Blood Relations tests one skill: turning a tangle of words into a clear family tree. In the AFCAT Reasoning and Military Aptitude paper these are pure-logic, knowledge-free marks – if you draw the diagram correctly, the answer is almost automatic. This guide gives you a fixed symbol system, generation rules and speed tricks so you solve each puzzle in under 40 seconds.
Why Blood Relations is an easy scorer
Every AFCAT Reasoning and Military Aptitude paper carries roughly 2 to 4 blood-relation questions. They demand no general knowledge, no formulas and no vocabulary – everything you need is stated in the question. That makes them some of the safest marks on the paper, ideal for protecting your score against the negative marking that punishes guesswork elsewhere.
The whole topic rests on a single habit: never solve in your head. The moment you try to track ‘the son of the brother of the only daughter of the man’ mentally, you slip. Instead you translate each clue into a small symbol on a tree and read the answer off the picture. The candidate who draws fastest and cleanest, not the one who memorises the most, wins these marks.
Across years of papers the Air Force recycles a handful of formats – plain relation chains, coded relations, dialogue or pointing puzzles, and one-line ‘how is X related to Y’ questions. Once you have drilled the diagram method below, you will recognise almost every variant on sight.
A blood-relation question is solved on paper, not in the head. Spend three seconds drawing a tree and you save thirty seconds of confusion.
The vocabulary of relations you must know
Before drawing anything, fix the basic relationship words so a clue never trips you. Examiners deliberately phrase relations the long way to hide simple links.
- Paternal means father’s side; maternal means mother’s side. Your father’s father is your paternal grandfather; your mother’s brother is your maternal uncle.
- In-law relations come through marriage: father-in-law, sister-in-law, son-in-law.
- Sibling covers brother or sister without stating gender.
- Spouse means husband or wife; cousin is the child of an uncle or aunt.
Watch these tricky chains: ‘wife of my father’s only son’ is your own wife (if you are male) or your sister-in-law; the ‘only daughter of my mother’ is your sister or, if no sister, the speaker herself. Decode such phrases one word at a time, inner-most first.
Also learn the compact equivalents: father’s brother = uncle, mother’s sister = aunt, brother’s son = nephew, sister’s daughter = niece. Knowing these instantly lets you shorten a long clue into one tidy symbol on your tree.
A fixed symbol system for the family tree
The single biggest time-saver is a consistent notation you never change. Pick one set of symbols and use it in every question so your eye reads the tree automatically.
- Show gender with a sign next to each name: a plus (+) for male, a minus (−) for female. A ‘?’ marks an unknown gender.
- Show generation by vertical level. Grandparents on top, parents below, children below that, grandchildren at the bottom.
- Draw a single horizontal line between two people of the same generation who are siblings.
- Draw a double horizontal line (or =) between two people who are married (a couple).
- Draw a vertical or slanting line downward from a parent to a child.
Keep all members of one generation on the same horizontal level. If two names end up at the same height, they are either siblings, cousins or spouses – never parent and child. This visual rule catches most slips before they happen.
Practise the notation until it is muscle memory. In the exam you should be sketching, not deciding which symbol to use. A messy or inconsistent tree is the leading cause of wrong answers in this topic.
How to read clues into the tree
Translate each clue into the diagram one statement at a time, in the order given. Do not jump ahead.
- Start with the person the question finally asks about and place them clearly.
- Read each clue, identify the two people it links, and add a line of the correct type (sibling, marriage or parent-child).
- Mark gender with + or − the instant the clue reveals it – words like he, his, son, father, brother fix male; she, her, daughter, mother, sister fix female.
- Leave gender as ‘?’ when the clue is silent; never assume it.
Relationships are read from the inside out. For ‘the father of the wife of Ram’, first find the wife of Ram, then go to her father. Solving the inner bracket first stops the whole chain from collapsing.
When a clue gives a relation through marriage, place the couple with a double line first, then hang their children below. This keeps maternal and paternal sides clearly separated, which is exactly where examiners try to confuse you.
Coded blood relations using symbols
In coded puzzles, relationships are hidden behind arithmetic symbols such as +, −, × and ÷. For example, ‘A + B’ might mean ‘A is the father of B’, and ‘A − B’ might mean ‘A is the wife of B’. The symbols are arbitrary labels – never assume + means add.
Treating × or ÷ as real multiplication or division. Here they are just stand-ins for relations. Read the legend the question gives and forget school arithmetic.
Method: write the chain left to right, decoding each symbol into a relationship, then build the same tree as always. Expressions are usually read left to right unless the question says otherwise, and brackets are resolved first.
In ‘P + Q − R’ the relation between P and R is found by chaining: P relates to Q, and Q relates to R, so P is two steps from R. Build the small tree for P, Q and R, then read the P-to-R link straight off it.
Some versions instead use letter codes like ‘P is the brother of Q’ written as a single equation; the technique is identical. Decode, draw, read – in that order, every time.
Dialogue and pointing-to-photo puzzles
These are the famous ‘pointing to a photograph’ or ‘a man said to a woman’ questions. The trick is to anchor the speaker as the fixed point and trace outward from them.
- Put the speaker at the centre of your tree and mark their gender from the question (‘a man said’ = male speaker).
- Decode the statement inside out, placing each named person relative to the speaker.
