town is it fair to assume that there will be some government hospital, a dispensary, a private hospital etc.
You get ten minutes to write the plan. Your plan becomes part of your dossier so don’t write with your toes
Now it’s simple to keep picking one priority at a time and keep solving it. Do mention time and distance too. Suppose one person has to go to the railway station which is two kilometers away. You will write “ one person will go to the railway station which is two kilometers away will take half an hour to go, half an hour to brief the station master, and half an hour to be back. The time now is 1100 hrs so he will be back by 1230 hrs. Don’t be to miser in allotting time as a rough guide allot approx 15 minutes to a kilometer.
Same way to handle all the priorities.
What should be the location of the commander (you) ? . Commander should be at a position where maximum confusion is likely to take place. After the plan is ready the group discusses to reach a common solution. GTO may ask someone to give out the plan. Do not nominate others, volunteer to give it out. It does carry some credit.
So in all, you have four GDs in SSB; one after PPDT, two GDs by GTO, and one after the MPE.
Let’s go over Progressive Group Task (PGT), Half Group Task ( HGT), Command Task ( CT) & Final Group Task (FGT)
All these tasks are to see your practical application of knowledge to get over various challenges in the form of PGT, HGT, CT & FGT.
PGT as the name suggests is a progressive group task. You would have played video games. How is stage 1; it’s easy. And stage two; a little difficult, and it keeps becoming a little more difficult progressively. Same way GTO puts the group through these three/four tasks which keep becoming progressively difficult.
The entire group needs to go across using the resources and following certain rules. In terms of resources, you can be given patta (plank), balli ( bamboo), rope, ammunition box, etc.
You have certain rules that you need to follow while attempting these tasks and these are:
- Color code: Anything painted red is out of bounds for people as well as the material i.e. you or any of the material is not supposed to touch there else you need to start again. If it’s black or white you and the material both are allowed to touch. If the color is sky blue then you can stand there but the material can’t touch.
- Rule of four feet: There may be some athlete in you who may say I will come running and go over the entire obstacle. That is not allowed. If the distance is less than four feet then you can jump else you will have to bridge the gap. Remember this is not a restriction but a concession if you can use the phatta as a lever and the distance between its far end and the next object reduces to less than four feet then a person can cross because the distance now is less than four feet.
- Tying loose objects: You can tie one loose object with one fixed object but can not tie two loose objects together to increase their length.
- Human force: If the balli or phatta is falling short by a few inches the tough ones can’t offer the strength of their thighs to support it, they will extend their thigh and say, “phatta ethe rakh de”( keep the phatta on my thigh) :). You got to find a suitable intelligent way to get over it.
- All the resources need to be taken across and should not throw them around if you throw the ammunition box it may get damaged or explode (both are not acceptable).
You need to complete the missing pieces and make the complete chain then any number of people can cross. Candidates in their Josh will pick up the phatta and place it on the first object they find but have no plan on how to go over the complete thing and get stuck. So take a few seconds make the entire thing in your mind and then attempt. Also keep in mind how the last person will come.
Another mistake is excessive use of rope. Mark my words 90 percent of the times you won’t require to tie the rope. If at all you tie a rope it should be to gain time to think of an idea
Do keep thinking and contributing to implement your ideas.
HGT in your school/college classes you would have noticed only two to three students are asking questions rest are quiet. They may ask other students at the end of class. So GTO divides the group in two halves of 4–5 candidates. This makes it easier for them to participate and for the GTO to observe closely. GTO gives a similar task as PGT but not the same task.
CT command task, so far no one is nominated as commander. Now GTO nominates everyone as commander in turn. A commander can select his team of two to three people from the group. Your endeavor should be to get called for the task accomplishment. Suppose a candidate is called by every other candidate when they became commander. What does it mean, it means that others feel this candidate will contribute to the completion of the task, he is trustworthy and may be fit and agile and they trust him. If someone is not called by others at all that means he is not liked by others, people don’t trust him, and he may be clumsy. So try to be in the first category.
FGT Final Group Task is for the GTO to clarify his mind on any specific candidate. For this, the entire group is brought together again and is given a task similar to PGT but not the same task.
Individual Obstacles
There are ten obstacles for the boys and nine for the girls. These obstacles are placed haphazardly and not in any sequence. The candidate has to select the sequence he wants to choose. I suggest starting from easy to difficult. This way if you get stuck you would have already finished all the easy ones else you may get stuck in one of the tough ones. In GTOs, the ground takes extra care not to break any rules we take it seriously. Also, take care not to take undue risk and break your limbs you won’t get any concession for that and may become not recommended for not completing the rest of the tasks. Let me give you an example of a candidate who did not try an obstacle thinking he may not be able to do it and a second candidate tried that obstacle and could not do it he tried one more time and still was unsuccessful and then moved on to the next obstacle. Who is better first or the second one. You said it it’s the second who at least tried before giving up
If you are able to finish all ten (all 9 for girls) do try and repeat some more and you get some additional points for that.
Start doing 30 situps, 30 push-ups, ten pull-ups, and three kilometers of run every day. These will help you in doing these obstacles smoothly without panting.
Lecturette:
The way it is conducted is, you are given a placard with 3–4 topics written on it. In 3 minutes you are suppose to select the topic, prepare it and deliver a lecturette for 3 minutes. When it is two and half minutes GTO rings the bell to indicate you are left with 30 seconds so windup and at the end of three minutes he rings two bells to tell you shut up and sit down.
Don’t prolong the lecturette beyond three minutes GTO is hard pressed for time. When the person delivering finishes the person preparing starts delivering and another one starts preparing.
There are three types of topics in each placard. There are topics that you need to have studied like Sino India Relations before you can speak on the topic else you can’t handle it but if you have studied it then you can speak even for 30 minutes. Let’s call them A level topics, then there are topics based on social issues on which have heard a few things and can speak something on them like female foeticide, swachh bhart etc. Let’s call them B level topics and then you have topics like my best friend, my favorite game or my hobby these are C level topics. C level topics appear to be easy but are very difficult to speak for 3 minutes. What do you speak on my best friend after describing a few good qualities of him unless you have some anecdote to narrate . Pick up an A level topic if you can do justice to it else pick up B level topic and do to well. They can add a catching phrase to attract the attention of the group text and make them a part of the topic. Give an introduction, cover both pros and cons of the topic and then give your opinion and conclude the topic.
Group Obstacle Race (GOR)
GOR also called as snake race is a competition between three GTO groups. Each group has equal number of similar obstacles (normally six). Each group is given a snake like structure which minimum of three people are suppose to hold it at all times including while crossing the obstacles. If any of those holding the snake wants to leave then an additional person should hold it before a person can leave it. Remember if you break any rules you are suppose to repeat the obstacle. Normally when a candidate happen to break a rule he looks toward the GTO who is a young Lt Col wearing sports shoes, jeans, T shirt and goggles. He is writing something on a sheet of paper. And you tend to take a shortcut because if you repeat the obstacle your group will lag behind as GTO is not watching. Mark my words GTO is looking at you only that’s his job. We take this seriously. Today it is just a game and you are breaking the rule despite telling you not to. Tomorrow once you become an officer and commanding say 100 soldiers if you take a shortcut in operational area you may get half of them killed. So donot take a short cut in the GTOs ground. Also on 8 feet wall if you feel you can cross the wall on your own then help others to cross first and climb last. If you feel you can’t cross on your own then it is worthwhile climbing up first and then helping others. In any case even if your group is going very fast then GTO will make sure that you get some time delay so as to reach almost together. Even if your group comes first it’s never that all the candidates are recommended. So do not break the rules.
