Army Clerk

Education Qualification

The education eligibility of clerk can be bit tricky to understand, so if you do not understand the below-mentioned points properly, then feel free to ask in the comments.

• Applying candidate must be 12th passed from any stream (Arts, Commerce, Science).
• Only those candidates can apply who had Math or Accounts or Book keeping in class 12th.
• Should have scored minimum 60% marks overall, and 50% marks in each subject in 12th.

Age Requirement

Candidate must fulfil Following age criteria.

• In order to apply for soldier clerk, one needs to be between 17½ years (17 years 6 months) to 23 years.

  Minimum age = 17½ years
  Maximum age = 23 years

  Army rules are very strict, therefore, if you do not fit in the age limit mentioned above, then you will not be able to apply.

Nationality

• All the candidates from India can join the Indian army (qualified with the above qualifications).
• Candidates having the nationality of Nepal and Bhutan can join the Indian Army.
• The permanently settled Tibetan refugee in India, who came to India before the 1st of January of 1962 can also apply.
• A person who migrated from Sri Lanka and East African Countries of Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, Burma the United Republic of Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zaire and Ethiopia, and Vietnam and settled permanently in India can also join the Indian army.

Martial Status

• The candidate should be an unmarried Male following all the above points.

Physical Standard & Eligibility

• People are always confused about height eligibility, because Indian army has different standards of height for different states. Below is the list of minimum height required (and other physical standards) to apply for soldier clerk in army for different states.
  

  States	Height (in cm)	Weight (in KG)	Chest (in cm)
  Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab Hills, Uttarakhand	162	48	77
  Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Assam and Hill Region of West Bengal (Gangtok, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong Districts)	160	48	77
  Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,Delhi, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh (Meerut and Agra Division)	162	50	77
  Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa	162	50	77
  Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Dadar, Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu	162	50	77
  Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Puducherry	162	50	77

  The following Relaxations in physical standards will be given to the candidates having the following certificates :-

  Certificate	Height (in cm)	Weight (in Kg)	Chest (in cm)
  Relation certificate	2	2	1
  Sports certificate	2	5	3
  applicants from poor areas	nil	2	nil

  Applicants having relation certificate will get a concession of 2 cm in height, 1 cm in chest and 2 Kg in weight. Applicants having sports certificate (national, state, university or district level with 1st or 2nd position) will get 2 cm concession in height, 3 cm in chest and 5 Kg in weight. Also, applicants who belong to the chronically poor area may get concession of 2 kg in weight.

Medical Eligibility Required in Clerk

In order to be eligible to apply for army soldier clerk ones must satisfy the following medical requirements :-

• The applicant must be able to read  6/6 in distant vision chart with each eye.
• He should be able to recognize correctly the white, red and green signal colours that will be shown to him by Martin’s Lantern at 1.5 meters. And his Colour vision should be CP – III. Also, he should have a good binocular vision in both eyes.
•  He should be in good physical and mental health with a good physique.
• The applicant must not have any kind of disease like piles, hydrocele, deformity of bones, varicocele etc.
• He must have minimum 14 dental points i.e sufficient number of natural healthy gum and teeth.
• His Chest should be well developed having minimum 5 cms expansion.

So, these are the eligibility that a candidate must fulfill to be able to apply for Army soldier clerk or SKT. Now, let’s proceed to the selection procedure through which they make new recruitment for clerk.

Indian Army - Clerk Selection Process

• Online Registeration :
  Now that Indian army has introduced the process of online registration, therefore it is now necessary for candidates to register themselves online if they want to participate in the next recruitment/rally or bharti. Make sure that you fill all the details correctly and according to your documents, because if you make any mistake while filling the application form, then it will be extremely difficult to correct it later
  Also, try to have a good speed internet when you apply online. Applicants who try to apply online with slow internet speed experience lots of trouble.
• Documents Verification:
  No one with fake or incomplete documents can participate in the bharti, and army makes sure of it by checking the documents of each and every candidate thoroughly. Remember that you will be asked to show your original documents, so make sure that you carry all the original documents that are needed with you. Following are the documents that you will need on the day of bharti :-
  • Class 10th passing certificate.
  • Class 10th and 12th mark sheet. Graduation mark sheets and degree if applied on the basis of graduation.
  •  Character certificate (not older than 6 months) that should be signed by village sarpanch or some other equivalent or higher gazetted officer.
  • Domicile or nativity certificate of the area that you are applying from.
  
