What is asked
Questions on the English alphabet and on the letters of a given word. They are short, scoring and appear in almost every Prelims paper (1-2 questions). Types:
- Position questions: "Which letter is 7th to the right of the 12th letter from the left?" (generated on this site).
- Arranging the letters of a word alphabetically and finding how many stay in place.
- Changing vowels/consonants by a rule (next or previous letter) and then counting or arranging.
- Interchanging letters in pairs (1st with 2nd, 3rd with 4th...) and finding the k-th letter.
- Counting letters between two letters in the alphabet.
Must-know positions
Use EJOTY: E = 5, J = 10, O = 15, T = 20, Y = 25. Reverse position = 27 - position (A-Z, B-Y, C-X ... M-N are opposite pairs). Vowels: A (1), E (5), I (9), O (15), U (21).
| Question | Formula |
|---|---|
| Letters between positions p and q | |p - q| - 1 |
| k-th letter from the right end of the alphabet | position 27 - k |
| k-th from right of a word of n letters | (n - k + 1)-th from left |
Method
- Write the word with letter positions underneath (B=2, A=1, N=14 ...).
- Apply the change rule letter by letter and write the new word - never do it in your head.
- Only then sort, count or pick the required letter.
Worked example
BANKER arranged alphabetically is A B E K N R. Comparing position by position with B A N K E R: B/A, A/B, N/E, K/K, E/N, R/R - K and R stay in place, so two letters keep their positions.
Letter-pair counting
For "pairs with as many letters between them in the word as in the alphabet", check every pair (both forward and backward unless told otherwise): the gap in the word must equal the gap in the alphabet. In BANKING, B-A (adjacent both ways) and I-G (one letter between in both) qualify - two pairs.
Time target
20-40 seconds per question.