A neat and well-written PIQ form will give extra curiosity and attention to all three assessing officers during your SSB test.
The Personal Information Questionnaire form is submitted by the candidate soon after reporting or after the screening test (some changes can be expected at the SSB center due to COVID-19).
It is the most important written document which adds up as your resume.
With the help of your PIQ form, all three assessing officers (Interviewer, GTO & Psychologist) would come to know you personally without seeing you as a candidate.
An initial positive or negative impression may be generated from the PIQ form filled by the candidate.
Hence, you should take initiative and care while filling the form.
This article aims to explain the PIQ form’s logic and how to prepare answers to questions based on the PIQ form filled by the candidate.
A few parts of the PIQ form are too personal, and therefore due care and diligence should be given while writing down the personal details.
Few of the candidates are very causal while filling this form, and it can cause confusion and uncertainty in the mind of assessors.
A few qualities of OLQ can be absorbed through this PIQ form itself. Hence, the candidate must write the details correctly, neatly with a complete sense of responsibility.
Table of Contents
Overview of PIQ form SSB
The wise people say that it is not a Personal Information Questionnaire, but it is a Personality Information Questionnaire.
Why it so? These are the reasons:
- Most of the defense aspirants are probably heard that SSB will test a candidate’s personality rather than his/her education or intelligence test like an administrative field.
It is because SSB has the responsibility of recommending the potential future Defense officer cadre with OLQs.
- Personality refers to the characteristics and pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving in a given situation.
A good character means that reasonable, likable, pleasant to be with.
An upbeat personality means openness, consistency, stability in the feeling, thoughts, and behaviors in an expected or unexpected in a day to day situation.
Recommended: Make Your Personality Officer-Like. Check Out Officer Recommended Best Personality Development Books
- SSB assessors can see the candidate’s personality through his written documents, i.e., PIQ.
Hence, some time the wise people call it is Personality Information Questionnaire rather Personal Information Questionnaire.
The PIQ form will showcase the candidate’s types of personality(whether balanced or unbalanced character).
What Does PIQ Form Consist Of?
The PIQ form consists of (Sr No 1 to 14) can be divided into five parts for easy understanding:
- Self & Family (Sr No 1 to 6)
- Education & occupation ( Sr No 7 to 9)
- NCC (Sr No 10)
- Games & Sports and hobbies/interest (Sr No 11)
- Previous SSB details (Sr No 12 to 14)
1. Self-description & friends & family (Sr 1 to 6)
- In this portion, the candidate should also discuss his own identity & worth in the family, friend circle.
- Importance of the candidate’s name and the Sir name(including religious, cultural & state-wise significance). (some people followed their name in number too).
- Family background details the family members, responsibility, and role of the candidate in the household activities.
- The family support system, jobs and routine activities & distribution of the works in the family.
- Knowledge about home, native place, taluk, district, and state (history, present status).
- The opinion of your parents about you.
- What is the opinion of your teachers & friends?
- Relationship with parents, siblings, and neighbors
>> SSB PIQ Questions by Interviewing Officer (Sr 1 to 6)
A set pattern of questions based on your PIQ may be asked by the interviewing officer in the first five minutes of the interview even though the candidate has written in PIQ form.
- How many members are there in your family?
- Who do you not like in your family and why?
- Give a short description and your relationship with each member, closer to whom, why closer, whom you admire.
- Compare yourself with the expected quality of your family.
- Compare yourself with any of your brothers or sisters.
- Few things you do & do not like in your father.
- How your parents will describe you?
- How your siblings will describe you?
- Occupation of working members in the family, job profile, salary, etc
>> Some Practical Aspects
Your interest and behavior with your parents, friends, and social acceptability can quickly be identified while discussing your family background
Also Your relationship among family members and your role in the family can be identified through this five minutes interaction.
A strong family relationship and adaptability with a sense of responsibility can also be easily assessed by the Interviewing Officer.
The candidate’s self-description about self, relationship with family, friends & teachers may have co-relation with PIQ.
In all of this, the most important is your acceptability and pride of where you belong
For example: if you are from an agricultural background. Do you have a sincere effort to accept the reality and grow from it?
Your contribution, responsibility, and learning what your parents are doing during the summer, winter, and harvest season.
As the son/daughter of labor, you should know what and how difficult it is to acquire some money for your traveling expenses.
Another Example: If you are from a high-income group, then you should be more accommodating and flexible while your parents may become agitated after a full day of work outside.
