The letters given below, when are arranged, form an appropriate (Meaningful) word: A V S E B O R I N T O What is the position of letter A in the word formed from the left?
- (a)5
- (b)7
- (c)8
- (d)9
Answer
B
Why
Correct — B.
Rule: find the word first, then count from the left.
The eleven letters A V S E B O R I N T O spell OBSERVATION.
O(1) B(2) S(3) E(4) R(5) V(6) A(7)
A is 7th from the left → option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)5 — 5 is A's place counted from the right: N, O, I, T, A. The question asks from the left, where A is 7th.
- (c)8 — 8 is the place of T, the letter just after A in OBSERVATION. Counting O, B, S, E, R, V, A puts A at 7.
- (d)9 — 9 is the place of I in OBSERVATION (A, T, I). A comes two letters earlier, at 7.
Concept
A jumbled-letter item has two stages: spot the word, then count. Spot it by anchoring on a common ending. Here -ATION uses A, T, I, O and N, and the leftover O, B, S, E, R, V gives the stem of OBSERVE.
Then number every letter before reading off the answer. The stem says from the left; counted from the right, A is 5th, which is also among the options.
Key facts
- A V S E B O R I N T O rearranges to OBSERVATION: 11 letters, with two O's.
- In OBSERVATION, A is 7th from the left and 5th from the right.
- Position from the left + position from the right = letters in the word + 1 (7 + 5 = 12).
Study next
Jumbled letters anchored on endings such as -ATION, -MENT and -NESSLetter positions from the left and from the rightNumber-coded letters that must spell a meaningful word
Common traps
- Counting from the right (5) when the question says from the left.
- Losing count on a long word instead of numbering every letter first.
The same eleven letters are set at 24 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.17, which asks for the position of R from the left: 5th in OBSERVATION.
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