Iran Civil Service Exam flashcards

31 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Hijri year length

The lunar Hijri year has about 354 days, roughly 11 days shorter than the solar Gregorian year, so Islamic dates shift earlier each Gregorian year.

Nowruz date

Persian New Year begins at the vernal equinox, so Nowruz falls on 20 or 21 March in the Gregorian calendar and is Iran's main national holiday.

Iran recognized minorities

Iran's Constitution recognizes Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians as religious minorities with protected rights, while Twelver Shi'a Islam is the official state religion.

Persian alphabet size

The Persian alphabet contains 32 letters and is written right-to-left; long vowels alef, vav, and ye are written while short vowels are usually omitted.

Ezafe construction

In Persian, the unstressed -e (ezafe) links a noun to a following adjective or possessor, as in ketab-e sabz, meaning 'the green book'.

Shahnameh meter

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, completed around 1010 CE, is composed in the motaqareb meter and preserves pre-Islamic Iranian epic and myth.

Hafez and Rumi forms

Hafez is celebrated for ghazals, while Rumi (Molavi) composed the Masnavi in ramal meter; Nezami wrote the five-part Khamsa romance cycle.

Quran surah and verse count

The Quran contains 114 surahs and 6,236 verses by the Kufi count; Al-Baqarah is the longest surah and Al-Kawthar the shortest.

Hadith classification grades

Hadith are graded sahih (sound), hasan (good), da'if (weak), or mawdu' (fabricated); both the isnad chain and matn text are evaluated.

Shia Four Books

The major Shi'a hadith collections are al-Kafi, Man la yahduruhu al-faqih, Tahdhib al-Ahkam, and al-Istibsar, collectively known as the Four Books.

Key Sirah dates

Muhammad received the first revelation at age 40 in 610 CE, migrated to Medina in 622 CE, and died in 632 CE; Badr occurred in 2 AH.

Third conditional form

The third conditional uses if + past perfect with would have + past participle, describing unreal past situations, as in 'If I had known, I would have come.'

Passive voice formation

Passive voice is formed with be plus the past participle and only applies to transitive verbs, as in 'The report was written by the analyst.'

Affect versus effect

Affect is normally a verb meaning to influence, while effect is normally a noun meaning a result; confusing these is a common exam error.

Successive percent change formula

Two successive changes of a percent and b percent combine to a + b + ab/100, not simply a + b, so a 10 percent rise then fall is not zero.

Combined work formula

If two workers finish a job in a and b days alone, working together they finish in ab/(a+b) days, since their rates add as 1/a + 1/b.

Geometric sequence sum

For a geometric sequence with first term a and ratio r, the nth term is a times r to the n-1, and the sum is a(1 - r^n)/(1 - r).

Average speed equal distances

For two equal distances traveled at speeds x and y, average speed is the harmonic mean 2xy/(x+y), which is always less than the arithmetic mean.

Modus tollens validity

Modus tollens states: if P then Q, and not Q, therefore not P. This form is deductively valid, unlike affirming the consequent.

Contrapositive equivalence

The contrapositive of P implies Q is not-Q implies not-P, which is logically equivalent; the converse and inverse are not equivalent.

Quantifier negation rules

Negating 'all A are B' yields 'some A are not B', and negating 'some A are B' yields 'no A are B'; quantifiers flip under negation.

Binary to decimal

Each binary digit represents a power of two; for example, 1011 in binary equals 8 + 0 + 2 + 1, which is 11 in decimal.

OSI layer functions

The seven-layer OSI model runs from Physical and Data Link through Network, Transport, Session, and Presentation to Application; TCP works at Transport and IP at Network.

Private IPv4 ranges

Private IPv4 address blocks are 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16; IPv4 addresses are 32-bit while IPv6 addresses are 128-bit.

HTTP status code classes

HTTP status codes group by first digit: 200 means OK, 301 means Moved Permanently, 404 means Not Found, and 500 means Internal Server Error.

Iran Constitution adoption

Iran's Constitution was adopted in 1979 (1358 SH) and revised in 1989, when the office of Prime Minister was abolished and presidential powers were strengthened.

Guardian Council composition

The Guardian Council has 12 members: six jurists appointed by the Supreme Leader and six lawyers elected by the Majles; it vets legislation and candidates.

Majles size and term

The Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majles) has 290 members elected for four-year terms; it holds the power to impeach the President and ministers.

Presidential term limits

Iran's President is elected by direct popular vote for a four-year term and may serve at most two consecutive terms before stepping down.

POSDCORB functions

Gulick and Urwick's POSDCORB lists seven administrative functions: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting.

Weber ideal bureaucracy

Max Weber described bureaucracy through division of labor, hierarchy, written rules, impersonal relations, and merit-based appointment rather than personal favor.