Mrunal (Aptitude) Family Trees & Blood Relations - Logical Arrangement Made Easy Mrunal

Mrunal [Aptitude] Family Trees & Blood Relations: Logical Arrangemen...
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[Aptitude] Family Trees & Blood Relations: Logical Arrangement Made Easy
1. Introduction
2. Dataset #1
3.
4.
5.
6.
Step 1: Gender and Generation table

Step 2: Checklist
Questions based on the Family-Data
Dataset #2: UPSC CSP2000
Step #1: Gender and Generation table
Step-2: Run the checklist
Step-3: Solve the Question
Do eliminate wrong options
Keep a Watch on the Watch
Previous Articles on Aptitude
Introduction
Family relation / Family tree / Bloodline related aptitude questions are pretty
common in CSAT, CMAT, IBPS and CAT.
Lets try a very clichd and easy question.
Dataset #1
There are 6 members in a family: A to F. There are two married couples, D is
grandmother of A and mother of B, C is the wife of B and mother of F, F is the
granddaughter of E.
Just like our Prime Minister, There is no dum in this sum. It requires only three simple
steps.
Step 1: Gender and Generation table

The data talks about three things: Gender (M/F), Generation(1/2/3) and Blood
Relations (mom-son etc.)
If you try to arrange all three of them simultaneously, itll only lead to frustration
and wastage of time. So first concentrate on two items only: Gender and
Generation. The Relations will fall in line by themselves.
Given data: D is grandmother of A and mother ..
So D is the oldest Generation and she is definitely female.
But we dont know whether A is male / female.
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Anyways fill up the Gender Generation table

Generation
Male Female Not sure(M/F)
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged
3 Youngest
Given data: D is grandmother of A and mother of B

Obviously B falls in the 2nd generation (mid-aged) but still we dont know the gender
of B.
Generation
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged
3 Youngest
Given data: C is the wife of B and mother of F

This one statement, tells us three things
C is a female and mid-aged (2nd generation)
B is a male.
F is 3rd generation. But we dont know the Gender of F
Update the table with this new information
Generation
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged B
3 Youngest
A,F
Given data: F is the granddaughter of E

This tells us following
F is a female.
F is 3rd generation (although we knew it already.)
E is 1st generation and since D was female, this has to be male (Granddaddy).
Update the table
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Generation
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged B
3 Youngest F*
*intentional mistake.
Step 2: Checklist
In the arrangement questions: whether it is circular arrangement, linear
arrangement or family tree: always runs the checklist after youre done arranging
the items.
If you had made any mistake in the arrangement, youll find it out at step2.
IF you proceed directly to solving questions, it may happen that youll get all
answers incorrect. Because in aptitude tests, they design the 4 answers options
(a/b/c/d) in such a way that even if you got incorrect arrangement, youll find
answers matching to your arrangement!
So here is our final table
Generation
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged B
3 Youngest F
And here is our checklist from the given question data

Checklist
Pass/Fail
There are two married couples
Pass
D is grandmother of A and mother of B Pass

C is the wife of B and mother of F
Pass
F is the granddaughter of E.
#EPICFAIL
Red light. STOP. Checklist item #4 is giving Fail

Haha see? I had made a stupid mistake in the table (intentionally).
F is granddaughter of E but I had mistakenly put F in the Male column.
In the actual exam, under the stress, many people make such silly-mistakes.
They calculate the sum correctly in their head but on the paper, their hand writes
a different thing altogether.
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Ofcourse in the actual exam, there is time-limit, so you cant do cross

verification/checklist in each and every aptitude question.
But in the arrangement questions- each dataset comes with 4-5 questions. So,
even one silly-mistake will cost you four times the negative marks. Therefore its
always a good idea to run checklist on arrangement questions.
Our final correct table looks like this
Generation
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged B
3 Youngest
If you want to construct a family tree, itll look like following
Greenlight. Proceed further. Time for some Questions.
Questions based on the Family-Data

Q1.Who among the following is one of the couples?
CD
DE
EB
Cannot be determined
None of these
well look at the table
Generation
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged B
3 Youngest
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There are two couples : ED and BC

Final answer: (b) DE is one of the couple.
Q2. Which of the following is definitely false?

a) A is brother of F
b) A is sister of F
c) D has two grandsons
d) Cannot be determined
From the table
Generation
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged B
3 Youngest
We are not sure about As gender. A can be brother OR sister of F.

So option (a) and (b) are eliminated. We cannot definitely say which of them is false.
But checkout the third option (c), it says D has two grandsons
Now this is definitely false because we know for sure that granddaughter F is a
female. So Grandma D cannot have two grandsons in any case.
Final answer: (c)
Q3. How many female members are there in the family?

2
3
4
Cannot be determined
None of these.
Since we dont know the gender of A, we cannot determine the number of males and
females in this family.
Answer: Cannot be determined.
Anyways that was quite an easy dataset. Lets try something a bit complicated.
Dataset #2: UPSC CSP2000

There are 6 people in a family: A to F
Men and women are in equal number
A and E are sons of F
D is the mother of two: one boy and one girl
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B is the son of A
There is one married couple in the family at present.
Step #1: Gender and Generation table

