What Happens After You Leave the SSB Conference Room

The moment you step out of the SSB Conference Room, your individual assessment is officially complete. You have faced the Board, answered the final questions, and presented your self-summary. However, the selection process isn't over yet; the most critical phase—the Board Meeting (or Conference itself)—is just beginning.

This stage is a culmination of everything you've done over the last four to five days. What happens now is entirely behind closed doors, but it directly determines your final result.

The Final Deliberation: The SSB Conference

The term "Conference" actually refers to the meeting of all the SSB assessors who evaluated you. This is where they synthesize the data collected by the three wings: the Interviewing Officer (IO), the Group Testing Officer (GTO), and the Psychologist.

1. Consolidation of Reports

Immediately after the last candidate leaves, the board begins the conference. Each assessor presents a summary of their findings on every candidate.

• Psychologist: Presents the candidate's personality profile based on the thematic apperception tests (TAT), word association tests (WAT), and self-description (SD).
• GTO: Presents the candidate's performance in group dynamics, leadership, and practical intelligence from the outdoor tasks.
• IO: Presents observations from the personal interview regarding motivation, general awareness, and communication skills.

2. The Golden Triangle: Cross-Referencing

The core task of the Conference is to cross-verify the results across the three assessment techniques. They look for convergence (agreement) or divergence (disagreement) in the candidate's Officer-Like Qualities (OLQs).

• Convergence: If all three assessors agree on a candidate's high or low potential, the decision is straightforward.
• Divergence: If one assessor rates a candidate high while another rates them low (e.g., strong in interview but weak in GTO), the candidate is discussed in detail. The entire board might revisit the GTO's notes or the Psychologist’s report to find a definitive trend.

3. The Chairman’s Role

The President/Chairman of the Board typically presides over the Conference. They ensure the discussion is fair and objective. For candidates where opinions are split (the "Borderline" cases), the Chairman may use the candidate’s performance in the actual Conference Room (the final ten minutes you spent there) as a tie-breaker. This is why your composure, self-rating, and final words matter so much.

The Outcome: Recommended or Not Recommended

After thorough discussion, every candidate is given a final verdict:

• Recommended: The candidate possesses sufficient OLQs and demonstrates the potential to be trained as an officer.
• Not Recommended : The candidate either did not qualify or over qualified or lacked the required Officer-Like Qualities during the main testing phase.

The Conference is concluded only when a unanimous or near-unanimous decision is reached for every candidate.

The Announcement of Results

Once the Conference concludes (which can take several hours, sometimes even spilling into the next day for large batches), the results are compiled:

• A senior officer then enters the hall where the candidates are waiting.
• They announce the chest numbers of the candidates who have been recommended.
• The recommended candidates are separated and immediately moved to the Medical phase.
• The non-recommended candidates complete the final administrative formalities and are released to leave the center.

In short, after you leave the Conference Room, the assessors spend the next critical hours stitching together the complete picture of your personality across all testing environments to determine if you possess the composite qualities required to be an officer. Your fate is decided in that room, long after you have gone.