If you are showing irritation or unhappiness to your parents because you have been neglected due to long hours of the parents, may not be clear SSB because that candidate is away from reality and non-acceptable reality.
Otherwise, if you are able to see your parents as an icon and pillars of strength(whatever be the job or education profile). Your chance of selection in SSB is more.
While giving you the above examples, I don’t mean to tell you that you should fake these things during your SSB test. Because the interviewing officers can catch that pretty easily.
On the contrary, work on the above things so you can be well prepared and accept the realities which would help you show an optimistic attitude on your PIQ form.
Some of the very likely questions may be asked, and answers should be ready at your fingertips:
- What is the meaning of your name?
- Meaning of other members’ names in your family
- Name of place you come from, and it’s significance.
- Any famous personality who comes from the same place as yours
- Also, tell me about your daily routine from morning till night.
The list is long and unended.
What is more important is just be truthful, self-evaluate yourself, and be free from all kinds of blocks in your mind.
2. Education & Occupation ( Sr 7 to 9)
Schooling and college environments are very much crucial while performing our tasks & responsibilities in life.
A candidate who has high self esteem and confidence can answer better than a candidate who has difficulties with teachers in the school days.
However, your positive attitude and approach will help remove your negative thoughts and awful feeling against any person from your childhood.
Forgiveness and love are keywords to overcome these negative feelings from our minds.
I strongly recommend spending at least half an hour to listen and practice meditation and yoga (Sree Sree Ravi Shankar’s program is beneficial)
>> SSB PIQ Questions by Interviewing Officer (Sr 7 to 9)
Based on the written information, the following questions can be asked by the interviewing officers:
- Tell me about your academic performance starting from your 10th till graduation.
- Tell me the percentages scored by you in each class.
- Do tell me who are your best friends and favorite teachers and what qualities you like in them.
- Tell me about your relationship with your friends and teachers and also tell me about your favorite subjects.
- Two or three teachers, you did like and not like and why.
- Who is the worst/best boss/subordinate/colleague you have ever worked with, and why?
- Your progressive performance from school to college/professional.
Few other questions may come up as why didn’t you follow the footsteps of your family ( if you come from a business class family or any other profession than army)
Recommended: A Complete Guide on How to Prepare for SSB
>> Keep These Prepared:
- The performance of the school, college
- The relationship with teachers, friends & well-wishers
- The role played in the school, college.
- Responsibilities & activities participated.
- Knowledge & history of the school, college.
- Additional responsibilities
- New assignments/job profile
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
3. NCC training(applicable to NCC cadets/ex-cadets) (Sr 10)
It is a straight forward question and answer section between interviewer and interviewee.
Hence, all NCC cadets aspiring for the defense force should answer any questions related to the NCC.
Therefore, write complete correctness and appointment you hold in NCC.
A few questions are given below for the preparation of answers while filling the form of PIQ:
- All experience and training activities of NCC
- NCC unit experience/appointment he/she holds
- Camp/Expeditions/Camp activities attended
- Training aspects/equipment profile/duties of appointment of NCC
- What have you gained by joining NCC?
>> What are your strengths, and what are your weaknesses?
This question could be asked in several different ways, such as “What would you say is your best quality?” or “How would your friends and family describe you?”
No matter how it is phrased, this question aims to learn more about you.
Indeed, the interviewer might simply say: “Tell me something about yourself.”
These types of personal questions are often the most difficult to answer because you want to share the positive aspects of your personality and your achievements without sounding like you are bragging.
Don’t be afraid to ask people around you to help you out and suggest a few useful talking points to cover.
Think about the things you are good at and the things you are not so good at, and reflect on how those points could be perceived by someone who doesn’t know you that well.
Remember, while it is essential, to be honest about your shortcomings, you don’t want to say anything too negative, which might cause an interviewer to put a black mark against you.
Try to find a positive spin on them or outline ways that you are trying to address them.
>> SSB PIQ Questions by Interviewing Officer
- What do you know about the Indian armed forces?
- Tell me three current affairs in the news right now?
- Why do you want to join the defence?
- What if you didn’t make it?
- What are your alternate career options?
- Did you try for NDA? Why not succeeded?
Why were not reasonable efforts given?
- How will you benefit the organization if selected?
- What improvements do you think are required in the Indian armed forces?
- What is your stand on Kashmir Issue?
- What do you think about the modernization of the armed forces?
