Alphabetizing and alphabetic filing
You are given a short list of names and asked which one falls in a given place once they are filed. The names are chosen to agree for their first few letters and to separate afterwards, which is exactly why a confident glance produces a wrong answer.
- Task
- File a list of names, then name the one in a given position
- What makes it hard
- The names share a prefix
- Format
- Multiple choice
Compare the whole surname before anything else
Filing is letter by letter. Two names are ordered by the first letter at which they differ, and until you reach that letter nothing has been decided. The guide's own sample separates four surnames that all begin with D, and three of them share their first four letters.
A shorter surname comes before a longer one that begins with it, so a name that runs out first files first. Only when two surnames are identical does the given name decide anything.
Sort the whole list before you answer
The question asks for a position — first, second, third or fourth — and the position changes from item to item. Reading the ordinal off a half-sorted list is how the second and third places get swapped, and it happens to people who ordered the names correctly.
Put all four in order, then count to the position the question actually asked for. It takes a few seconds longer and removes the whole error class.