Start here · the first lesson of Statement-based relation
Statement-based relation
Blood Relations · for IPMAT Indore, IPMAT Rohtak and JIPMAT
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The idea
A string of one-line facts ("Sheela is the wife of Arun. Deepak is the brother of Sheela …") describes one family; the question asks how two of its members are related, how many males or sons there are, which statements are true, or whether the data are enough. Rohtak and JIPMAT set one or two of these every year (JIPMAT 2021–2026, Rohtak 2019–2020).
Textbook vs exam method
Textbook method
Write every fact as an edge of a family tree: parent → child (vertical), spouses (=), siblings (horizontal). Mark each person's sex as soon as a word fixes it. Then walk the tree from the second person to the first and name the path: parent's sibling = uncle/aunt, sibling's child = nephew/niece, spouse's parent = parent-in-law, parent's sibling's child = cousin.
Exam method
- One generation per row. Place the question's two people first; add only the facts that connect them.
- Two conventions do most of the work. A child's parents are a couple ("Q is the mother of R" + "P is the father of R": P and Q are married), and siblings share both parents.
- Sex last. Name the relation, then check the sex of the person being described: if the clues never fix it, look for "cannot be determined".
- Counting items. (sons, males, couples): list every person once with a sex mark, then count; for "each daughter has as many brothers as sisters" write the two equations b = g − 1 and g = 2(b − 1).
- Sufficiency items. test each statement alone on a fresh tree; a statement that never links the two people is not sufficient.