AFCAT cheat sheet

Indian Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950; it was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949.

Fundamental Rights occupy Articles 12–35; the Right to Constitutional Remedies (Article 32) is called the heart and soul of the Constitution by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

The President is elected by an electoral college of elected MPs and elected MLAs; the Vice-President is elected by members of both Houses of Parliament only.

Ranks of the Indian Air Force, junior to senior: Flying Officer, Flight Lieutenant, Squadron Leader, Wing Commander, Group Captain, Air Commodore, Air Vice Marshal, Air Marshal, Air Chief Marshal.

The Indian Air Force was raised as the Royal Indian Air Force on 8 October 1932; it became the Indian Air Force in 1950 and the President is its Supreme Commander.

Planets in order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune; Jupiter is the largest and Mercury the smallest.

Longest river in India is the Ganga; the Brahmaputra is longest in terms of total length within the region and the Godavari is the longest peninsular river.

Nobel Prizes: Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913), C. V. Raman (Physics, 1930), Mother Teresa (Peace, 1979), Amartya Sen (Economics, 1998), Kailash Satyarthi (Peace, 2014).

National symbols: the tiger is the national animal, the peacock the national bird, the lotus the national flower, and 'Jana Gana Mana' the national anthem.

Subject-verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb; phrases between subject and verb (e.g., 'along with', 'as well as') do not change the verb number.

'Neither...nor' and 'either...or' take a verb agreeing with the nearer subject; 'both...and' always takes a plural verb.

Idiom 'to bite the dust' means to fail or be defeated; 'to bury the hatchet' means to make peace; 'to let the cat out of the bag' means to reveal a secret.

Antonym pairs to recall: 'benevolent'–'malevolent', 'frugal'–'extravagant', 'candid'–'evasive', 'obsolete'–'current'.

Synonym clusters: 'abundant' = plentiful, ample, copious; 'brave' = valiant, intrepid, courageous; 'brief' = concise, terse, succinct.

Active to passive: the object becomes the subject, the verb becomes 'be + past participle', and the doer follows 'by' (e.g., 'She wrote a letter' → 'A letter was written by her').

Direct to indirect speech: shift tense one step back and change pronouns; 'now'→'then', 'today'→'that day', 'tomorrow'→'the next day'.

Spotting errors: check prepositions after verbs - 'listen to', 'depend on', 'consist of', 'comprise' (no 'of'), 'discuss' (no 'about').

One-word substitutions: 'philanthropist' = lover of mankind, 'misanthrope' = hater of mankind, 'ephemeral' = short-lived, 'ubiquitous' = present everywhere.

Average = sum of values ÷ number of values; if a group of n has average A and another of m has average B, combined average = (nA + mB) ÷ (n + m).

Simple interest = P × R × T ÷ 100; compound interest = P(1 + R/100)^T − P.

Speed = distance ÷ time; to convert km/h to m/s multiply by 5/18, and m/s to km/h multiply by 18/5.

Work: if A finishes a job in x days and B in y days, together they take xy ÷ (x + y) days.

Percentage change = (new − old) ÷ old × 100; successive changes of a% and b% equal a + b + ab/100 percent.

Profit percent = (SP − CP) ÷ CP × 100; if an article is sold at a loss of x%, SP = CP × (100 − x)/100.

Ratio and proportion: if a : b = c : d then ad = bc; to divide amount N in ratio a : b, shares are N·a/(a+b) and N·b/(a+b).

Area formulas: circle = πr², triangle = ½ × base × height, trapezium = ½ × (sum of parallel sides) × height.

Volume formulas: cylinder = πr²h, sphere = (4/3)πr³, cone = (1/3)πr²h.

Series rule check order: differences, then ratios, then alternating or prime-based patterns, then squares/cubes offsets.

Coding-decoding: test letter-shift (e.g., +1, +2) and reversal rules first; confirm the rule on every letter before applying it.

Blood relations: draw a small family tree; vertical lines for generations, horizontal for siblings/spouse; 'maternal' refers to the mother's side.

Direction sense: track net displacement with a sketch; facing north then turning right faces east, left faces west, and a 180° turn reverses direction.

Odd-one-out: classify by a single property (shape, number of sides, symmetry, closed/open) and pick the item that breaks the shared property.

Analogy: identify the relationship type (part–whole, cause–effect, synonym, worker–tool) and match it exactly in the answer pair.

Syllogism: 'All A are B' does not imply 'All B are A'; only conclusions that hold in every possible diagram are valid.

Clock angle = |30H − 5.5M| degrees, where H is the hour and M the minute; mirror-image and water-image questions reverse left-right or top-bottom respectively.

Military aptitude items often test spatial orientation, embedded figures, and rapid pattern matching; verify symmetry axes before choosing an option.

Communication model: sender → encoding → channel → decoding → receiver, with feedback and noise affecting fidelity.

Barriers to communication: physical (noise), semantic (jargon), psychological (prejudice), and organisational (hierarchy filtering).

Active listening involves full attention, paraphrasing for confirmation, and asking clarifying questions rather than rehearsing a reply.

Formal report structure: purpose, background, findings, analysis, conclusion, recommendations; keep each section distinct.

Group discussion etiquette: state a point once with evidence, invite others, avoid interrupting, and summarise the group's direction.

Technical aptitude: Ohm's law V = IR; power P = VI = I²R = V²/R; series resistances add, parallel conductances add.

Binary to decimal: multiply each bit by 2 raised to its position from the right, starting at 2⁰; decimal to binary uses repeated division by 2.

Email and official correspondence: subject line states the purpose, salutation is formal, body is concise, and closing includes designation and contact.