CBSA OTEE cheat sheet

The main idea is the central claim that most supporting details explain or defend; it is broader than any single fact.

An inference is a conclusion implied by evidence, while an explicit statement is written directly in the text.

A topic sentence states a paragraph's controlling idea and usually appears first, though it can appear last.

Active voice structure places the subject as the performer of the action: 'The officer checked the form' rather than 'The form was checked.'

A pronoun must agree with its nearest clear antecedent in number and gender; ambiguous reference weakens comprehension.

Contrast transitions such as however, although, and yet signal that the next idea reverses or limits the previous idea.

Cause-effect transitions such as therefore, because, and as a result signal a logical relationship, not merely sequence.

Conciseness rule: remove redundant pairs such as 'advance planning' and replace wordy verb-plus-noun phrases with one precise verb.

Modifier placement rule: a descriptive phrase should sit next to the word it modifies to avoid misreading.

Separate observed facts from interpretations before choosing an action; interpretations are assumptions requiring confirmation.

Urgent-important matrix: urgent and important tasks are done first; important but not urgent are scheduled; urgent but unimportant are delegated; neither are dropped.

Escalation triggers include safety risk, legal or policy violation, conflict of interest, and decisions beyond delegated authority.

A conflict of interest exists when personal interest could improperly influence an official decision, even without proof of bias.

Procedural fairness requires notice of the issue, a chance to respond, an unbiased decision-maker, and a reason for the outcome.

Risk rating equals likelihood multiplied by consequence; higher ratings require stronger controls or escalation.

Document decision rationale with the date, facts considered, options rejected, and the reason for the chosen action.

When information is incomplete, state the assumption explicitly and choose the least irreversible action that protects safety.

A decision rule is consistent when similar facts produce similar outcomes across cases.

In a valid syllogism, if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true; validity concerns form, not factual truth.

Contrapositive rule: 'If P then Q' is logically equivalent to 'If not Q then not P.'

Sufficient condition: P guarantees Q; necessary condition: Q must hold for P to occur, but Q alone does not guarantee P.

Denying the antecedent is invalid: 'If P then Q; not P; therefore not Q' does not follow.

Affirming the consequent is invalid: 'If P then Q; Q; therefore P' does not follow.

Correlation shows association; causation requires evidence of mechanism, temporal order, and exclusion of confounders.

Quantifier scope changes validity: 'some A are B' does not imply 'some A are not B.'

Assumption negation test: negate a candidate assumption; if the argument collapses, the assumption is necessary.

Percent change = ((new − old) / old) × 100; a negative result indicates a decrease.

Percentage points measure the difference between two percentages; percent measures relative change from a base.

Weighted average = sum of (value × weight) divided by sum of weights.

Rate = quantity / time; unit rate expresses quantity per one unit of time.

Median is the middle value after sorting; mean is the arithmetic average and is sensitive to outliers.

Unit conversion: multiply by a conversion factor arranged so unwanted units cancel.

A graph with a truncated y-axis can exaggerate small differences; check the axis start and scale.

Rounding rule: carry extra precision through intermediate steps, then round only the final answer.

Small samples produce unstable percentages; compare counts as well as percentages.

Transposition error: characters are reversed in order, such as 34 written as 43.

Check dates against a single format standard, such as YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY, to prevent day-month swaps.

Look-alike words such as affect/effect and principle/principal change meaning; verify against context.

Digit checks: compare each number against the source twice, once forward and once backward.

Initial and signature checks confirm authorization; missing or mismatched initials indicate an incomplete record.

Consistency check: names, dates, amounts, and reference numbers should match across all related fields.

Proofreading backward, from last word to first, helps detect spelling errors and omitted words by breaking expected flow.

Field completeness check: required fields with blank entries are exceptions requiring correction, not acceptable defaults.