- Finally read off how the target person in the photo relates to the speaker.
The phrase ‘the only son of my father’ almost always points back to the speaker himself (if male) or his brother. Spotting these self-references collapses a long sentence into one symbol instantly.
Take a classic: ‘Pointing to a photo, a man said, this woman is the daughter of the only son of my grandfather.’ The only son of his grandfather is his own father; the father’s daughter is the man’s sister. So the woman is his sister. Notice how anchoring the speaker turned a winding clue into one clean read.
Worked example: a relation chain
Let us solve a typical chain puzzle step by step using the diagram method.
A is the brother of B. C is the father of A. D is the sister of C. How is D related to B?
Answer: D is the aunt of B. Built the tree in about 25 seconds, then simply read the link.
Generation and gender quick rules
Two systematic checks prevent almost every error in this topic: counting generations and locking gender.
- Same generation: brother, sister, spouse, cousin, brother-in-law, sister-in-law.
- One generation up: father, mother, uncle, aunt, father-in-law, mother-in-law.
- One generation down: son, daughter, nephew, niece, son-in-law, daughter-in-law.
- Two generations up or down: grandfather, grandmother, grandson, granddaughter.
Before finalising any answer, count the generation gap on your tree. If the question expects a single relation word but your two people are two levels apart, the answer must contain ‘grand’. This one check catches most careless slips.
For gender, mark every name the instant a clue reveals it and never override it later. The most common disaster is silently assuming a name like ‘Kiran’ or ‘a doctor’ is male; leave gender as ‘?’ until the words prove it.
Speed shortcuts that save the clock
These habits turn a 60-second puzzle into a 30-second one.
- Inside-out decoding: always resolve the innermost phrase first, then work outward.
- Self-anchor: in dialogue puzzles, fix the speaker at the centre and trace everyone from them.
- Only-child clue: ‘only son/daughter of’ usually points back to the speaker or a sibling – collapse it instantly.
- Level check: keep each generation on its own horizontal line so ‘grand’ relations stand out at a glance.
- Symbol discipline: + for male, − for female, single line for siblings, double line for couples – never vary it.
Mark gender on a name the very first time it appears. Re-deriving gender mid-puzzle under exam stress is where most avoidable mistakes creep in.
Common mistakes and traps
Assuming gender from a name. ‘Kiran is the child of X’ tells you nothing about gender – mark it ‘?’ until a clue says he or she.
Confusing paternal and maternal sides. Keep the father’s family on one branch and the mother’s on another so an uncle is never placed on the wrong side.
Solving a long chain in the head instead of on paper. Even one skipped link breaks the whole relation. Draw every clue.
‘Brother-in-law’ and ‘sister-in-law’ come through marriage and stay on the same generation as you. Do not push them up or down a level.
Previous-year style question
Q. Pointing to a man, a woman said, ‘His mother is the only daughter of my mother.’ How is the woman related to the man?
Answer: Mother. The only daughter of the woman’s mother is the woman herself, so ‘his mother’ is the woman. Therefore the woman is the man’s mother.
Notice how anchoring the speaker and spotting that ‘the only daughter of my mother’ loops back to the speaker herself solved the puzzle in one step.
How to practise for full marks
Blood relations reward drill, not theory. The speed comes only from drawing trees repeatedly until the notation is automatic. Reading the rules is not enough; you must solve with pen in hand.
Have a fixed order of attack for every question. First identify who the question asks about and place them. Next decode each clue inside-out, adding the correct line and marking gender at once. Finally count the generation gap and read the relation. This disciplined sequence keeps every puzzle inside the one-minute budget.
- Solve 10 mixed puzzles daily – plain, coded and dialogue types – and time yourself for under 40 seconds each.
- Always draw the tree, even for ‘easy’ one-line questions, to build the reflex.
- Keep an error log noting whether a slip was gender, generation or a missed inside-out reading.
- Revisit AFCAT PYQs to internalise the recurring ‘only son/daughter’ self-reference traps.
- Never solve in your head – draw a family tree for every question.
- Use fixed symbols: + male, − female, single line siblings, double line couples.
- Decode relations inside-out and anchor the speaker in dialogue puzzles.
- In coded puzzles the +, −, ×, ÷ symbols are relations, not arithmetic.
- Count the generation gap before answering, and never assume gender from a name.
Frequently asked questions
How many blood-relation questions come in AFCAT?
Typically 2 to 4 questions per paper in the Reasoning and Military Aptitude section. As they need no outside knowledge, they are among the safest marks to target.
What is the fastest way to solve blood-relation puzzles?
Draw a family tree using fixed symbols (+ for male, − for female, single line for siblings, double line for couples). Decode each clue inside-out and read the answer off the diagram instead of tracking it in your head.
How do I handle coded blood-relation questions?
Treat the +, −, × and ÷ symbols as relationship labels, not arithmetic. Use the legend the question gives, decode the chain left to right, then build the same family tree as usual.
What does 'the only daughter of my mother' usually mean?
It usually refers to the speaker herself, provided the speaker is female and has no sister. Spotting such self-references collapses a long clue into one symbol and solves dialogue puzzles in a single step.
What is the most common mistake in blood relations?
Assuming gender from a name and mixing up paternal versus maternal sides. Mark gender only when a clue states it, keep each side on its own branch, and count generation gaps before finalising the answer.
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