FSOT cheat sheet

Pronoun case after prepositions: use object forms, as in "between you and me" and "for whoever calls" (subject form only when the pronoun heads its own clause).

Who is the subject form and whom is the object form; test by substituting he/him - "whom did you call" = "him."

A semicolon joins two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction; a colon must be preceded by an independent clause.

Fewer modifies countable plural nouns (fewer items); less modifies mass nouns (less water, less time).

Parallelism rule: items in a series and the elements after correlative conjunctions (both...and, not only...but also, either...or) must share grammatical form.

A participial or infinitive phrase at the start of a sentence must modify the grammatical subject of the main clause, or it dangles.

Intervening prepositional phrases do not change subject number: "The box of invoices is" - the head noun governs the verb.

Its is possessive; it's is the contraction of it is or it has.

Prefer active voice; use passive only when the actor is unknown, irrelevant, or deliberately de-emphasized.

Constitution article map: I legislative, II executive, III judicial, IV states/full faith and credit, V amendment, VI supremacy clause, VII ratification.

House: 435 members apportioned by population, 2-year terms, revenue bills originate here. Senate: 100 members, 6-year staggered terms, ratifies treaties by two-thirds and confirms appointments by majority.

Presidential qualifications: 35 years old, natural born citizen, 14 years a resident; 22nd Amendment limits a president to two elected terms.

Electoral College: 538 electors (435 House + 100 Senate + 3 for D.C. under the 23rd Amendment); 270 votes needed to win.

Judicial review - the power to void unconstitutional acts - was established in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

Veto override requires two-thirds of both chambers; a bill becomes law after 10 days (excluding Sundays) if the president neither signs nor returns it, unless Congress adjourns (pocket veto).

10th Amendment reserves unenumerated powers to the states; the Supremacy Clause makes federal law supreme over conflicting state law.

The Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8) is the constitutional basis for most federal economic and regulatory legislation.

Impeachment: the House charges by majority vote; the Senate tries, needing two-thirds to convict and remove.

Founding settlements: Jamestown 1607 (Virginia) and Plymouth 1620 (Mayflower, Massachusetts).

Governing documents timeline: Declaration of Independence 1776, Articles of Confederation 1781, Constitution 1787, Washington inaugurated 1789.

Territorial and sectional milestones: Louisiana Purchase 1803; Civil War 1861-1865; Emancipation Proclamation effective January 1, 1863.

Reconstruction amendments: 13th (1865) abolishes slavery, 14th (1868) guarantees equal protection and citizenship, 15th (1870) bars racial denial of the vote.

Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877, which withdrew federal troops from the South.

Progressive-era and later amendments: 19th (1920) women's suffrage; 26th (1971) voting age of 18.

Great Depression: stock market crash October 1929; New Deal legislation began in 1933 under Franklin Roosevelt.

World War II turning points for the U.S.: Pearl Harbor attack December 7, 1941; D-Day Normandy invasion June 6, 1944.

Cold War framework: Truman Doctrine 1947, Marshall Plan 1948, NATO 1949; civil rights landmarks Brown v. Board 1954, Civil Rights Act 1964, Voting Rights Act 1965.

Key medieval and early-modern dates: Norman Conquest 1066, Magna Carta 1215, fall of Constantinople 1453, Columbus 1492, Luther's 95 Theses 1517.

Gutenberg's movable-type printing press (c. 1450) enabled rapid diffusion of Reformation and humanist texts.

Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the Thirty Years' War and established sovereign territorial statehood and noninterference as norms.

Revolutionary era: French Revolution begins 1789; Congress of Vienna 1815 restores balance of power; wave of European revolutions in 1848.

Industrial Revolution began in Britain around the 1760s with textile mechanization, steam power, and coal-iron production.

World War I 1914-1918; Treaty of Versailles 1919 imposed reparations and territorial losses on Germany.

Russian Revolution 1917 brought the Bolsheviks to power; World War II ran 1939-1945; the United Nations was founded in 1945.

Decolonization after 1945: Indian independence and partition 1947; most African colonies independent by the 1960s.

Cold War endgame: Berlin Wall opened November 1989; Soviet Union dissolved 1991.

Latitude lines are parallel and measure distance north or south of the equator; one degree of latitude is approximately 69 miles (111 km).

Longitude lines converge at the poles and are measured from the prime meridian at 0 degrees (Greenwich) to 180 degrees east or west.

