Blood Relations Reasoning: Concept & Solved Examples

Blood Relations feel tricky only because people try to solve them in their head. Draw a tiny family tree on rough paper and almost every question becomes obvious. THREE RULES THAT REMOVE THE CONFUSION • Always draw a diagram. Put one generation per row: grandparents on top, parents in the middle, children at the bottom. • Mark gender with a simple symbol: a circle/“+” for male, a square/“−” for female, when the question allows it. • Read the sentence from the END backwards: in "the father of the wife of John", start from John → his wife → her father. COMMON RELATIONS TO KNOW • Father's/Mother's brother = Uncle ; Father's/Mother's sister = Aunt • Brother's/Sister's son = Nephew ; Brother's/Sister's daughter = Niece • Son of son/daughter = Grandson ; Wife's/Husband's relatives = "in-law" THE TWO QUESTION TYPES 1) Pointing/photo type — "Pointing to a man, a woman said, 'His mother is the only daughter of my mother.'" Here the only daughter of her mother is the woman herself, so she is the man's mother → the man is her son. 2) Coded relations — symbols stand for relations, e.g. A + B means A is the father of B. Decode each symbol, then build the chain. SOLVED EXAMPLE "A is the brother of B. B is the son of C. D is the father of A. How is C related to D?" Draw it: D is father of A; A and B are brothers so D is also father of B; B is son of C, so C is the other parent of B → C is D's wife. Answer: C is the wife of D. QUICK TIP If a question never tells you someone's gender, do NOT assume it. "Child", "spouse", "sibling" can be either — the answer is often "cannot be determined" and exams love that trap. Practise a few on Govt Exam Center until the family tree becomes automatic.