Essays & Chits at OCS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Rules to follow on how to write essays & chits at OCS. Presentation of the note taking gear issued at OCS.
• You only get assigned an essay if you mess up at something. Not every candidate is assigned an essay. Only those who do something significantly wrong are assigned an essay.
• You can only be assigned a maximum of 2 essays per week. If you have met the cap of 2 essays and get assigned another essay, that 3rd essay will be due the following week. It counts as 1 of the 2 essays due at the end of that week.
• Essays are due at the end of Liberty ("Libo"). Usually Sunday at 1900.
• They start assigning essays when liberty starts (week 3)
• Essays are handwritten in black ink
• When submitting the essay, you will fill out a form and staple your essay to it. Then put the essay in the box of the Sergeant Instructor who assigned it to you.
Rules for essays:
Everything in CAPITAL LETTERS
Written in "Head to Toe" format
Refer to yourself as "this candidate". Say "this candidate" instead of "I"
Underline and number words of 3 characters or more
Essays have to be 300 words (Only count those of 3 characters or more)
• What to bring when going to medical: Candidate Regulations, Glow Belt, Go-Fasters, Camp Stool, Camelbak, Time Piece (Watch).
when Gunny gives you a Chit because you haven't had any Chits yet...
2006 candidate and under Col. Chase we were doing up to 3 per night due the next morning. Was changed later to 2 per night max but felt more like an English class. Essays were handed out for just about everything that a DI caught. The head was full every night of candidates writing them out since they had to be done after lights out. Sleep was a precious commodity - between essays and relabeling your gear every night. "This United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate" is going to be your favorite phrase. Make sure to refer to this candidate every sentence so you can use that phrase. Each word also had to be underlined, numbered and the number circled. 300 on the dot means you write all the way to about 285 and then grab another piece of paper and carefully write out that last sentence to make it 300. Also if you put the paper in the freezer after erasing with a FriXion pen it will show back up - could be an integrity violation and another essay plus a chit.
did you make it bro?
Graduated OCS in 1995 (OCC 160). We had essays as well. We did not have erasable pens. Word count was "at least 300 words" with two letter words not being counted, but we had no limit on essays. Had a candidate get assigned an essay on each of his 11 general orders. Those candidates who did not have an essay to write that night wrote a couple for the candidate. This was not considered an integrity violation as we did not try to pass off the work as the original "offender's." When he was asked about it our candidate platoon commander sounded off that it was his idea as it was in keeping with the 14 core principles of Marine Corps Leadership (JJDIDTIEBUCKLE). Our Sergeant Instructor GySgt Tukes was literally stunned at this. He actually smiled and said "Well you frickin' nasties have finally started listening haven't you?" Dismissed the CPC and continued on with our instruction. Granted, we were about 6 weeks in at that time so that may have had something to do with it. Our CPC at the time was pretty dang smart. Had some kind of super duper memory or something.
what happens if you write a 301 essay?
They will say you "failed to follow simple instructions" and make you re-write it. The re-write counts as one of the essays due at the end of liberty. Also, they will not give you back the essay you wrote so you have to re-write the essay from scratch.
Does every branch have this? I’m thinking about just going for rotc tbh
None None you have to go to OCS junior year of NROTC
Zach Maclean wow I’m not doing rotc then
None None if you can make it threw your first 3 years as a midshipmen, your cadre won’t let you fail OCS.
What happens if you miss a normal morning PT session due to being at Medical?
Nothing will happen. It's only if you miss a graded event that you will have to make it up.
For us at 230, the first couple days after pickup were kind of a buffer period where no chits/essays were issued, but after T-day 2 or 3 all mistakes were fair game for chits and essays. Highly recommend buying a small rite-in-the-rain notebook with protector as seen in the video, which you can buy at the exchange during inprocessing.
Is OCS hard as the recruiters want to make it sound?
I know some people who say OCS is easier than bootcamp
@@deathstridertheshadowscale8601 It is different than boot camp. The purpose is to create officers who make decisions and lead, so the training is geared with that in mind. I went to OCS with a good amount of mustangs that admitted that the overall structure was different, but the challenge was similar. Just know the expectations of OCS candidates are at a base level higher than what DI's expect of recruits (physically) and the PT is pretty nuts. Also its important to remember that the attrition rate is pretty high at OCS (roughly 30% in my company). The instructors also use these essays to add stress and deprive candidates of sleep. So, in short, yes OCS is as hard as recruiters make it sound. Whether its harder than boot camp I can't say, but it is definitely a challenge no matter who you are.
Additionally, OCS is just one piece of Officer training. It is followed by 6 months of The Basic School (TBS) where we all learn infantry tactics and that is the real training that makes an officer an officer. OCS is the screen and evaluate, and TBS is to train.
when in ocs do you write the essays? and are the essays only about reflecting on what you did wrong or are there other topics?
The essays are generally about something you did wrong. They won't ask you to write an essay on Marine Corps history, for example. The essays have to be hand written and are due before the end of Liberty. You'll have to fill out a cover sheet they provide by the duty hut, fill it out, staple it to your essay and put the essay in the box of whoever assigned it to you. You can start writing your essay during the week during liberty but I recommend you jot down the main ideas of what you are going to write about during Liberty. They start assigning essays on the 3rd week. They purposely do that because at the end of week 3, you get your first Liberty (Liberty is from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon).
Thank you very much for your response, I appreciate it!
You're welcome! I just realized I made a typo. I meant that you could start writing your essay during the week but that I recommend you only jot down ideas instead. Then actually write your essay during Liberty. Also, take a picture of your essay during liberty so that if they ask you to re-write it, you'll have the original essay and won't have to start from scratch.
Officer Candidate OCS so if you don't fuck up, would you not be writing much essays? Or does the entire platoon have to write one for one guy fucking up? Rah
From what i got from this video and my understanding of the Marine Corps when it comes to training of this type, you'll probably be told you fucked up for not fucking up
I hear they no longer allow you to bring erasable pens anymore.
Erasable pens are fine, as long as the ink on paper looks like black ballpoint pen ink and not like pencil marks.
To re-CAP!!! LOL
Attention to detail. 🤣
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