The International Date Line runs near 180 degrees longitude; crossing eastward subtracts a day and westward adds a day.

The contiguous United States spans four time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific); Alaska and Hawaii-Aleutian add two more.

The U.S.-Canada border is the longest international border in the world; the U.S.-Mexico border is the second-longest U.S. boundary.

The Great Lakes form the largest group of freshwater lakes by surface area; the Mississippi-Missouri system is the longest river system in North America.

Rain shadow: air rising over a mountain range drops precipitation on the windward slope, leaving the leeward side dry.

Chokepoints of strategic importance include the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Malacca, the Suez Canal, and the Panama Canal.

Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states in 1959; the Pacific is the largest and deepest ocean, with the Mariana Trench at its deepest point.

GDP expenditure identity: GDP = C + I + G + (X − M), counting final goods and services produced within a country in a period.

Law of demand: quantity demanded falls as price rises, other things equal; law of supply: quantity supplied rises as price rises.

Price elasticity of demand = percentage change in quantity demanded ÷ percentage change in price; demand is elastic when the absolute value exceeds 1.

Opportunity cost is the value of the next-best alternative forgone; comparative advantage exists when a producer has the lower opportunity cost.

Real values are adjusted for inflation using a price index such as the CPI; nominal values are not.

Central bank tools: open market operations, the discount rate, and reserve requirements; open market operations are the most frequently used.

Money multiplier = 1 ÷ reserve requirement ratio, the maximum deposit expansion from a given increase in reserves.

Fiscal policy operates through government spending and taxation; the spending multiplier exceeds 1 when recipients spend part of the new income.

Short-run Phillips curve shows an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment; the long-run curve is vertical at the natural rate.

Slope of a line through (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) is (y2 − y1)/(x2 − x1); slope-intercept form is y = mx + b.

Quadratic formula: for ax² + bx + c = 0 with a ≠ 0, x = [−b ± √(b² − 4ac)] / (2a).

Mean is the arithmetic average; median is the middle value of ordered data; mode is the most frequent value. Standard deviation is the square root of the average squared deviation from the mean.

Probability addition rule: P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A and B); multiplication rule for independent events: P(A and B) = P(A) × P(B).

Normal distribution empirical rule: about 68% of values fall within one standard deviation of the mean, 95% within two, and 99.7% within three.

Compound interest: A = P(1 + r/n)^(nt), where P is principal, r the annual rate, n compounding periods per year, t years.

Percent change = (new value − old value) ÷ old value × 100; a 20% decrease followed by a 20% increase does not restore the original value.

Central Limit Theorem: as sample size grows, the sampling distribution of the sample mean approaches normal with standard error σ/√n.

Type I error rejects a true null hypothesis (false positive); Type II error fails to reject a false null hypothesis (false negative).

Four management functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Unity of command holds that each employee should report to one supervisor; the chain of command is the unbroken line of authority from top to bottom.

Span of control is the number of subordinates reporting to one manager; wider spans flatten the hierarchy and demand more employee autonomy.

Maslow's hierarchy orders needs as physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization, with lower needs generally satisfied first.

Herzberg's two-factor theory: hygiene factors (pay, policy, working conditions) prevent dissatisfaction; motivators (achievement, recognition, responsibility) produce satisfaction.

McGregor's Theory X assumes workers dislike work and need control; Theory Y assumes workers seek responsibility and self-direction.

SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Management by objectives (Drucker) sets cascading, mutually agreed goals and appraises performance against them.

Delegation transfers authority while retaining accountability; Tuckman's team stages are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

Basic communication model: sender encodes a message, transmits through a channel, receiver decodes, and feedback closes the loop; noise distorts any stage.

Active listening behaviors: paraphrasing content, reflecting feelings, asking clarifying questions, summarizing, and not interrupting.

Nonverbal categories: kinesics (body movement), proxemics (use of space), paralanguage (tone, pace, volume), and chronemics (use of time).

Thomas-Kilmann conflict modes plot assertiveness against cooperativeness: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating.

The grapevine is the informal organizational channel; it moves information quickly but with low accuracy.

Johari Window quadrants - open, blind, hidden, unknown - describe information known or unknown to self and others; self-disclosure enlarges the open area.

Effective feedback is specific, timely, behavior-focused, and descriptive rather than evaluative.

Hall's high-context cultures rely on implicit cues and relationships; low-context cultures rely on explicit verbal content.

Goleman's emotional intelligence components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill.