Blood relation questions came five times each in ASO 2018 and 2021. They come as chains of statements, "pointing to a photo" sentences, family puzzles and coded symbols. One habit solves all of them: draw a small family tree as you read.
How to draw the tree
- Write males as a square or with (+), and females as a circle or with (−).
- Put one generation on each level: grandparents on top, then parents, then children.
- Join husband and wife with a horizontal double line (=), brothers and sisters with a single line, and parent to child with a vertical line.
Relations to know
| Relation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Paternal uncle / aunt | Father's brother / sister (or their spouse) |
| Maternal uncle / aunt | Mother's brother / sister (or their spouse) |
| Nephew / Niece | Son / daughter of your brother or sister |
| Cousin | Child of your uncle or aunt |
| Father-in-law / Mother-in-law | Father / mother of your husband or wife |
| Son-in-law / Daughter-in-law | Husband of your daughter / wife of your son |
| Brother-in-law / Sister-in-law | Brother / sister of your spouse, or spouse of your sister / brother |
"Pointing" questions: break the sentence from the end
Example: "She is the daughter of my wife's grandmother's only child." Work it out step by step: wife's grandmother's only child = wife's parent. That parent's daughter = the wife or the wife's sister. She is not the wife, so she is the sister-in-law (ASO 2021).
- "Only son of my father" = me (if I am male) or my brother.
- "Only daughter of my mother" = me (if I am female) or my sister.
Gender traps
- "P is the brother of Q" tells you P is male. It says nothing about Q. So "Q is T's son" cannot be definitely true (ASO 2018).
- When a person could be "me or my sibling", choose the option that allows both: "Niece or Daughter" (ASO 2021).
Coded relations
When symbols like +, −, × stand for relations, read the expression left to right, one link at a time, and draw each link on the tree.