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Alphabet Test

Reasoning · Verbal Reasoning

8 Part2 worked examples14 practice questions

The 26 letters of the English alphabet stand in a fixed order — A is first, Z is twenty-sixth. In the Alphabet Test this order is your tool: which letter comes where, how many letters lie between two letters, which word comes first in a dictionary, and what happens when the letters of a word are rearranged.

If you have ever looked up a word in a dictionary, you already know part of this chapter. The rest is only counting, attention and thinking one step at a time. We start from zero and see solved examples of every kind of question.

PartWhat you will learn
Foundationplaces, vowels, halves, counting between two letters
Dictionary orderarranging words by comparing letter after letter
Letter-number-symbol arrangementscounting in a row and “before–after” conditions
Letters inside wordspairs, letters that keep their place, counting after a change
Rule detectionchoosing the series that meets a given rule

How to use this chapter

  1. Read — each part first explains the idea, then shows how to solve the question.
  2. Study the solved example — in the boxes marked “Example” the full solution is open, step by step.
  3. Try it yourself — in the “Try it yourself first” questions the solution is hidden. Solve on paper first, then choose; take the hint if stuck.
  4. Know the level — every question is marked Basic, Standard or Advanced.
NoteThe questions you have solved are remembered in this browser. Look at the panel on the right (the “Contents” button on a phone) to see how many you have got right.
1

Foundation — the alphabet toolkit

Places, vowels, halves, directions and counting

The knowledge of the alphabet on which the whole chapter stands, and the method of counting between two letters.

Five facts about the alphabet

Places, vowels, halves, left and right, opposite pairs

The place of every letter, the five vowels, the two halves, what “left” and “right” mean and the opposite letters.

1. The place of every letter

Count the letters from A to Z as 1 to 26. The upper row is the place counted from A; the lower one is counted from Z. The two always add up to 27.

LetterABCDEFGHIJKLM
From A12345678910111213
From Z26252423222120191817161514
LetterNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
From A14151617181920212223242526
From Z13121110987654321
TrickInstead of memorising the whole table, remember five landmarks: E = 5, J = 10, O = 15, T = 20, Y = 25. Every other letter is a step or two from one of them (for instance R = T − 2 = 18).

2. Vowels and consonants

English has only five vowels: A, E, I, O, U. Their places are 1, 5, 9, 15, 21. The other 21 letters are consonants. When the exam says “vowel”, count only these five (not Y).

3. The two halves

The 13th letter is M and the 14th is N — that is the exact middle. A to M is the first half, N to Z the second. M and N are opposite to each other (13 + 14 = 27).

4. Left and right

Always think of the alphabet written from left to right as A → Z. So the “left end” is the A end and the “right end” is the Z end. “To the right of a letter” means moving towards Z and “to the left” means moving back towards A.

5. Opposite letters

Fold the alphabet in the middle and Z falls on A, Y on B. These pairs add up to 27:

ABCDEFGHIJKLM
ZYXWVUTSRQPON
RememberGroups to remember: AZ BY CX · DW EV FU · GT HS IR · JQ KP LO · MN.

Counting letters — places, letters between, the middle

Three formulas that solve half the questions

The place from the right, the number of letters between two letters, the exact middle letter, a few steps before or after a letter.

All counting questions on letters rest on three ideas. Every time first turn the letters into their places (numbers), then do plain addition and subtraction, and finally turn the number back into a letter.

QuestionFormulaExample
The n-th letter from the right (Z) endthe (27 − n)-th from the left4th from the right: 27 − 4 = 23 → W
Letters between two lettersgap of the places − 1E (5) and L (12): 12 − 5 − 1 = 6
The exact middle of two letters(place 1 + place 2) ÷ 2D (4) and J (10): 14 ÷ 2 = 7 → G
k steps after / before Xplace of X ± k4 after G (7): 11 → K
CarefulWhen counting letters “between”, the two end letters are not counted — that is why 1 is subtracted. “From E to L” holds 8 letters, but “between E and L” there are only 6 (F, G, H, I, J, K).
Example 1 · Basic
How many letters lie between O and X in the English alphabet?
Solution, step by step
  1. 1Places: O = 15, X = 24.
  2. 2Gap = 9; letters between = gap − 1 (the two ends are not counted).
  3. 3Answer 8.
Answer 8
Take the gap and subtract 1 — that is the whole formula.
Example 2 · Basic
Which is the 6th letter from the right end (the Z end) of the English alphabet?
Solution, step by step
  1. 16th from the right is (27 − 6) = 21th from the left.
  2. 2The 21th letter is U.
Answer U
Place from the right = 27 − place from the left, so you never have to count backwards.
BasicTry it yourself first
How many letters lie between N and J in the English alphabet?
BasicTry it yourself first
Which is the 22nd letter from the right end (the Z end) of the English alphabet?
BasicTry it yourself first
Which letter is 6 places after J (towards Z)?
BasicTry it yourself first
Which letter is 9 places before S (towards A)?
StandardTry it yourself first
Which letter lies exactly midway between K and S in the alphabet?
StandardTry it yourself first
How many letters lie between A and M in the English alphabet?
StandardTry it yourself first
Which letter is 7 places after F (towards Z)?
StandardTry it yourself first
Which letter is 8 places before T (towards A)?
StandardTry it yourself first
How many vowels lie between B and O in the alphabet?
StandardTry it yourself first
Which is the 19th letter from the right end (the Z end) of the English alphabet?
AdvancedTry it yourself first
Which letter is the 5th to the left of the 8th letter from the right end (Z) of the alphabet?
AdvancedTry it yourself first
Which letter is the 6th to the left of the 12th letter from the right end (Z) of the alphabet?
AdvancedTry it yourself first
Which letter lies exactly midway between D and P in the alphabet?
AdvancedTry it yourself first
How many vowels lie between I and Q in the alphabet?
2