Given: Men and women are in equal number
Obviosuly, this means the family has 3 men and 3 women. How else do you distribute 6
into equal numbers otherwise!
Given: A and E are sons of F
It tells us three things
A and E are males
F is one generation higher than A,E. It means F is definitely not in the 3rd
(youngest) Generation.
But no exact idea about gender or generation of F.
Generation
Male
Female Not sure(M/F)
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged
3 Youngest
0 (Not Sure) A,E (2/3)
F(1/2)
^Notice this time Ive also made an extra row 0(Not sure) to accommodate A and E.
The (2/3) suggests that A and E can be either 2nd or third generation.
Given: D is the mother of two: one boy and one girl
It tells us two things
D is female
D is not the youngest (3rd)generation, because she has kids. Thus She falls either
in 1st or in 2nd generation.
Update the table
Generation
Male
Female Not sure(M/F)
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged
3 Youngest
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0 (Not Sure) A,E (2/3) D(1/2)
F(1/2)
Given: B is the son of A

Tells us many things
B is male. Because opening statement of the dataset said equal number of men
and women and Since A,E and B are sons (males) therefore C,D and F are
females. C is a female but we dont know her generation: 1/2/3.
We already know that A+E are sons of F. Therefore A cannot be in 1st
generation. (warnaa uski Maa F kidhar jaayegi?)
It means A is definitely 2nd generation male. Because A cannot be 3rd generation
(warnaa uskaa Betaa B kidhar jayegaa?)
And Since A is second generation, his brother F is also second generation.
Since A+F are in second generation, their mother F has to be first generation.
Update the table with this information
Generation
Male Female
1 Oldest
2 Mid aged
A,E
3 Youngest
0 (Not Sure)
Not sure(M/F)
D(1/2)
C(1/2/3)
Atleast now we know who is male and who is female. But there is one problem: We
dont know exact generations of female C and D.
Given: D is the mother of two: one boy and one girl
Assume that mom D is first generation. But we already know the there are only three
males in this family.
A+E= second generation but sons of F
B is son of daddy A
So we cant put D is first generation (otherwise 2nd generation mein Tisraa Betaa
Kidhar Se Laaoge?)
It means D is definitely second generation female. And corollary to that, C is third
generation female and daughter of mommy D. This satisfies the condition
D is the mother of two: one boy(B)and one girl(C)
Update the table
Generation
1 Oldest
Dead F
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2 Mid aged
A,E
3 Youngest
0 (Not Sure)
Only one problem remains: Who is the husband of D: is it A or is it E?
Given: There is one married couple in the family at present.
Given: B is the Son of A.
From previous steps we already Concluded that: D is mother of B+C
From these three sentences we can derive that B is the son of A+D , therefore A+D are
husband and wife.
And As brother E is middle-aged unmarried clown just like Patrakaar Popatlaal
because of his arrogant and obnoxious attitude, no woman is interested in marrying with
him.
anyways, Im drawing this family tree from Grandson Bs point of view.
Step-2: Run the checklist

Checklist
Pass/Fail?
Men and women are in equal number
Pass: 3+3
A and E are sons of F
Pass
D is the mother of two: one boy and one girl Pass

B is the son of A
Pass
Green light. Go on, solve the questions.
Step-3: Solve the Question

Which of the following inference can be derived from the given dataset?
i) A,B and C are females
ii) A is the husband of D
iii) D is the grandmother of F
iv) E and F are children of D
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From the family tree diagram, we can see that option (ii) is correct: A is indeed the
husband of D.
Do eliminate wrong options

In some arrangement questions Two cases / two tables/Two family trees
may be possible.
So even after passing the checklist, you may still get incorrect answer; because
while doing the arrangement you might have missed some minor detail so you
concentrated only on one possible case. You cannot rectify this mistake with
checklist alone, because checklist will pass for each of Two possible cases. (For
example recall the circular arrangement/round table sitting case in previous article.)
Therefore, when youre checking the 4 answer options, even if you get correct
match in second option(ii), dont stop just yet, you should still check whether the
remaining answer option 1, 3 and 4 are incorrect or not.
Answer statements
True /
False
Why?
A,B and C are

females
False
Dataset itself said A+E are sons of F. So A

cant be a female.
A is the husband of D
True
Table says so.
D is the grandmother
of F
False
Table says F is saas and D is her bahu.
False
A+E are the sons of F, it is given in the question

itself!
So E and F cannot be children of D!
E and F are children

of D
Final answer: A is the husband of D.
Keep a Watch on the Watch

As I had said earlier,
Out of their lack of interest, inferiority complex, many aspirants dont practice enough
aptitude sums at home.
So in the actual exam, they get stuck in 7/10 math questions = stress.
While under stress, they come across the logical-arrangement questions. They start
thinking like a defeated gambler:
I can definitely solve this arrangement; beside i couldnot tick previous 7 questions
so I must solve this anyhow, no matter how much time it takes!
Problem: They end up wasting good 15-20 minutes in one dataset only. Sometimes
even after investing 20 minutes in one arrangement, they may not get the final answer
because they did not practice enough sums at home. Thats why
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Practice maximum questions at Home.

In the examhall, always keep a watch on your wristwatch. Learn to give up the
fight before its too late and invest that time in the remaining questions in other
sections.
And most importantly: Dont hate the Aptitude/Maths.
Competition is tough everywhere: whether youre an aspirant of
CSAT/CMAT/IBPS or CAT, so if you dont work hard, someone else will, and
then hell get the job/admission.
So dont hate the aptitude, hate your own laziness and fix it before its too late.
With constant practice, anyone from arts, commerce and science can master
aptitude.
URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/04/aptitude-family-trees-blood-relations.html

Posted By Mrunal On 30/04/2012 @ 17:54 In the category Aptitude
7/28/2014 6:50 PM

Mrunal (Aptitude) Family Trees & Blood Relations - Logical Arrangement Made Easy Mrunal

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Step 1: Gender and Generation table

Step 1: Gender and Generation table