  These are the mandatory documents that every candidate should have on the day of bharti. Beside these documents, if a candidates have other documents like NCC ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ certificate, sports certificate, relation certificate etc. then he should bring them as well to avail concession.
  Be sure to take your original documents with you. Also, make at least one attested photocopy of each document, and take it with you.
• Height Measurement :
  Once your documents are verified by the officials on the bharti ground, then you are allowed to go for the next round which is height measurement. The height standards for different states are mentioned above, but they may be raised on the day of bharti according to the situation, i.e if the participants are in large number, then to weed out the crowd, they may raise the height standards.
  If you do not satisfy the needed height on the bharti ground, then you will not be allowed to go any further in the rally.
• Running :
  This is where the real test begins, running is considered as the most difficult part of bharti. Only 40% participants get through this test. So, prepare well for running test.
  You will need to run 1600 m (1 mile) within the least possible time. The faster you complete the race, the better it is. Unlike GD, no marks are assigned for Physical Fitness Test (PFT). A candidate just need to qualify in all the physical test.
  As per normal standards, the participants should complete the race within 5.45 minutes in order to move for further test, but standard timing is rarely applied as competition is so high that these standards have to be raised to get the best out of best.
  A piece of advice :- Try to reach the bharti ground as soon as possible so that you get the first batch and get the front row. This will play a crucial role in your selection because it is not easy to run with the crowd.
• Pull Ups :
  Only those who qualifies the race are allowed to come to the pull ups round. You will be asked to do pull ups, and the more pull ups you do, the better your chances of getting to the next round.
  Minimum 6 Pull ups are required.
  Pull ups may sound easy, but don’t even think for one second that they will really be easy. without practice, it is impossible to make through this test. You are asked to do pull ups directly after running, which automatically makes it difficult. You have to rise and come down when they say, which put enormous pressure on your arms and it becomes very difficult to do even 5. So, do practice pull ups.
• Chest Measurement:
  After pull ups, your chest will be measured. The standard for chest is given in the above table, beside standards, the chest of a candidate must increase at least 5 cm after expansion. Any candidate who does not fulfills this requirement will be disqualified.
• Balancing and 9 feet Ditch:
  After chest measurement, balancing and 9 feet ditch are the last hurdles of physical test. No marks are given for these, but one needs to clear them to pass the physical test.
  In balancing, you will be asked to walk over a narrow zig-zag wooden stand, climb and walk on ropes etc. and you will need to walk through them without falling to clear this round.
  The 9 feet ditch is basically a test to see how long can you jump. In this test, you have to jump a ditch or pit whose length is 9 feet.
• Medical Test:
  Once you get through all the physical tests, then you can breath easy as in most of the rallies the medical test is conducted on some other day than physical test.
  In the medical test, the candidates are checked for any medical issue. A candidate will go through the various medical test, and to pass all the medical test, a candidate must fulfill all the medical eligibility criteria mentioned above in this article.
  Keep your ears clean, as it can be the cause for your rejection in the medical exam. Go to the professionals who uses modern technology to clean the ears if you have wax in them. Don’t do the stupidity of going to unprofessional, they can damage your ears.
• Written Exam:
  You will get plenty of time after the medical test. Usually, the written exam is held after 20 to 30 days of physical test.
  

Soldier Clerk / SKT exam pattern

• Unlike other trades, the exam pattern of soldier clerk is bit different. The written exam comes in two part, and a candidate has to get 32 marks in each part to pass. Also, the aggregate of both the parts should be 80 or more than 80 to pass the written exam.
  The first part contains questions related to GK, General science, maths and computer science. It will be worth 100 marks. While, part 2 contains questions related to General English, and this part will also be of 100 marks.
  Total 50 questions will be asked and 1 hour of time will be given to complete the exam. Take a look at the table to understand better:-
  

  Subject	Questions	Marks	Passing marks	Total passing marks
  Part – 1
  General knowledge	05	20	32	80
  General Science	05	20
  Maths	10	40
  computer	05	20
  Part – 1
  General English	25	100
  Total	50	200

  
  Each question will carry 4 marks. In part 1, the GK section will carry 5 questions, general science will carry 5 questions, 10 questions related to maths and 5 questions related to computer.
  Note:- Please note that there will be negative marking in the written exam, and ½ marks will be reduced for every wrong answer. However, no marks will be reduced for leaving any question.

Relaxation in written exam for soldier clerk

As you may know, that army gives concession in written exams to candidates having special certificates. Following is the list of concession for different certificates in written exam :- As you can see in the table, candidates having NCC ‘C’ certificate get’s 15 marks of benefit, which means that your chances of getting the job get’s better by 20% and same for other certificates.
Please note that a candidate having multiple certificates can avail benefit of only one certificate.

Making of Merit List

After clearing all the test and going through a long process, comes the merit list.
The merit list of Clerk is based on the marks scored by candidates in written exam only.
For trades like GD, merit list is made after combining marks of PFT + medical test + CEE. But, for clerk there are no marks for PFT, therefore, the merit list is directly made after CEE. So, your chances of getting recruited will depend on your performance in written exam.

Dispatch of Basic Training

Once Your name appears in the merit list then after some time you will get a call letter in which all the joining details will be given. Before you become full-fledged army clerk, you have to undergo the hard times of training.
The basic training for soldier is 20 weeks (almost 4 & a half month), which will test your physical and mental limits. The basic training months are considered as the hardest of a soldier’s career. Then after basic training you will be given leave for 28 days. Afterwords, 32 weeks (almost 7 & a half months) of clerical training will be given.
So this is the whole Army clerk selection procedure. Hope that reading this article cleared your doubts, but if you still have nay questions to ask, then feel free to comment. We will try to reply as soon as possible.

All the best for your future!