Dictionary order

Arranging words by comparing letter after letter

The rule by which words stand in a dictionary, and using it to find the place of a word, the middle word or the correct sequence.

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The dictionary rule

The first different letter decides

The rule for comparing words, the “short word first” point and the common mistakes.

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Place, middle word and next word

Arrange, then read

Arranging words in dictionary order and then choosing the first, middle, last, k-th or following word.

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The right sequence of numbered words

Arrange the words → read off their numbers

When the words carry numbers (1), (2), (3) …, arranging them in dictionary order and choosing the correct sequence of numbers.

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3

Arrangements of letters, numbers and symbols

Many questions on one row

Counting “before–after” conditions in a row of letters, digits and symbols, finding the k-th term, dropping some terms and spotting similar positions.

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How to read the row

Terms, places, “before” and “after”

Numbering the terms, “immediately before / after”, what “left / right” mean and finding the place from the right.

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Counting with “just before … and just after …”

How many symbols / letters / numbers are such that …

Counting by testing three conditions together on one term — its own kind, the kind just before it and the kind just after it.

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Finding the k-th term and dropping terms

Where to start counting, and what is left after dropping

Finding the k-th term to the left or right of a term, and finding a place in the new row after dropping all symbols / numbers / vowels.

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The odd group by position

Four of five groups take similar places in the row

When four of five groups are alike “based on their positions in the row”, spotting the rule that separates one group.

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4

Letters inside words

Pairs, letters that keep their place, counting after a change

Matching the places of the letters of a word with their places in the alphabet and counting: pairs, equal places, letters that keep their place after sorting and neighbouring consecutive pairs.

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Pairs — as many in between as in the alphabet

The same gap in the word and in the alphabet

The full method for “how many pairs have as many letters between them in the word as in the alphabet”.

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Equal places, unchanged positions and consecutive pairs

Three counting questions

Letters whose place in the word = place in the alphabet, letters that keep their place when sorted, and neighbouring pairs that are also neighbours in the alphabet.

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Counting after a change, and the k-th letter after sorting

First change every letter, then count

Applying a rule to every vowel / consonant to make a new word and counting its vowels; and naming the k-th letter after sorting.

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5

Rule detection

The given rule and the series that meets it

The rule is stated in the question and you must pick the series of letters that meets it exactly.

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“k letters skipped in between”

Skipped letters and the gap of places

The link between skipped letters and the gap, forward and backward series, and the common slip.

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Other rules — opposite ends and alternating gaps

Sum 27 and +a, +b in turn

Testing the rules “first and last letters are opposite” and “gaps change in turn”.

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6

Strategy guide

The first step for each kind and the slips to avoid

What to do first in each of the five kinds, the common traps and time-savers.

The first step for each kind

What to write on seeing the question

The sign by which each of the five kinds is recognised and its first step.

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Common traps and time-savers

The mistakes that keep happening

The commonest reasons for losing marks and how to avoid them.

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7

Mixed practice

All kinds mixed — first spot the kind, then solve

Alphabet counting, dictionary, rows, letters of words and rule detection together, in three levels.

Basic practice

One step, one count

Direct counting, the first / last word of the dictionary, simple row counting and simple word questions.

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Standard practice

Two or three steps and combined conditions

Middle letters, k-th dictionary words, counts with three conditions, changes on words and alternating gaps.

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Advanced practice

Long rows, tricky conditions, five words

Mixed right–left counting, near-neighbour dictionary words, words with many pairs and hard rules.

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8

Revision — cards

Flip each card and test yourself

Think of the answer yourself first, then flip.

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