There was another member on here that asked me about part-time BMQ at Fort York Armoury on the same BMQ date as yours.
Here's some of the things I've told him so far.
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List of things you will need outside of the mandatory kit list:
- Notebooks/Notepads
- Non alcoholic/scented baby wipes (People will drag their nuttsacks through a road infested with aids for it, thats the value in having them)
- boot bands (Blousing your pants)
- parade gloss (Optional)
- lighter (to burn off threads)
- lots of pens (you'll lose alot through your training)
- lint roller
- hand sanitizer
- foot powder
- bore snake (cleans the inside of your rifle barrel like a charm)
- lots of change for vending machines
- Gerber tool
- swiffer / duster
- something to keep all your notes in (you'll get mountains and mountains of paper by the end)
Here are some important things to note:
1. Memorize the rank structure by heart before going, during my BMQ we had people addressing staff by the wrong rank from day 1 to the end. You'll save yourself alot of grief if you memorize it prior to going!
We had someone address the Warrant as a Master Corporal, please do not be this guy!
2. Don't take anything the staff say to you personally, it's something they do purposely to indoctrinate you into the military, and to see if you are mentally capable of handling stress.
3. Listen very very attentively when staff is instructing; Especially when they are teaching you drill movements, and weapon drills.
From what I've noticed, the best way to get on the good-side of staff is to stay invisible, and be the average Joe.
Do your drills properly, speak confidently and with a purpose, go about things with a purpose (you'll hear this phrase a lot!).
Don't bother trying to hit Top Candidate, trust me just don't, BMQ means absolutely nothing, once you reach your DP1(Trade Qualification) and PLQ (Primary Leadership Qualification), that's when it starts to be meaningful! But it doesn't mean slack-off through BMQ, just do what is expected.
4. You'll be spending most of your time being absolutely destroyed by powerpoint lectures, just do your best to stay awake in them.
You'll also have A LOT of written tests, and I mean A LOT. Don't stress too much over them, they always do a review of the test the night before, and pretty much the review they give is what's on the test.
5. Last thing to remember is that they really want you to pass through. So as long as you do as you're told, stay mentally fit, it won't be difficult to pass on through.
We did a crap-load of pushups, probably every single day throughout the day.
Because you are doing pushups on the instructors command (Rate/Holding a position/Reps), it's a lot different than just doing it on your own cadence.
If you want to start preparing for it I'd suggest doing this.
Whenever you're home and have time, pump out your max pushups(Until your arms feel like noodles!) at a slow rate, every 2 or so hours, this will somewhat simulate how it may go over there.
If you can run 5km in less than 30 minutes you'll get though with flying colours.
They start everything on the lowest foundation.
They started us off with a 2.5km run at a slow rate, and increased it as time passed.
So don't worry too much about it.
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