Sigh
Didn't get in to the OTC. Sigh. There are a maximum of 35 spaces (allowing for dropouts, because they only want 30) and there were 140 applicants. The 9am Saturday morning bit eliminated about 60, about 10 left during the day leaving about 70. Of those 70, apparently nearly 60 would have got in last year, because there were twice as many decent applicants as spaces this year. There wasn't much to chose between everyone on the short interviews, 5 minute lecturettes or group discussion, so the fitness test, normally just a cause to tell people "you're in, but go running", became the deciding factor.
Add to that the fact that they chose to do a bleep test for the fitness test, instead of the usual 1.5 mile run, and it's hardly suprising I didn't get in. I'm not exactly the most agile of people, so the running between lines bit was rather unhandy. Especially annoying seeing as I would have been even further inside the time on the 1.5 mile run with the aid of chasing someone else in front of me and I passed the sit-up and press-up minimums within 90 seconds of the allotted 120 for each. Sigh.
A further annoyance is that it's only because of the structure of the "Wales OTC" that I didn't get in. Normally a large (and normally old) university has an OTC which takes in people from all the others near it which don't have their own. For example, Bristol UOTC also covers Bath, Bath Spa and UWE and everyone trains at Bristol. However, since the former University of Wales College "insert-city-here" places (Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth and Bangor, from good to bad) are spread around the coast of Wales, there is instead a company based at each, which recruits a quarter of the total intake. Thus Cardiff has to turn away people who would have got in at Swansea and been top of the class at the other two. This was put politely by the officers and more accurately by one of the officer cadets as "Cardiff are always the best, Swansea are pretty good and Aber and Bangor are c***sucking mongs".
There is therefore the unfortunate conclusion that I would have probably got in to Bristol UOTC had I been at Bath, commuting to training and other problems aside. So, 9am til 6pm wasted, but at least I got a free lunch. Knowing exactly what's required will be handy next year too.
Add to that the fact that they chose to do a bleep test for the fitness test, instead of the usual 1.5 mile run, and it's hardly suprising I didn't get in. I'm not exactly the most agile of people, so the running between lines bit was rather unhandy. Especially annoying seeing as I would have been even further inside the time on the 1.5 mile run with the aid of chasing someone else in front of me and I passed the sit-up and press-up minimums within 90 seconds of the allotted 120 for each. Sigh.
A further annoyance is that it's only because of the structure of the "Wales OTC" that I didn't get in. Normally a large (and normally old) university has an OTC which takes in people from all the others near it which don't have their own. For example, Bristol UOTC also covers Bath, Bath Spa and UWE and everyone trains at Bristol. However, since the former University of Wales College "insert-city-here" places (Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth and Bangor, from good to bad) are spread around the coast of Wales, there is instead a company based at each, which recruits a quarter of the total intake. Thus Cardiff has to turn away people who would have got in at Swansea and been top of the class at the other two. This was put politely by the officers and more accurately by one of the officer cadets as "Cardiff are always the best, Swansea are pretty good and Aber and Bangor are c***sucking mongs".
There is therefore the unfortunate conclusion that I would have probably got in to Bristol UOTC had I been at Bath, commuting to training and other problems aside. So, 9am til 6pm wasted, but at least I got a free lunch. Knowing exactly what's required will be handy next year too.
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