CMA Foundation Paper 1 (FBLC) cheat sheet

Contract = agreement (offer + acceptance) + lawful consideration + capacity + free consent + lawful object; enforceability distinguishes a contract from a mere agreement.

Offer must be communicated to the offeree; acceptance must be absolute, unqualified, communicated by the offeree in the prescribed or reasonable mode; a counter-offer destroys the original offer.

Consideration must be real, lawful, and move at the desire of the promisor; past, present, or future consideration is valid, but consideration must not be illusory.

Capacity: a minor's agreement is void ab initio; persons of unsound mind and persons disqualified by law also lack capacity.

Free consent is missing when caused by coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation, or mistake; consent so caused is voidable at the option of the aggrieved party.

Void agreement: not enforceable by law from the outset; void contract: valid when made but later becomes unenforceable; voidable contract: enforceable at the option of the aggrieved party.

Quasi-contract (unjust enrichment) obligations arise without agreement: necessaries supplied, payment by mistake or coercion, non-gratuitous act, finder of goods.

Sale vs agreement to sell: in a sale, property passes immediately and risk passes with property; in an agreement to sell, property passes on a future event or condition.

Consumer rights under consumer protection law include safety, information, choice, being heard, redressal, and consumer education; misleading advertisement and unfair trade practice are actionable.

Communication process: sender → encoding → message → channel → decoding → receiver → feedback; noise is any interference that distorts the message at any stage.

Formal channels follow the hierarchy (downward, upward, horizontal, diagonal); informal channels (grapevine) spread rapidly and carry both accurate and distorted information.

7 Cs of effective communication: clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete, courteous.

Barriers are semantic (jargon, ambiguity), physical (noise, distance), psychological (prejudice, emotion), and organisational (status, overload); each requires a distinct remedy.

Active listening: receive, interpret, evaluate, respond; paraphrasing and clarifying questions confirm understanding and reduce semantic barriers.

Business letter structure: sender's address, date, inside address, salutation, subject, body, complimentary close, signature, enclosures.

Memo is internal and follows a fixed header (To, From, Date, Subject) with no salutation; a circular is a single message sent to many recipients.

Report writing: define purpose and terms of reference, plan and collect data, analyse, draft, revise; findings and recommendations are distinct sections.

Non-verbal communication (kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage, chronemics) often conveys attitude more reliably than words and must align with the verbal message.