Tips and Tricks to Solve Family Tree Questions

Blood relation problems are often tricky and confusing to students answering entrance tests. These types of blood relation reasoning questions are very easy to score for and are well learnt and given a little more attention to. In the following sections along with many trips and tricks, we’ve also included some examples on blood relation problems for a better understanding as well as a reference.

Based on given sentences 

Under this section what happens generally is that a statement or a sentence is given maybe or maybe not in the form of a conversation between people. The arrival at a solution happens when this conversation is analysed deeply.

Let’s make use of an example to understand this better:

“Her brother’s father is the sole son of my grandfather,” a woman remarked, pointing to a woman in the photos. What is the relationship between the woman and the man in the photograph?

 The general way to get an answer to such questions is through the method of backtracking. Backtracking is analysing the given statement in a reverse manner and hence arriving at a given solution.

For the problem, “Her brother’s father is the sole son of my grandfather,” 

“Only son” of the grandfather means that is the woman’s father.

Woman’s brother’s father means the woman’s father.

Hence it can be said that the woman is that woman’s sister.

Puzzle based solving

In this kind of reasoning question, generally information is given at the beginning of the question and then the follow up questions are provided. And with the given information it is expected of us to arrive at the solution to the next given questions.

Let’s see a few steps on how we can draw tree diagrams to make solving blood relation problems:

To denote parent-child relationship, use vertical lines.

Use dotted lines to show the relationship between siblings.

To show gender differentiation sign, use – for females and + for males.

Also if some information is not provided, ‘?’ sign can be used to simplify the task at hand.

To show marital relationships, <-> can be used.

Now let’s see some examples on how to solve such problems:

The six members of a family are A, B, C, D, E and F. A and B are a married pair, with A being the masculine member of the family. C, who is A’s brother, is the sole son of D. E is D’s younger sister. F’s husband has died, and B is her daughter-in-law.

Q. How is F related to A?

Q. How is C related to B?

Q. What is the number of male members in the family?

To solve this problem let us first create a mental diagram of who is related to who. Since it is given that C is the sole son of D who in turn is the A’s brother so A and C are siblings and C is the parent of D.

Next, Now the first sentence actually tells us that A and B are married so hence we get a connection to A.

Again it says that E is D’s younger sister. So another sibling relationship is formed. 

Now about F it says her husband is dead and B is her daughter-in law so it is clear that she is the mother of A and C.

Now to answer the above questions,

F is A’s mother.

B is C’s mother again.

There are three male members in the family which are D, C and A.

Some important tips and tricks

1. Choose a relationship which has clearly been established between two people.

2. Next from this follow up with a relationship that has been established with one of the previous two people.

3. The names given do not always ascertain the gender of the person. So always wait until you have the clear gendered pronouns given in the problem.

4. Always draw diagrams or family trees to better understand the relationships. Solving more problems using these diagrams is also easier.

5. The way the tree is represented makes all the difference. Be sure to draw proper lines and gender signs so as to not get confused and end up making an error.

Conclusion

We’ve seen some easy tips and tricks to solve blood relation reasoning problems. It is necessary for students to focus on such questions and keep practising as many examples as possible. This will ensure that they do not find these questions tricky and difficult in the entrance exams that make their careers.