Alphabet Test / Word Formation
About 6 min · Reasoning Ability · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 432 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
These are quick-solving questions designed to test your familiarity with the English alphabet's positional values and your ability to manipulate letters under given conditions.
Key ideas
- Alphabet Position Values: A=1, B=2, C=3... M=13, N=14... Z=26. The midpoint falls between M(13) and N(14). Memorize these anchor points: E=5, J=10, O=15, T=20, Y=25.
- Opposite Letters: Letters equidistant from both ends sum to 27. Opposite of any letter = 27 minus its position. Example: D(4) ↔ W(23), since 4+23=27.
- Left-Right Counting: "nth letter to the left of X" means count n positions backward from X. "nth letter to the right of X" means count n positions forward.
- Letter Counting Between Positions: Letters between positions P1 and P2 = |P2 - P1| - 1. Example: Between D(4) and H(8) = 8-4-1 = 3 letters (E, F, G).
- Word Formation Logic: When asked to form a meaningful word from selected letters, first list all given letters, then mentally rearrange to identify common English words.
Watch out for
- Confusing "between" and "from-to" → "Letters between D and H" excludes both D and H. Students often count D or H, getting 4 or 5 instead of 3. Always use formula: larger - smaller - 1.
- Left-right direction reversal → "3rd to the left of K" means going backward (K→J→I→H), not forward. Visualize physically moving left on a written alphabet line.
- Position from right miscalculation → For a word with n letters, position from right = n - position from left + 1. Students often subtract without adding 1.
Quick reference
- EJOTY: E=5, J=10, O=15, T=20, Y=25 — your anchor positions
- Opposite letter = 27 minus position (D↔W, G↔T, M↔N)
- Letters between = bigger position - smaller position - 1
- Position from right in n-letter word = n - left position + 1
- Always re-read whether question asks "from left" or "from right"
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. If it is possible to make a meaningful word with the first, fourth, seventh and ninth letters of the word 'STREAMING', which of the following will be the second letter of that word from the left end? If more than one such word can be formed, give 'Y' as the answer. If no such word can be formed, give 'Z' as the answer.
2. How many pairs of letters are there in the word 'CREATIVE' which have as many letters between them in the word (both forward and backward direction) as they have in the English alphabetical series?
3. If all the letters in the word 'POSTER' are arranged alphabetically from left to right, which letter will be third from the left?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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