4. Games, Sports and Hobbies/Interest (Sr 11)
Games and sports are essential in the Armed Forces because of their essence.
The purpose of the Armed force is to safeguard the nation. Hence, physical fitness is the hallmark of defence persons.
Games and sports are one the medium in which a person can sustain physical fitness and be mentally healthy.
We can see the slight difference between sports and games for the academic purpose as given below:
Games
- Whereas a game is any mental or physical activity with rules for fun.
- These activities can be playing basketball and football, or board games such as chess and Monopoly, or card games, or electronic games (like apps), or video games.
Sports
- A sport is a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other.
- Sports are specific physical activities one can compete in, such as baseball, basketball, football, field hockey, running, cycling, rock climbing, swimming, diving, race car driving, kayaking, or weight lifting.
There are many more games and sports than what is listed here.
Recommended: Avoid Permanent Rejection, Know How to Increase Your Mental Stamina to Join the Armed Forces
>> SSB PIQ Questions by Interviewing Officer (Sr 11)
Few questions can be asked to the candidate who has filled the column of sports and games
- Participation and level
- Role and importance of indoor and outdoor games/sports
- Your central role of Captain, organizer, and motivator in-game field.
- Tell me something about your involvement and achievements in sports.
- Which will you prefer, indoor or outdoor games, and why?
- What have you learned from sports and games?
- What are the hurdles that you have experienced in your sport?
- Why did you choose this specific sport/game over others?
- Sports played at school and college level.
- Knowledge about sports and its rule and regulations, including national and internal regulations
- Organizing sport meets at the school or college level.
>> Hobbies/Interest (Sr 11)
The defence force personal requires to spend a lot of the time in the field and away from family and everyday activities.
Therefore, he/she has to find out some leisure activities to get mentally and emotionally free and pleasant.
Hence, The organization is always encouraged and ensure the personnel to develop a hobby for simply enables the morale high against any odds situation.
Hence be prepared to answer few questions related to your hobbies while attending SSB:
- What do you like to do in your spare time?
- Tell me something about your hobbies and interests.
- Tell me the difference between hobbies and habits and what are the bad habits that you have.
- What have you learned from your hobbies?
- How do you manage time for your hobbies?
- How do your hobbies help you in day to day life?
- When did you start taking your hobbies seriously, and what made you do so?
- What are the sources of knowledge about your hobbies?
- How your hobbies affected your lifestyle?
- Is there any achievement that you obtained in your activities related to your hobbies? If yes, then what are those?
- Are your parents happy with your hobbies or interests, and what are their opinions over your hobbies and interests?
- What is your favorite book?/ What are you reading at the moment?
>> Why did you opt for the Air Force only? Why not the Navy or Army?
This question can be posed for any wing that you’ve applied for.
It would help if you were specific and honest as to why you chose that particular wing.
The answer could be along these lines:
“All the three services are exceptionally good
However, I am and was always more inclined towards the Air Force ever since I saw a few of my family members (or someone you know) in the Air Force’s branch
I got to know about their lifestyle, challenges and that’s when I decided to go for the Air Force
On the contrary, I am slightly less familiar with the environment of the other two wings.”
This could be one way to address the question
Recommended: Join Indian Airforce through Airforce Common Admission Test (AFCAT)
5. Previous SSB details (Sr 12 to 14)
If you have attempted SSB before (through any kind of entry scheme), you need to mention this in your PIQ form.
Based on this, the interviewing officer may ask you few questions to see what changes you have made in order to be recommended this time:
- Why did you fail in the previous SSB attempt?
- How do you analyze your past performances?
- What went wrong in the previous attempts?
Download PIQ Form PDF (Filled Example)
The following is an original PIQ form PDF which is filled by a candidate. Keeping the above things in mind, you will need to fill the same during your SSB:
Download PIQ Form PDF (Sample)
The following is an original PIQ form PDF which you can download and practice on your own. Keeping the above things in mind, you will need to fill the same during your SSB:
Conclusion
Presenting a fair and neat PIQ form is very much essential to generate a positive feeling towards you.
Your interview and self-description are very much related to your PIQ.
All 15 different officer like qualities can be revealed in the PIQ form itself.
Your attitude, reasoning ability, academic performances, personality, adaptability, and social effectiveness can easily be assessed through PIQ form.
Hence, I recommend you to fill the PIQ form with due care and diligence and prepare for likely questions based on your background.
This PIQ form will also help you identify yourself to find your strong points and weak points with self-realization.
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