CAPF ASI Stenographer cheat sheet

Alphabet positions: A=1 to Z=26; EJOTY mnemonic fixes E=5, J=10, O=15, T=20, Y=25. Opposite-letter pairs sum to 27 (A-Z, B-Y, C-X).

Coding-decoding: test shift (Caesar), reversal, position-sum, and letter-pair patterns in that order; a constant shift is the most common rule.

Series completion: check differences, then second differences (arithmetic), then ratios (geometric), then alternating or prime-based sub-series.

Blood relations: draw a tree; vertical line = parent-child generation, horizontal = spouse or sibling. 'Brother of my father' = uncle; 'son of my mother's only child' = son.

Direction sense: fix North up, use right/left turns as 90 degrees; final displacement uses Pythagoras when path is not straight.

Syllogism: a conclusion is valid only if true in every possible Venn diagram; 'some A are B' converts to 'some B are A', but 'all A are B' does not convert.

Odd one out: verify squares, cubes, primes, and digit-sum multiples before choosing; a number like 121, 144, 169, 196, 210 breaks at 210 (not a square).

Ranking: if a person is nth from left and mth from right, total = n + m - 1; when two ranks of different people are given, total = left rank + right rank - 1 of one person adjusted by gap.

Mirror and water images: mirror reverses left-right (vertical axis), water reverses top-bottom (horizontal axis); letters with vertical symmetry like A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X, Y stay unchanged in a mirror.

Indian Constitution: adopted 26 November 1949, came into force 26 January 1950; Fundamental Rights in Part III (Articles 12-35), Directive Principles in Part IV (Articles 36-51).

Constitutional bodies: Election Commission (Article 324), CAG (148), UPSC (315), Finance Commission (280), Attorney General (76).

Indian geography: Tropic of Cancer passes through 8 states including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram.

Longest rivers: Ganga longest in India, Nile longest in world; Brahmaputra is called Tsangpo in Tibet and Jamuna in Bangladesh.

National symbols: national bird Indian peacock, national animal Bengal tiger, national flower lotus, national fruit mango, national aquatic animal Ganges river dolphin.

Physics units: force in newton, pressure in pascal, power in watt, energy in joule, frequency in hertz, resistance in ohm.

Biology: powerhouse of cell is mitochondrion, basic unit of life is cell, photosynthesis occurs in chloroplast, blood groups A, B, AB, O with O negative as universal donor.

Indian history dates: Battle of Plassey 1757, Sepoy Mutiny 1857, Jallianwala Bagh 1919, Dandi March 1930, Quit India 1942, Independence 15 August 1947.

Static current affairs anchors: headquarters of UN in New York, WHO in Geneva, IMF in Washington DC, SAARC in Kathmandu, ASEAN in Jakarta.

Percentage change: increase then decrease of same x% gives net change of -x squared/100 percent; successive change formula a + b + ab/100.

Profit and loss: profit percent = (SP - CP)/CP x 100; if two articles sold at same price with equal gain and loss percent, net result is always a loss of (x/100) squared percent.

Simple and compound interest: SI = P x R x T/100; CI = P(1 + R/100)^T - P; CI exceeds SI by P(R/100) squared for two years.

Time-speed-distance: distance = speed x time; to convert km/h to m/s multiply by 5/18; relative speed adds for opposite directions, subtracts for same direction.

Trains: time to cross a pole = length of train/speed; time to cross a platform = (train length + platform length)/speed.

Averages: new average after adding a value = (old sum + value)/new count; if each item increases by k, average increases by k.

Ratio and mixture: alligation rule gives ratio of quantities = (mean price - cheaper)/(dearer - mean price).

Mensuration: area of circle = pi r squared, circumference = 2 pi r, volume of cylinder = pi r squared h, volume of sphere = 4/3 pi r cubed.

Time and work: if A does work in x days and B in y days, together they take xy/(x + y) days; efficiency is inversely proportional to time.

Subject-verb agreement: singular subject takes singular verb; 'one of the boys is' and 'each of the students has' are correct forms.

Articles: 'a' before consonant sound, 'an' before vowel sound; 'an hour' and 'a university' follow sound, not spelling.

Prepositions: 'since' with a point of time, 'for' with duration; 'married to', 'composed of', 'deprived of', 'superior to' are fixed collocations.

Tenses: present perfect (has/have + past participle) for past action with present relevance; past perfect for the earlier of two past actions.

Active to passive: object becomes subject, verb becomes be + past participle, agent introduced by 'by'; only transitive verbs passivise.

Synonyms and antonyms: use word roots; 'bene' good, 'mal' bad, 'anti' against, 'pre' before, 'post' after, 'circum' around.

Idioms: 'once in a blue moon' means very rarely; 'to let the cat out of the bag' means to reveal a secret; 'a bolt from the blue' means a sudden shock.

Spotting errors: check subject-verb agreement, pronoun case, tense consistency, and double comparatives ('more better' is wrong).

Reading comprehension: answer only from the passage; the main idea is usually in the first or last sentence of a paragraph.