UIIC AO cheat sheet

Subject-verb agreement: a phrase between subject and verb does not change the verb number; 'The list of items is on the desk' takes a singular verb.

Neither/nor and either/or agree with the nearer subject: 'Neither the manager nor the clerks were informed' takes a plural verb because 'clerks' is nearer.

Collective nouns (team, committee, jury) take a singular verb when acting as a unit and a plural verb when members act individually.

A pronoun after 'than' or 'as' takes the case it would have in the full clause: 'She is taller than I (am)' and 'He likes you more than (he likes) me'.

Dangling modifiers: an introductory participial phrase must modify the subject of the main clause; 'Walking down the road, I saw a snake' is correct, 'Walking down the road, a snake was seen' is not.

For cloze and fill-in-the-blank items, test collocation first: 'commit a crime', 'make a decision', 'take measures', 'pay attention', 'draw a conclusion'.

Reading comprehension: the answer must be supported by the passage, not by general knowledge; extreme words such as 'always', 'never', and 'only' usually signal a wrong option.

Para-jumbles: find the opening sentence (usually a general statement with no pronoun referring backward), then chain sentences by pronouns, connectors, and repeated nouns.

Error spotting: check prepositions after verbs and adjectives ('comprise' takes no 'of'; 'superior to', 'prefer to', 'married to', 'composed of').

Simple interest = P × R × T / 100; compound interest = P[(1 + R/100)^T − 1]; for two years the CI − SI difference equals P(R/100)^2.

Profit and loss: profit% = (SP − CP)/CP × 100; successive discounts of a% and b% give a single discount of a + b − ab/100 percent.

Speed conversion: 1 km/h = 5/18 m/s; relative speed of two trains moving in opposite directions is the sum of speeds, in the same direction the difference.

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

Averages: new average after adding a value = (old average × n + value)/(n + 1); in an arithmetic progression the average equals the middle term.

Permutation vs combination: arrangements use nPr = n!/(n − r)!; selections use nCr = n!/[r!(n − r)!]; 'at least one' is often 1 − P(none).

Syllogism: 'All A are B' converts to 'Some B are A'; 'No A is B' converts to 'No B is A'; 'Some A are B' converts to 'Some B are A'.

Blood relations and direction sense: draw a family tree or a compass diagram; left/right turns change facing by 90 degrees, and a U-turn is 180 degrees.

Coding-decoding: check letter positions (A = 1 … Z = 26), reverse alphabets (A ↔ Z), and shifts of +1, −1, or alternating patterns before assuming a rule.

IRDAI is the insurance regulator, headquartered at Hyderabad; it was constituted in 1999 and statutory powers came with the IRDA Act, 1999.

Life Insurance Corporation of India was nationalised in 1956; general insurance was nationalised in 1972 with GIC and its four subsidiaries.

The four public-sector general insurers are National Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance, and United India Insurance; New India Assurance is the largest.

RBI, established in 1935 and nationalised in 1949, is headquartered in Mumbai; it sets the repo rate, CRR, and SLR and manages foreign exchange reserves.

Key money-market rates: repo is the rate at which banks borrow from RBI against securities; reverse repo is the rate at which RBI absorbs liquidity.

SEBI regulates the securities market, PFRDA regulates pensions under NPS, and FSDC coordinates financial-sector development and stability.

Insurance penetration is premium as a percentage of GDP; insurance density is premium per capita, usually expressed in US dollars.

Important schemes: PMJJBY (life cover of ₹2 lakh), PMSBY (accident cover of ₹2 lakh), APY (Atal Pension Yojana), and PMFBY (crop insurance).

Banking terms: NPA is a loan overdue for more than 90 days; CASA denotes current and savings accounts; CRAR is the capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio.

Insurable interest: the insured must benefit from the subject's survival and suffer loss from its destruction; it must exist at proposal for life insurance and at loss for general insurance.

Utmost good faith (uberrimae fidei): both parties must disclose all material facts; non-disclosure or misrepresentation can make a policy voidable.

Indemnity applies to general insurance, restoring the insured to the pre-loss financial position; life insurance is a benefit policy and not a contract of indemnity.

Subrogation transfers the insured's right of recovery against a third party to the insurer after the claim is paid; it does not apply to life insurance.

Contribution: where two or more policies cover the same risk, each insurer pays a proportionate share so the insured does not profit from the loss.

Proximate cause is the dominant, effective cause of loss; insurers pay only when the proximate cause is an insured peril.

Life insurance premium factors: mortality (age, health, habits), interest rate assumed, and expenses; younger and healthier lives pay lower premiums.

Types of life policies: term (pure protection, no maturity value), whole life, endowment (survival benefit plus death benefit), and ULIP (market-linked with a fund component).

Claims: a death claim requires intimation, proof of death, and policy documents; early claims (within three years) attract closer scrutiny, and the insurer may investigate under Section 45 of the Insurance Act, 1938.