Maharashtra Police Constable cheat sheet

Maharashtra has 36 districts; the state was formed on 1 May 1960 by splitting the bilingual Bombay State on linguistic lines.

Maharashtra's state animal is the Indian giant squirrel (shekru), the state bird is the yellow-footed green pigeon (hariyal), and the state tree is mango.

The Maharashtra Legislature is bicameral: Vidhan Sabha (288 members) and Vidhan Sabha's upper house Vidhan Parishad (78 members).

The Bombay High Court, established in 1862, has jurisdiction over Maharashtra and Goa and sits in Mumbai, with benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Panaji.

Key Maharashtra geography: Sahyadri (Western Ghats) runs north-south; the Konkan coast lies west of it; the Deccan plateau lies east; Godavari is the longest river within the state.

Articles 12-35 of the Constitution cover Fundamental Rights; Articles 36-51 cover Directive Principles; Article 51A lists 11 Fundamental Duties.

In Indian polity, the President is elected by an electoral college under Article 54; the Governor of a state is appointed by the President under Article 155.

Current-affairs anchors worth memorising: the Union Budget is presented on 1 February, the Economic Survey the day before, and the RBI's monetary policy committee has six members.

Marathi has 12 vowels (स्वर) and 36 consonants (व्यंजन) in the standard varṇamālā; ळ is a distinctive Marathi consonant not used in standard Hindi.

Marathi nouns carry three genders (पुल्लिंग, स्त्रीलिंग, नपुंसकलिंग), two numbers (एकवचन, अनेकवचन) and three cases marked largely by postpositions.

Marathi has three persons and honorific levels: तू (intimate), तुम्ही (familiar/plural), आपण (respectful/inclusive).

Sandhi in Marathi: vowel + same vowel usually merges into the long vowel (देव + आलय = देवालय); visarga and anusvāra changes follow set patterns.

Common समास types in Marathi: अव्ययीभाव, तत्पुरुष, कर्मधारय, द्वंद्व, बहुव्रीही, द्विगु - identify by which member carries the main meaning.

म्हणी (proverbs) are tested literally: 'अति तिथे माती' means excess spoils the outcome; 'हातचे राखून खाणे' means being overcautious or secretive.

विरुद्धार्थी शब्द pairs to know: उदार–कंजूष, कृतज्ञ–कृतघ्न, सन्मार्ग–कुमार्ग, आशा–निराशा.

Marathi punctuation mirrors English usage but uses the full stop as पूर्णविराम and the question mark as प्रश्नचिन्ह; the Devanagari danda (।) is used in verse and older prose.

Subject-verb agreement: a subject joined by 'and' takes a plural verb, but 'each', 'every', 'either', 'neither', 'everyone' take a singular verb.

Articles: 'a/an' before singular countable nouns (a before consonant sounds, an before vowel sounds); 'the' for unique or already-mentioned referents.

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

Prepositions of time: in + month/year/season, on + day/date, at + clock time; 'since' marks a point, 'for' marks a duration.

Active to passive: move the object to subject position, use the correct form of 'be' + past participle, and add 'by' + agent only when relevant.

Direct to indirect speech: shift tense back one step, change pronouns to reflect the reporter, and change time words (now → then, today → that day, tomorrow → the next day).

Commonly confused pairs: affect (verb) / effect (noun); principal (head, main) / principle (rule); stationary (still) / stationery (writing materials).

Idioms: 'to let the cat out of the bag' = reveal a secret; 'a blessing in disguise' = an apparent misfortune that turns out well; 'once in a blue moon' = very rarely.

Percentage change = (new − old)/old × 100; successive changes of a% and b% give a net change of a + b + ab/100 percent.

Simple interest = P × R × T / 100; compound interest = P(1 + R/100)^T − P. For two years, CI − SI = P(R/100)².

Speed = distance/time; to convert km/h to m/s multiply by 5/18, and m/s to km/h multiply by 18/5.

Average = sum of observations / number of observations; if every value is increased by k, the average increases by k.

Ratio and proportion: if a:b = c:d then ad = bc; to divide a sum S in ratio a:b:c, the shares are S×a/(a+b+c), and so on.

Number series and coding-decoding: check differences, then ratios, then squares/cubes; in letter coding, fix the alphabet position (A=1 … Z=26) and the shift.

Blood relations and direction sense: draw a diagram; for directions, a left turn from North gives West, and a right turn from North gives East.

Permutation and combination: nPr = n!/(n−r)! for ordered arrangements; nCr = n!/[r!(n−r)!] for selections; probability = favourable outcomes / total outcomes.