Medical board: three Sepoy candidates against a fixed SOP
A Rangers recruitment board is screening three candidates for the post of Sepoy against the unit's published medical SOP, which reads: BMI 18.5–27.0; minimum height 167.6 cm; uncorrected vision at least 6/12 in each eye and correctable to 6/6; no colour-vision defect for signaller or wireless trades; whisper test 6 m in each ear; no asthma attack within the last three years; flat foot acceptable only if asymptomatic. No waiver of medical standards is permitted at board level.
Candidate A, age 21: 170 cm, 82 kg, vision 6/18 both eyes correctable to 6/6, whisper 6 m both ears, no complaints.
Candidate B, age 19: 168 cm, 61 kg, vision 6/6 both eyes but fails the Ishihara plate test (red–green), applying for signaller, whisper test 5 m in the left ear and 6 m in the right.
Candidate C, age 23: 165 cm, 58 kg, no vision or hearing defect, but had a documented asthma attack 18 months ago and still uses an inhaler every winter.
1. Apply the SOP to each of the three candidates and state a decision for each, with the measurement or clause that drives it.
Read the worked answer
Candidate A - unfit on two counts. BMI = 82 ÷ (1.70 × 1.70) = 82 ÷ 2.89 = 28.4, above the 27.0 ceiling. Separately, uncorrected vision of 6/18 is worse than the required 6/12 (6/12 = 0.5; 6/18 ≈ 0.33); correction to 6/6 does not cure the uncorrected standard. Height 170 cm and hearing pass.
Candidate B - height and BMI pass (61 ÷ 2.8224 = 21.6). Two findings fail: the red–green defect bars signaller and wireless trades under the SOP, and a 5 m left-ear whisper distance is below the 6 m standard. Decision: not fit for signaller; provisional unfit pending ENT and audiometry, and fit for other trades if the hearing is later certified.
Candidate C - double fail, no discretion. 165 cm is below 167.6 cm, and an asthma attack 18 months ago falls inside the three-year exclusion, with continuing inhaler use. Reject, recording both reasons.
The board must not average the findings: one failed clause is enough, and the SOP forbids a board-level waiver.
2. Candidate A asks to be given a chance to become eligible. Calculate the exact weight he must reach, and set out what the board can and cannot do for him.
Read the worked answer
For BMI 27.0 at 1.70 m: maximum weight = 27 × 2.89 = 78.03 kg. He must lose at least 82 − 78.0 = 4.0 kg, about 0.7 kg per week over six weeks - a safe rate that a unit PT programme can supervise.
The board cannot waive the BMI clause; it can only record a re-measurement condition: "unfit - BMI above standard; eligible for re-measurement on [date]". A promise of future weight loss is not a pass.
A defensible six-week plan: a modest daily calorie deficit, supervised running three times a week building from 3 km to 5 km, and weigh-in in the morning, after voiding, in PT kit, recorded by the PT instructor. Dehydration cuts to beat the scale should be explicitly banned, since they make the measurement false and are dangerous in hot weather.
The judgement the board must make is between sympathy and the standard: it may help him meet the standard, but it may never lower it, because a Sepoy who cannot carry his kit at 28 BMI becomes the unit's problem at the border, not the board's.
3. Candidate B disputes the colour-vision finding and says his hearing is 'normal'. Explain what the board should record, refer and tell him, and which finding actually blocks him today.
Read the worked answer
Colour vision: the SOP restricts the defect to signaller and wireless trades, so it is not a blanket disqualification. Record the Ishihara result, note any confirmatory test the SOP allows, and mark him "fit for trades other than signaller/wireless, subject to vacancy". He should be told plainly that the trade he applied for is closed to him but the corps is not.
Hearing: 5 m in the left ear fails the 6 m standard, and unlike colour vision this is a general standard. Refer for audiometry and an ENT opinion and hold the case as provisional rather than rejecting it - treatable conductive loss after an untreated ear infection is common in this age group, and a re-test after treatment may pass.
What blocks him today is the hearing, not the colour vision. If the board only argues about the eyes, it will either wrongly reject him or wrongly enlist him; both findings must be put to him in writing so that he appeals or treats the correct one.
Record all three: the visual finding, the hearing distance actually measured, and the referral made - a board decision without measurements is not defensible at review.