Hi everyone, stumbled upon this while online.
I am currently serving as a Sit-Test assessor as my NS vocation,
previously from Artillery. by the grace of God, i managed to
acheive platoon best in BMT and SOM in OCS. It's quite heartening
to know that there are still individuals out there who strive to
get into OCS and not just downgrade to chaokeng their NS days
away.
Hope to clarify some queries here for the best of my
ability:
1) it's not impt to have a gold to get into ocs, i was silver
from enlistment to ord. though without a gold, it is impossible to
get the sword of honour (SOH)
2) sit-test, peer appraisal and instructors appraisal is very
important to get into OCS
3) try to volunteer as much as possible in BMT, don't be lazy
and try to siam from doing saikang. your peers and instructors can
see if you are chaokeng
4) if you didn't manage to get appointed as an appointment
holder in BMT, i.e. platoon / company IC, chances of you getting
into OCS is very low. how they choose appointment holders is based
on your leadership track record (at least for the first few weeks).
for the 2nd half of your bmt course, appointment is based on daily
performance
5) intellect matters, for getting into OCS. if you anyhow do the
IQ test at the Mindef assessment centre, forget about going into
OCS.
6) if you retained in JC or repeated a module in poly, don't
worry, still can go OCS. most impt is to do the IQ test at the
assessment centre well
7) for OCS training wise, can bring HP charger. quite a bit of
tekkan during my time, especially during the first few weeks, 5
mins for lunch tops so please be prepared. physically &
mentally very pressurizing also. do not expect your mandatory 7
hours of sleep as per BMT. During the first few weeks, i had a few
platoon mates who dropped out not because of the physical tekkan,
but cos they just couldn't take the mental pressure. other than
that, it's quite fun and fulfilling.
Yup, this is my 1 cent worth, hope it helps. do note that not
everyone is suitable to be a commander. if you try to wayang your
way into command school, you will be pretty miserable there. that
being said however, do try your best in BMT and adopt a positive
attitude towards this 2 years of mantatory NS. i had one of the
best years of my life ;)
cheers and all the best to those trying to get into OCS
