Direction sense and ranking questions check whether you can keep track of movement and position in your head. A person walks, turns and walks again, or stands in a row and is counted from both ends. Draw a quick sketch and use two simple formulas, and almost every question in this topic of the Lok Sewa mental ability section can be solved in under a minute.
1. The eight directions
- The four main directions are North, East, South and West.
- The four in-between directions are North-East, South-East, South-West and North-West.
- Opposite pairs: North and South, East and West, North-East and South-West, North-West and South-East.
- On a map, North is at the top, so East is on the right and West on the left.
2. Turning left and right
A right turn is a 90° clockwise turn and a left turn is a 90° anticlockwise turn. The table shows where you face after one turn.
| Facing | After a right turn | After a left turn | After turning back (180°) |
|---|---|---|---|
| North | East | West | South |
| East | South | North | West |
| South | West | East | North |
| West | North | South | East |
| North-East | South-East | North-West | South-West |
Tip: hold the facing direction in mind and imagine your right hand. When you face South, your right hand points West, so a right turn takes you West.
3. Distance from the starting point
Draw the path on rough paper. Movements in opposite directions cancel. If the final position is both north-south and east-west of the start, use the Pythagoras rule: distance = √(a² + b²).
- Walk 3 km North and then 4 km East. The final point is 3 km north and 4 km east of the start, so the distance is √(9 + 16) = √25 = 5 km, in the North-East direction.
- Walk 5 km North, turn right and walk 3 km, turn right and walk 5 km. You went North 5, East 3, then South 5. North and South cancel, so you are 3 km East of the start.
- Walk 10 m South, turn left and walk 10 m, turn left again and walk 10 m. Facing South, a left turn is East; facing East, a left turn is North. North and South cancel, so you are 10 m East of the start.
4. Shadow questions
The sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and a shadow always falls on the side away from the sun.
- Morning: sun in the East, shadow points West.
- Evening: sun in the West, shadow points East.
- Around noon in Nepal: the sun is towards the South, so a shadow points roughly North and is short.
Example: In the morning a man’s shadow falls to his right. The shadow points West, so his right side is West. A person whose right hand points West is facing South.
5. Ranking and position in a row
When a person is counted from both ends of a row or a list, that person is counted twice. That is why we subtract 1.
| To find | Formula |
|---|---|
| Total people | position from left + position from right − 1 |
| Total students in a class | rank from top + rank from bottom − 1 |
| Position from the other end | total − known position + 1 |
| People between A and B (both counted from the left) | larger position − smaller position − 1 |
- Sita is 7th from the left and 12th from the right. Total = 7 + 12 − 1 = 18.
- In a class of 40, Hari is 15th from the top. From the bottom he is 40 − 15 + 1 = 26th.
- In a row of 30, A is 10th from the left and B is 15th from the right. B is 30 − 15 + 1 = 16th from the left, so the number of people between them is 16 − 10 − 1 = 5.
- In a queue, Gita is 5th from the front and Rita is 4 places behind her, so Rita is 9th from the front.
6. Interchange questions
When two people swap places, each takes the other’s position. Example: A is 8th from the left and B is 12th from the right. After they swap, A is 15th from the left. A is now in B’s old place, so B’s place is 15th from the left and 12th from the right. Total = 15 + 12 − 1 = 26.
7. Common traps
- Read “turns right” from the direction the person is facing, not from the page.
- Do not forget to subtract 1 in ranking formulas.
- In shadow questions, first decide morning or evening.
- “How far” asks for straight-line distance, not the total distance walked.
📌 Key points to remember
- Right turn = 90° clockwise; left turn = 90° anticlockwise.
- Movements in opposite directions cancel.
- Distance = √(a² + b²) when the end point is off both lines.
- Morning shadows point West; evening shadows point East.
- Total = position from left + position from right − 1.
- Position from the other end = total − position + 1.
- Between A and B = difference of positions − 1.
Test yourself: Direction Sense and Ranking
50 questions check what you read about The eight directions, Shadow questions and Common traps. Each attempt picks 25 at random.