Overview: Alphabet Test | General Intelligence and Reasoning for SSC CGL PDF Download

What is the Alphabet Test?

• In general, arranging the known alphabet letters which are given in jumbled letters or in word form sequence, are known as Alphabetic Arrangement.
• When the arrangement of letters or words encompasses two or more distinct patterns involving letters, numbers, and symbols, occurring with equal frequency and collectively forming a general pattern, they are referred to as patterns of words or letters in a broad sense.
• In Alphabet Test questions, the focus lies in determining the position of an English letter concerning another English letter in the alphabetical order, either to the left or right. These questions may also involve finding the count of English letters between two different letters.

Types of Alphabet Test

As now we know what consists of an Alphabet Test reasoning section. Let us see the various types of Alphabet Test one by one from below. 

Number Series (Group Based)

The first type in the Number Series in which a group of numbers will be given and based on that multiple operations need to be performed on them such as Addition, Multiplication, Interchanging of digits and so on. 

Given Series: 567 289 376 189 852

Example: If 1 is added to the 2nd digit of each number and then the position of the first and last digits are interchanged, which of the following will be the highest number? 
Sol: Given Series: 567 289 376 189 852
By adding 1 with  the 2nd digit we get: 577 299 386 199 862
Now if we interchange the first and last digits then we get: 775 992 683 991 268
Therefore, 992 is the highest number which came from 289

Alphabet Series (Group Based)

In this an alphabet series will be given and based on that multiple operations need to be performed on them such as arrange in dictionary or reverse dictionary order, interchanging of alphabets and so on. 
Given Series: DEW BIG RAW FAN DOG 

Example: If the position of the first and last alphabets of each word are interchanged and arranged in dictionary order then, which word comes last? 
Sol: Given words are DEW BIG RAW FAN DOG 
On interchanging the first and last alphabet we get the series as 
WED GIB WAR NAF GOD 
Now if we arrange the series in dictionary order then we get the series like this 
GIB GOD NAF WAR WED 

Mixed Series 

Mixed Series involves the arrangement of numbers, letters and symbols in a certain way. Various types of Mixed Series are given below. 

(a) Simple Series 

Questions from Simple Series will involve questions based on positions only. No types of operations will need to be performed in these types of questions. 

Given Series: A B 6 P 7 2 Z @ X ? V T W # & N S L %

Example: What element in 6th to the left of the 12th element from the left end?
Sol: If we carefully observe the given series then the 12th position from the left end is T.  (A B 6 P 7 2 Z @ X ? V T W # & N S L %)
Whereas, the 6th position to the left of the 12th element is 2. (A B 6 P 7 2 Z @ X ? V T W # & N S L %)
Therefore, the answer will be 2 is the 6th to the left of the 12th element from the left end. 

(b) Operation Based Series 

In this type of mixed series candidates need to apply a few operations asked in the question to get the desired result. Examples regarding this type of mixed series are given later in this article. 

Creating New Words

In this type of Alphabet Test reasoning section candidates will be given a few letters from which they need to find if the given letters are making a meaningful word or not. If meaningful words are present or can be formed using the given letters then questions such as how many meaningful words can be formed at any position can also be asked. 

Example: How many meaningful English words can be formed with the help of letter T, A, E such that no letter is missed, and no letter is repeated. 
Sol: T A E, we can clearly see that various words can be formed by using these 3 letters such as TEA, EAT and ATE. So the answer is 3 meaningful words can be formed.  

Position of Letters and Numbers in a Word 

In this type of questions, candidates need to find the pairs of letters or digits which may have as many letters or digits between them as in words or numbers between them in the English Alphabetical Series and Number Sequence explained above.

Example: How many such letters are there in the word “INTERNET’” after arranging the letters of the word in alphabetical order each of which has as many letters between them in the word, as they have between them in English Alphabetical series? (forward direction)
Sol: The word “INTERNET” can be represented as follows.

As we can see, 2 such pairs are there such as NT and IN.

Solve Alphabet Test Reasoning Questions

Candidates can find various tips and alphabet test reasoning tricks from below for solving the questions related to the Alphabet Test reasoning section. 

• Tip # 1: For questions such as the example of the Number Series type alphabet test reasoning highest number after interchanging the first and last digits were asked. To solve these types of questions candidates don’t need to add 1 to the 2nd digit of every number, instead they should check the last digit of each number only. 
•  Tip # 2: For questions where the lowest number after arranging the digits in increasing order is asked, candidates should check which number has the lowest digit. 
• Tip # 3: For the questions where the number of words are starting with vowels after replacing vowels of each word by its next letter and consonant by its previous letter is asked. Candidates must replace only the first letter of the word which is starting with a consonant. 
• Tip # 4: Left – Left means from the left end, Right + Left means from left end, and Right – Right means from the right.

Points to Remember

• “A” Preceded by “B”  means B A 
• “A” Followed by “B” means A B 
• “A” Precedes “B” means A B
• “A” Follows “B” means B A
• The Vowels are A, E, I, O, U
• The Consonants are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z
• A number which is divisible by any number except 1,  are known as Prime Numbers. 
• Examples of Prime Numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, etc. 
• A number which is divisible by 2, is known as Even Numbers. 
• Examples of Even Numbers are 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 ,16, 18, 20, 22, etc. 
• A number which is not divisible by 2, is known as Odd Numbers. 
• Examples of Odd Numbers are 1,3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, etc.