OCS vs SCS: how selection works and what OCS teaches

You don’t really choose between OCS and SCS. The SAF selects you for Command School based on how you perform in BMT, and then decides which school. What you do control is how you show up in BMT, and how you treat the course if you’re sent. The biggest things OCS taught me weren’t tactics. They were humility, and the fact that the biggest enemy is yourself.

I went through OCS and served as an infantry officer, and was later selected for the Company Tactics Course, which trains army officers to plan and run company-level operations (SAFTI). I also wasn’t naturally fit going in. That mattered more than anything else I’ll say here.

How does selection for OCS and SCS actually work?

Selection happens during BMT, and it’s based on performance and leadership potential. CMPB puts it plainly: “If you perform well and demonstrate leadership potential during BMT, you will be selected to attend Command School training at Officer Cadet School (OCS) and Specialist Cadet School (SCS).” (CMPB)

The same page lists what goes into the decision: “organisational requirements, your military performance, your commanders’ recommendations, education qualifications and medical fitness.” (Same source.)

Two things follow from that list:

1. Some of it is outside your control. “Organisational requirements” means the SAF needs a certain number of people in certain roles. A strong recruit can still be posted elsewhere.
2. Most of it is inside your control. Military performance and your commanders’ view of you are built every day of BMT, not on one test.

I’m not going to give you selection odds. I don’t have official numbers, and anyone quoting them on a forum is guessing.

What’s the actual difference between OCS and SCS?

OCS trains officers. SCS trains specialists, who work alongside officers. CMPB describes it this way: specialists “work with Officers to train and manage the soldiers that constitute our armed forces.” (CMPB)

Here’s how the courses compare on paper, from the same CMPB page:

In practice, officers plan and command. Specialists run the ground: they’re closest to the soldiers, and a good platoon sergeant is the reason a platoon actually works. Neither is the “lesser” job. They’re different jobs.

What if I’m not selected for Command School?

You’ll train in a vocation after BMT, in combat, combat support or combat service support. CMPB’s line on this is: “Regardless of the vocation that you are assigned to, you will play an important role in the defence of our nation.” (CMPB)

That isn’t a consolation line. Plenty of people learn as much in a vocation as cadets do in OCS, just in a different shape. If you’re not selected, the real question is the same as for everyone else: what you make of the two years.

Is OCS worth it?

If you’re selected, yes. Go in properly. It’s one of the few places at 18 or 19 where you’re responsible for other people and judged on whether they’re okay, not just whether you are.

But “worth it” depends on what you take from it. The rank goes away when you ORD. The lessons don’t, if you notice them.

Here are the two that stuck with me.

What did OCS teach me about leading people more experienced than me?

That rank isn’t the same as knowing more. Leadership is stewardship: you’re looking after people and a job that were handed to you, not things you own.

I learnt it from my platoon sergeant. On paper, the sergeant reported to me. In every way that counted on the ground, the sergeant was far more senior and far more experienced than I was. I had a commission. The sergeant had years.

There were two ways to handle that. I could pull rank, or I could learn. Pulling rank would have been easy, and it would have made me a worse officer. Learning from someone like that, and being humble enough to ask, made me a better one. It’s the lesson I’d hand any new officer first.

It’s also why neither OCS nor SCS is the lesser job. A good specialist will often know more than the officer they work for. The officer’s job is to notice.

What did OCS teach me about fitness? “The biggest enemy is yourself”

For a long time, I was stuck at 85 IPPT points. I was sure the problem was stamina. I just didn’t have the engine.

Then I had to lead my platoon through a 12km overnight navigation exercise. It meant more than 10 hours of continuous movement through the night, each of us carrying about 35kg. Stopping because I felt tired wasn’t an option. The platoon was moving, and I was the one leading it.

We finished. And somewhere in those 10 hours, my stamina story fell apart. Someone who truly lacked the engine couldn’t have kept moving that long under that load. The limit I’d been hitting at IPPT wasn’t in my legs or my lungs. It was in my head.

That changed how I saw a lot of other things. Most of the limits I’d been carrying around were ones I’d set myself.

When something feels impossible, try the Fence or Wall test:

1. Have I actually tested this limit, or did I assume it? An untested limit is a fence. You can climb it.
2. What’s the smallest version I could try this week? Not the whole thing. A step.
3. What would I tell someone else in my position? We’re far kinder and more realistic with other people than with ourselves.

A real wall exists. Injuries are real. Medical limits are real, and you should never push through those. But most of what stops 18-year-olds is a fence.

How do OCS lessons carry over to studying?

Both lessons carry over almost exactly.

• The limit is often mental. The student who’s “just bad at math” is usually standing in front of a fence, the same way I was at 85 points. Test the limit before you accept it.
• Learn from whoever knows more, whatever their title. A senior who sat the paper last year, a classmate who gets the topic, a teacher you find intimidating. Asking isn’t weakness. Pretending you already know is.

Neither needs a uniform. They just need you to stop believing the first “I can’t”, and to stop pretending you’ve got nothing left to learn.

What should I do in BMT if I want a shot at Command School?

Focus on what CMPB says it looks at: performance and leadership potential. (CMPB)

• Be consistent, not flashy. Commanders see you every day. Reliability is noticed.
• Look after the people around you. Leadership potential shows up in how you treat your section when everyone’s tired.
• Prepare your fitness before you enlist. It’s the one area you can work on months in advance. If you’re like me and not naturally fit, start early and start small.
• Don’t fake it. Trying to look like a leader reads badly. Being useful reads well.

Then accept the result, whichever school you go to, or none. The two years are what you make of them.