IFS/IFoS – Walking And Medical Test – An Experience

Walking test is the final stage between you and your success, so take this test also seriously (albeit in a light mood, you would enjoy it also)

Some Tips for walking test

1. Practice, practice, practice at least 10-15 km, It would be helpful for better physique also
2. Don’t drink any energy drink
3. Install apps like, Google fit or runtastic to monitor your progress
4. Be there before time, as, if you are late no extra time would be given
5. If not confident walk in groups
6. Take fluids/glucose available at checkpoints at regular interval
7. For girls, time management would not be an issue but ensure that you cover 14 km, so for that practice at least 8 km.

Tips for Medical Test

1. If you wear glasses, take a doctor’s report with you
2. If you have a flat foot, then there are chances of you being rejected
3. Don’t drink alcohol before the test
4. You can have breakfast during the check-up day ( so you need not go there empty stomach)

Walking Test Experience in Delhi Zoo. Sharing my walking test experience.

Distance: 25kms… Time Limit: 4 hours…  Location: Delhi Zoological Park… Weather:  March  Spring… Mood:Happy after a Getting Rank:D

This is one test which I was really worried about, more than the interview ! We are supposed to walk 25kms (14km for girls) within 4hrs with all those Animals looking at us weirdly. This time the date of Walking Test was decided after final results, so my date for the walking test was 2nd of march, Medical test at safdarganj was on 1st of march.

We were asked to be there by 6:45 AM, I reached by 5:45. Sun was not yet out, the mist was not yet clear, Anyways I reached there on time and after initial docs stuff, we were ready to walk…get…set… go

I feared this test a lot as I didn’t practice for it much. How can u practice 25km walk? Can u tell me how?. But, I did practice walking 10 km 2,3 days back and it was fine. So I just waited for the D-day and it finally arrived. We were given a small introduction by the Director of Delhi Zoo, Shri Amitabh Agnihotri, an IFS officer himself of 83 or 84 batch.

The zoo circumference was 2.5kms and we had to make 10 rounds on solid Tar road. There would be 10 tokens against each candidate with roman numbers, which we must pick from the middle point of the round and submit it at the starting.

There were biscuits, lemons, volinis and Ambulances available at initial checkpoints. They had big clocks with exact time at checkpoints to note down each of our timings during rounds. With this info, the walk started at 7:15 and our deadline was 11:15.

So the walk began. I was totally clear that individually I can walk at max 20 km, without any issues, but after that, I even can’t walk even a single cm. So I decided to form a group and 4 of us formed a group. I had installed runtatstic app on my phone, so we decided to finish our first round in 20 minutes and in that round whatever pace we would get, we would go ahead with that.

We alternated between a jog and run… it took 20.5 minutes for us and then I started running, walking, running, again walking and at half time I finished 6 rounds. This was our target and we did it. We had to be very conscious of this as they were very strict on timings. My body wasn’t giving me much trouble until 8 rounds. I was having little pains but it was manageable.

The trouble started in 8th round and the round 8, 9, 10 were just about going bad to worse. We ensured that I get exact 70 minutes minimum for the last 2 rounds but it was getting tougher and tougher, but the advantage of the group was that everyone was pushing each other. We went to loo also in between in 3rd and 7th round but ensured that, we didn’t allow our body to relax, otherwise we would have stopped there only.

During final rounds, the sun got brighter and we were in a hurry to finish the round as soon as possible. For the very last round we got 52 minutes to finish. Physically I was deteriorating fast but mentally I was becoming more and more determined. When I was about 500 meters away from the final distance, I ran with full force and reached the final checkpoint in 3hrs 31 minutes.

Finally, I reached my destination. It was a very pleasing moment for me. All my friends were relaxing, but I quickly walked outside the zoo and booked ola cab, when the driver asked me why I was in rush, I told him that I had just completed 25kms walking test and then that fool asked me, why did you then book ola for 14km distance, haha.

After reaching home, I was very happy. The strange thing is that my legs or any part of my body was never in pain any day after walking test. But that is good for me only.

I want to thank my friends Dhanraj, Sandeep and Mritunjay for their great support during this gruelling walking test. After every round they kept on motivating me, asking me to walk faster, giving me something to drink/eat and supporting me.

Vipul Pandey IFoS (2015)

With inputs from Naga Sathish IFoS (2014)