PSSTLDM Selection Day

I was contemplated on my ability to go for the Navy selection day. I had a fever and it subsided just a day prior to the selection. And moreover, without a proper physical training, the probability of failing the selection was quite high. But still, I braced myself up and went to the navy base just to give it a try. Hopefully, lesser people would turn up on Sunday compared to Saturday's session. So the competition would be low thus increasing my chance of getting accepted into the navy. That's my logic.

Previously, the email clearly stated that all candidates should be at the naval base from 8.00 am till 9.00 am. So, I arrived at Pusat Hidrografi TLDM, Klang sharp at 7.30 am, as I was worried about getting rejected for coming late. I thought that the session started at 8.00 am and ended at 9.00 am, which seemed weirdly short and perhaps not that hard. But obviously, I was wrong. It started at 9.00 am and ended at 4.30 pm. Luckily I had my ex-housemate, Hazri, who out of the blue decided to join me. At least I got someone to keep my motivation up.

The selection started with physical inspection where the medical officer checked the shape of our sole to identify whether we had normal feet or flat feet. The person with flat feet was requested to leave the line. It was quite sad to see some did not make it even in the first stage. Then, they measured the height and weight in order to calculate the BMI. Alhamdulilah, my BMI was okay. There were few candidates that had been quarantined due to high BMI numbers. 

After the physical inspection, we proceeded with documentation process. Candidates were divided into two groups; Officers (Pegawai) and Other ranks (Lain-Lain Pangkat). The process was smooth and I successfully handed over the complete documents to the officer in charge.

After quite a while we then moved out of the building for the warming up session where all candidates were required to do body stretching, 20 reps of jumping jacks, and 20 reps of push-ups. We then proceeded with 2.4 km running, a standard fitness test since my maktab days. I made a mistake of not drinking enough water before running which as a result I became superbly dehydrated and only managed to finish up running with 16 minutes time recorded. 

Not long after all candidates completed the run we went to the next phase which consists of chin-ups, sit-ups, touch and speed, and also long jump. I could say that I managed to successfully execute touch and speed test, and also the long jump test. Both sit-ups and chin-ups were done horribly. 

We were then given a break for some lunch and Zuhur prayer. Seriously, I was super exhausted that I could not even eat the lunch. I just had a glass of coconut water and some goreng pisang, just to keep my energy up throughout the day. Getting faint was the last thing that I wanted. 

The afternoon session started with marching test. I could see that most of the candidates especially my group members were able to execute the marching test. It was that time that I started to worry about getting rejected. One of the officers told us that among 100 something of candidates, only 30 will be accepted to become the Officers. Quite a tough competition compared to Other ranks. However, I did hope that I would be accepted or else all the things that I endured for the whole day would turn out to be nothing. Pray for my success. InsyaAllah. | ͰM

p/s: The photos are taken from KD Sri Klang's Instagram page