Alphabet Test and Letter Series: Position Tricks for Reasoning

Alphabet-test and letter-series questions are among the quickest marks in the reasoning section, but only if you know letter positions without counting on your fingers. This guide gives you the three tricks that solve almost every question.

Trick 1: Learn positions with EJOTY

Remember the word EJOTY. Its letters fall at every fifth position:

E	J	O	T	Y
5	10	15	20	25

Any letter is at most two steps from one of these anchors. For example, R is two before T, so R = 18. M is two before O, so M = 13.

Practise for a few days until you can say any letter’s number instantly. After that, every question in this chapter becomes arithmetic.

Trick 2: The number 27

Position from the right = 27 − position from the left.

• The 10th letter from the right is the (27 − 10) = 17th from the left: Q.
• If the alphabet is written in reverse, the 8th letter from the left is 27 − 8 = 19: S.

The same rule gives opposite letters: two letters are opposites when their positions add up to 27.

A–Z	B–Y	C–X	D–W	E–V	F–U	G–T	H–S	I–R	J–Q	K–P	L–O	M–N

Memory aids: GT (like “Grand Trunk” road), HS (High School), LO (“Lo!”).

Trick 3: Turn letter series into number series

Write each letter’s position number above it, then solve it as a number series.

Example: A, C, F, J, O, ? Positions: 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 → differences +2, +3, +4, +5 → next is 15 + 6 = 21 = U.

Example: Z, X, U, Q, L, ? Positions: 26, 24, 21, 17, 12 → differences −2, −3, −4, −5 → next is 12 − 6 = 6 = F.

For pairs or groups (KM, NP, QS, ?), treat each letter position as its own series: K→N→Q→T and M→P→S→V.

If a number goes past 26, subtract 26 to wrap around (so 28 becomes B).

“Left” and “right” questions

“The 7th letter to the right of the 12th letter from the left” means 12 + 7 = 19 = S. “To the left” means subtract. Only use the 27 rule when a position is counted from the right end of the alphabet.

To count the letters between two letters, subtract the positions and take away 1: between G (7) and P (16) there are 16 − 7 − 1 = 8 letters.

Dictionary order

Compare words letter by letter from the left, and stop at the first letter that differs.

Ballot, Balance, Ballet, Bald: all four start with “Bal”, so compare the 4th letters: Balance, Bald, Ballet, Ballot. Since a comes before d, and d before l, Balance comes first, then Bald. The two “Ball-” words are decided by their 5th letters, and e comes before o, so the order is Balance, Bald, Ballet, Ballot.

Common mistakes

• Counting the starting letter when finding “7th to the right”. Just add the numbers.
• Forgetting that “between” excludes both end letters.
• Mixing up left and right when the alphabet is reversed. Write the positions down before you start.

Practise all these question types in our alphabet test and letter series set.