AILET UG cheat sheet

Passage-based questions reward locating the exact line first, then reading one sentence before and after it; the answer is almost always supported by that window.

Common confusable pairs: affect (verb, to influence) vs effect (noun, result); principal (main/head) vs principle (rule); compliment (praise) vs complement (completes).

Subject-verb agreement traps: intervening phrases do not change the verb ('The list of items is'); 'each, every, either, neither' take singular verbs; 'none' may be singular or plural by sense.

Pronoun case after prepositions and 'than/as' is the objective case ('between you and me', 'taller than I [am]').

Dangling modifier test: the opening participial phrase must describe the subject of the main clause; otherwise rewrite.

Idiom-based fill-in-the-blank items are decided by fixed preposition collocations: 'comply with', 'averse to', 'capable of', 'insist on', 'deprived of'.

Antonym/synonym items: eliminate options that are only loosely related; choose the option matching the same part of speech and register as the stem word.

Para jumbles: find the mandatory opening (a definition or general statement) and closing (conclusion/pronoun resolved); use pronoun and connector cues (however, therefore, this) to chain sentences.

Indian polity anchors: President is head of state, Prime Minister heads the government; the Constitution came into force 26 January 1950; the Preamble was amended once, by the 42nd Amendment (1976), adding 'socialist', 'secular' and 'integrity'.

Fundamental Rights sit in Part III (Articles 12-35); the Right to Constitutional Remedies (Article 32) was called the 'heart and soul of the Constitution' by Dr B.R. Ambedkar.

Directive Principles are in Part IV (Articles 36-51) and are non-justiciable; Fundamental Duties were added by the 42nd Amendment on the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendation.

Static GK clusters worth memorising: capitals and currencies of neighbours, heads of major international bodies (UN, WHO, IMF, World Bank), and India's nuclear/space milestones.

Geography facts: Tropic of Cancer passes through eight Indian states; the Deccan Trap is basaltic; the Western Ghats are a biodiversity hotspot; monsoon onset over Kerala is around 1 June.

Awards and institutions: Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award; the Reserve Bank of India was established in 1935 and nationalised in 1949; NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission in 2015.

For dynamic current affairs, tie each item to a static hook (e.g., a new scheme to its ministry; a summit to its host country and grouping such as G20, BRICS, SCO, QUAD).

Legal reasoning questions are principle-application items: read the principle as a rule, then test the facts against its exact elements rather than moral intuition.

A valid contract under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 needs offer, acceptance, lawful consideration, capacity, free consent and lawful object; agreements without consideration are void unless they fall in the exceptions (natural love and affection, past voluntary service, etc.).

Minors' agreements are void ab initio; a minor can be a beneficiary but cannot be held liable on a contract.

Tort essentials: duty of care, breach, causation and damage. Strict liability (Rylands v Fletcher) applies to escape of a dangerous thing from non-natural use; absolute liability (M.C. Mehta) admits no exceptions for hazardous enterprises.

Criminal law basics: mens rea plus actus reus; distinctions among culpable homicide, murder and causing death by negligence turn on intention and knowledge.

Constitutional writs: habeas corpus (unlawful detention), mandamus (duty owed to petitioner), prohibition and certiorari (against courts/tribunals), quo warranto (title to public office).

Legal maxims frequently tested: res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself), volenti non fit injuria (consent defeats liability), audi alteram partem (hear the other side), actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.

Syllogism decision rule: a conclusion follows only if it is true in every possible Venn arrangement of the premises; a 'possibility' conclusion follows if at least one arrangement makes it true.

In syllogisms, two particular premises yield no conclusion; two negative premises yield no conclusion; a negative premise forces a negative conclusion.

Blood relations: draw a family tree with symbols, and always re-anchor the question's final phrase ('How is X related to Y?') to the correct endpoint.

Direction sense: use a coordinate grid; net displacement is the straight-line distance from start, computed by Pythagoras when the path turns at right angles.

Seating arrangement: fix the most constrained person first, mark left/right carefully when the row faces north versus south (facing south reverses left and right).

Number and letter series: check differences, then second differences, then ratios; for letters, convert to positions (A=1 ... Z=26) and check alternating patterns.

Coding-decoding: identify whether the shift is constant, positional, or reversal-based; test the derived rule on a second word before applying it to the question word.

Assumption questions: the correct assumption is necessary to the argument and unstated; options that merely repeat or strengthen the premise are wrong.

Percentages: successive change of a% then b% equals a + b + ab/100; a 20% increase followed by a 20% decrease leaves a net 4% decrease.

Profit and loss: profit% is computed on cost price unless stated otherwise; if an article is sold at a loss of x% and then at a gain, compare both against CP, not SP.

Simple interest = PRT/100; compound interest = P(1 + R/100)^T - P; for two years, CI - SI = P(R/100)^2.

Time, speed and distance: average speed for equal distances is the harmonic mean 2xy/(x+y), not the arithmetic mean.

Ratio and mixture: alligation gives the ratio of two components as (mean - cheaper) : (dearer - mean); useful for successive dilution problems.

Averages: if every value is increased by k, the average rises by k; if multiplied by k, the average is multiplied by k; the average of consecutive numbers is the middle term.

Permutation vs combination: arrangements use nPr = n!/(n-r)!, selections use nCr = n!/(r!(n-r)!); 'at least one' is easier as 1 minus 'none'.

Mensuration essentials: area of circle = pir^2, circumference = 2pir; volume of cylinder = pir^2*h; Pythagorean triples (3,4,5), (5,12,13), (8,15,17) speed up right-triangle items.