Blood Relations

Snapshot

• Blood Relations gives you a chain of relationships ("A is the son of B, who is the sister of C…") and asks how two people are related. It is pure logic — no formulas — so a clear method beats a quick guess every time.
• The winning skill is drawing a small family tree instead of holding the chain in your head. Two minutes of diagramming turns a confusing sentence into an obvious answer.
• This guide gives you the symbols, the tree method, the generation rule, and the coded-relation and one-person-statement variants — with worked examples.
• Exam reality: +5 / −1. Draw, don't guess.

Part 1 — The tree method

Use a standard diagram and you will never lose track:

Symbols: a square for a male, a circle for a female, a horizontal "=" for a married couple, and a vertical line for "child of". Put each generation on its own row — grandparents on top, parents in the middle, children at the bottom. Once the tree is drawn, reading any relationship is just tracing lines.

In the tree above: A and B are a married couple; C and E are their children; C is married to D; F and G are the children of C and D. So F is B's grandson, E is F's aunt (bua/mausi), and D is G's mother.

Part 2 — The two rules that prevent every error

1. Track gender explicitly. Words like "spouse", "child", "sibling", "in-law" are gender-neutral — mark the square/circle the moment the sentence tells you, and never assume.
2. Count generations. Same row = siblings/spouses/cousins; one row apart = parent/child or uncle/aunt/niece/nephew; two rows apart = grandparent/grandchild. Most wrong answers come from slipping a generation.

Part 3 — The common variants

Coded relations. Symbols replace words, e.g. "A + B" means "A is the father of B", "A − B" means "A is the wife of B". Translate each symbol into the tree exactly as you would words, then read off the answer.

Pointing-at-a-photo / single-person statements. "Pointing to a man, Reena said, 'He is the son of the only son of my grandfather.'" Work it from the speaker outward: grandfather → his only son (could be Reena's father) → his son. So the man is Reena's brother (or Reena herself, if female logic forces it). Always anchor at "my / I" and build outward.

Part 4 — Speed techniques

1. Always draw the tree — even a rough one is faster than re-reading the sentence.
2. Resolve gender first, structure second.
3. Read paternal/maternal sides carefully — "father's sister" (bua) ≠ "mother's sister" (mausi).
4. For coded relations, build a tiny key (symbol → relation) before touching the question.
5. For "only son/daughter" clues, mark them — they often collapse two people into one.

Part 5 — Worked examples

1. A is B's father, B is C's brother, C is D's daughter. How is A related to D? D is C's parent and C is D's daughter ⇒ D is C's mother; A is C's father ⇒ A is D's husband.

2. Pointing to a photo, a man says "She is the daughter of my grandfather's only son." The girl is the man's sister.

3. P is Q's mother, Q is R's sister, R is S's father. P is S's grandmother.

4. If "A × B" = A is brother of B and "A ÷ B" = A is mother of B, then in "P ÷ Q × R", P is the mother of Q and Q is the brother of R, so P is R's mother.

5. M is the son of N. N is married to O. O is the daughter of P. How is P related to M? P is O's father ⇒ P is M's grandfather (maternal).

6. A's mother is the only daughter of B's father. How is B related to A? B's father's only daughter is A's mother ⇒ A's mother is B's sister (or B himself's sibling) ⇒ B is A's maternal uncle (mama).

7. X is the sister of Y; Y is the wife of Z; Z is the father of W. X is W's aunt (bua).

8. In a family, the father's sister's husband is called the phupha / uncle — translate kinship terms, then place on the tree.

Part 6 — Common traps

• Assuming gender from a name or a neutral word — wait for the clue.
• Slipping a generation — keep rows strict.
• Paternal vs maternal — bua/phupha (father's side) vs mama/mausi (mother's side).
• In-laws — "brother-in-law" hides several relationships; trace the path.
• "Only" clues — "only son/daughter" usually fixes an identity; don't ignore it.

Part 7 — How to use this page

Memorise the symbols and the generation rule, re-draw the eight examples as trees with the page hidden, then attempt the practice set and the timed test.

One-line revision: draw a square/circle tree by generation, fix gender before structure, keep rows strict for the generation count, and translate coded symbols and kinship terms before reading off the answer.