Karan was recommended through the CDS OTA 126 entry from 33 SSB Bhopal in his seventh SSB attempt.
He is from Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and completed his schooling from Army Public School, Deypur. He pursued his graduation in Computer Science from Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun. Coming from an Armed Forces background, Karan has been exposed to the military environment from childhood. Living in a cantonment area and growing up around people who valued order, discipline and dedication, along with his father’s service in the Armed Forces, motivated him to pursue a career in the Armed Forces himself.
Karan’s journey with R2R helped him improve his approach across different stages of the SSB process. In psychology, he changed his approach to writing stories by incorporating actions, thoughts and emotions, which made his responses more natural. He also learned to connect the WAT responses with his PIQ and personal experiences. His SD was reviewed and improved with guidance from Neha Ma’am, while he also received guidance on SRTs. These changes helped him develop a more natural and personalised approach to psychology.
When comparing his seventh attempt with his previous attempts, Karan identified changes across all three major areas. In psychology, he changed his perspective and became more natural in his responses. In GTO, he focused on being more cooperative with the group rather than only concentrating on his individual performance. In the interview, he worked on becoming calmer. Earlier, he had been somewhat desperate to join the Armed Forces, but in this attempt he was able to control that desperation and approach the interview with a calmer mindset.
Karan was also working alongside his SSB preparation, which made time management one of the challenges during his preparation. He found the interview particularly challenging because he was somewhat nervous and had limited time to manage his preparation alongside his work responsibilities. However, he was honest about his situation during the interview, and the interviewer understood the challenges of managing work and SSB preparation simultaneously. Karan believes that being truthful about his circumstances helped the interviewer understand his situation better.
His message to aspirants, particularly those preparing through graduation entries, is to maintain a strong backup plan and, if possible, find a job or build a career alongside their SSB preparation. According to him, having a good backup plan reduces the desperation to get recommended in a particular attempt. When a candidate is not desperate about the outcome, they are less likely to feel nervous and can perform more naturally during the SSB. He believes that this mindset allows an aspirant to give their natural best rather than being overwhelmed by the pressure of recommendation.
