掲示板 Forums - iru/aru and ga/ni

Apologies for the Romanji but I don't have japanese enabled on this machine.

Quick question to see if I have this right regarding iru/aru.

When Iru or Aru is used, the item or person that exists is denoted by the ga particle, eg. asoko neko ga iru (There is a cat over there).

When Iru or Aru is used, the place or location that the item exists is denoted by the ni particle, eg. gakkou ni iru (I am at school).

So in essense you could combine the two meanings as such : neko ga gakkou ni iru (The cat is at school).

Is this correct? My mind always goes into a loop when I have to decide to use ni or ga with iru/aru and it shows on the practice tests.

Awesome, thank you!

From doing practice tests it seems that the particle part is my main weakness and I'm finding it hard to correct.
Are there any tricks to figuring out the correct particles other than experience and the obvious ones?

The info in Genki I is very sparse on particles I think, I've read tae kim's guide and others, but it's still very hard for me.

Kind of getting nervous as it's only 3 weeks till the jlpt and I want to have this down.