SAS Reserve Selection vs Army Assessment

By Deepak Shukla · Historical account and source-led commentary · Updated 7 November 2026

My 21 SAS Reserve application took me to the general Army assessment centre at Pirbright, through Alpha and Bravo training, and eventually into Wednesday preparation sessions and a separate assessed weekend linked to the unit. That is one applicant's experience; formal SAS Reserve selection is a later, distinct course. If you've found my original diary through a search for 'SAS selection', this is how the different stages fit together.

Why the distinction matters

Try to picture the process as a series of doors, not one huge event. An Army entry assessment is where somebody's journey may start. Army training and gaining experience come afterwards. The UK Special Forces Reserve selection stages are later again. My early diaries record what it felt like to go through those first doors. The official recruiting pages explain which doors a new applicant faces today.

First came the ordinary Army process

My early application involved paperwork, medical checks and the general Army assessment weekend at ATC Pirbright. Part two of my diary describes the dorms, tests and being new to Army life. It was an important personal experience, but Pirbright was not an SAS selection course. If you're reading that story to understand how military recruitment felt to me in 2014–2015, that's exactly what it is.

Alpha, Bravo and the sessions afterwards

I completed Alpha and Bravo as part of the Army preparation pathway. Later I attended approximately ten to fifteen Wednesday evening preparation sessions, rather than a continuous year of attending every Wednesday. I was learning about the discipline of turning up, following instructions and fitting a demanding commitment around civilian work. The presence of a unit connection did not turn those sessions into formal SAS selection.

The later 21 SAS-linked weekend

There was also a later weekend associated with 21 SAS where our performance was watched and assessed. It was not the general assessment at Pirbright, and it was meaningful evaluated preparation. I am careful not to invent a course name, pass result, location or activity I cannot substantiate from the material I kept. An assessed weekend and the full formal selection course are not synonymous.

Where my account stopped

In June 2016, while dealing with arrangements for what would come next, I decided not to continue. I wrote to the unit to explain that decision. I did not progress to the formal selection course and I have never served as an SAS operator. A candid account of preparation can still be interesting without pretending the ending was something else.

What the Army publishes about the current pathway

The current Army role description separates applications from basic military training and a later briefing course, aptitude phase, further courses and continuation or mandatory training. The detailed language differs across the Army Jobs page and the British Army's 21 and 23 SAS page. These are public descriptions of recruitment stages, not evidence that I completed them. For current standards and your own eligibility, use the official Army recruiting pages rather than my decade-old timeline.

How to use the stories without misreading them

Read the original application diary for the motivation, the Pirbright diary for the early Army weekend, the training chronology for Alpha and Bravo, and the decision account for the ending. Use the official selection-stages article for current publicly described recruitment. That reading order is less glamorous than collapsing everything into 'I did SAS selection', but much more useful.

SAS Reserve selection is not the same as an Army assessment