Techniques for Answering Analogy Questions
The first step to working through analogy questions is recognizing relationships between words. Here are 12 relationships that are frequently demonstrated in SAT and PSAT questions. Learn them by reading these examples and then making up some examples of your own.
1. Synonyms unhappy : sad nervous : tense
2. Antonyms in : out covered: exposed
3. Degree proud : arrogant shy: agoraphobic
4. Main and Sub Categories fruit : apple utensil: fork
5. Sub and Main Categories Maple : tree rose : flower
6. Similar Categories potato : carrot Doberman : Collie
7. whole and part fork : tine piano : pedal
8. part and whole branch : tree icing : cake
9. Using categories doctor : tongue depressor
mathematician : slide rule
10. Product and substance clay : pottery words : poetry
11. Number or quantity ox : oxen crow : murder
12. Making categories floor : tiles roof : shingles
Here are some more relationships that are frequently used. These are some that feature model words of differing parts of speech.
13. WORD1: RELATED WORD WITH NEW PART OF SPEECH Example ---> strut : ostentatious "to strut" is a verb that means to walk in a manner that demonstrates that you might be ostentatious and "ostentatious" is an adjective that means in a showy or conceited manner often when the two model words are not of the same part of speech, this is the relationship that is being presented.
another example of this relationship ---> garbled : slur
14. CAUSE : EFFECT Example ---> wince : pain invest : profit
15. PERSON : DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC
Example --> comedian : entertain
pilgrim : piety
16. SOMETHINGOLOGY :WHAT IS STUDIED
psychology : personality entomology : insects
17: QUALITY : UNIT FOR MEASUREMENT OF THAT QUALITY
weight : pound speedomoter : speed
Once you become familiar with the relationships between words, learn to work analogy questions. Here's how you do it.
HINT ONE: Determine the relationship of the model words and construct a sentence which expresses it. Keep in mind that the model words HAVE TO HAVE a clear and apparent relationship and that relationship is one by definition. I suggest you use the words "the word on the left" and "the word on the right" to create a sentence. For example,
AMORPHOUS : FORM
The word on the left means lacking the word on the right.
Now, some of you are probably thinking..." Well, that's just great if I knew what amorphous meant"! It's true that making a sentence is difficult if the words are unfamiliar to you. But here's an example of how you might have been able to work through that example without knowing what amorphous meant.
Have you ever heard of the word amoral or apathy? "Amoral" means lacking morality. The prefix a- often means "without" or lacking." So, you could have guessed that amorphous meant lacking something. You could have looked at the "ous" suffix and determined that this was an adjective. Then, putting all of that together. You could rightfully assume that the word on a left is an adjective that means lacking something. And since the two words HAVE TO HAVE a clear relationship (if they didn't it would be an unfair question and there aren't any of those on the SAT because they have tested these questions carefully), you can assume then that it means "lacking form."
Read the following hints to help you answer analogy questions.
HINT ONE: Make sure you are considering the words in terms of their definition. Don't add extra "baggage" to the question. Here's an example.
MONSTER : SCARY
BY DEFINITION a monster is scary. Maybe you just read a book about a monster who was not scary. If so, then that was an exception. Do not think to yourself, "well, not every monster is scary. Some of them could be nice." You are not supposed to consider all of the POSSIBILITIES in the world. You are supposed to consider the definitions of words and consider the relationships between them. Just remember, multiple choice questions are not good judges of creativity, so don't be creative with them.
HINT TWO: Many of the analogy questions can be answered without knowledge of the words.
Here's another example,
X + 7 = y
a) 100 b) 100 c) 100 d) 200 e) 100
What's the correct answer? It has to be "D," right? I mean we can't have more than one correct answer on this kind of a test and 100 can't be right because we wouldn't know which one to choose if it was! The same thing often applies in analogy questions. Let's take a look...
WORD 1 : WORD 2
a) up : down
b) cold : hot
c) register : cash
d) polite : rude
e) friendly : hostile
So, what's the correct answer? Well, let's note the relationships of each choice out to the side. (This is something you may want to do on the harder SAT questions).
WORD 1 : WORD 2
a) up : down ANTONYMS
b) cold : hot ANTONYMS
c) old : ancient DEGREE
d) polite : rude ANTONYMS
e) friendly : hostile ANTONYMS
The answer has to be "C." If word 1 and word 2 are opposites, then answers "A, " "B," "D," and "E" would all apply and they can't all be right! So, the answer must be C. By the same token, you can often eliminate two answer choices if they both have the exact same relationship.
If you keep that in mind you might get a few more correct.
HINT THREE: You can work these backwards in a sense. Pretend like you don't know what a "docent" is. You see this model.
DOCENT : MUSEUM
Even if you didn't know what a "docent" was, you could still work this analogy. How? Well, instead of finding the model relationship and finding an answer choice to match, work backwards by looking at the answers first. Then make assumptions about what the model relationship COULD BE.
DOCENT : MUSEUM
a) pilot : airplane
b) cashier : register
c) pharmacist : drugs
d) policeman : precinct
e) teacher : university
So, if you don't know what a docent is, you look down at the options and see what the left side of this analogy has to offer: pilot, teacher, pharmacist, policeman, cashier. What do all of these words have in common? They are all people! So, a docent must be a person. And that's not all you know. You also know that it is a person who has something to do at a museum. So, now take a look at the answer choices and see what kind of relationships they offer. The answer "A" has a sentence like this.... the word on the left is a person who steers/drives the word on the right. Do you think it is likely that a docent is someone who drives a museum? Neither do I. So forget that one. What about B? The word on the left described a person who uses the word on the right to do his or her job. Is a docent someone who uses a museum to do his job? Well, I think the idea "museum" is too big to be a tool for an occupation; so, that one won't work either. A pharmacist is a person who prescribes drugs. Does a docent prescribe museums? I doubt it. What about the policeman and the precinct? The word on the left describes a person who patrols and governs the word on the right. Does it sound like a docent could be a person who governs and/or patrols a museum? Well, if I didn't know what a docent was, I would think that might be a possibility. So hold on to it and check out answer "E." A teacher is a person who teaches at the university. Is a docent someone who teaches at a museum? Have you ever been to a museum? If so, do you remember people who walk around and try to teach you about the exhibit? They are docents.
HINT FOUR: Use the following piece of information to your advantage... The analogy section, like the sentence completion section, is organized in increasing order of difficulty. That means that analogy #1 is not supposed to be as difficult as analogy #5, and #5 is not supposed to be as hard as #10. This is valuable information. For example, if you are on question #2 and you are having a really rough time with it, it is likely that you are just overlooking something fairly simple. If you can eliminate a few of them, then I would suggest you take a guess and make sure your answer is comprised of some fairly simple words. I would bet good money that analogy question #2 will NOT have a word like "juggernaut" in its answer. On the other hand, question #10 won't have terribly simple words in it - UNLESS those words are used in their unusual, less popular meaning. For example, the word "brook" seems like an easy word - a little creek right? Well, it is also a verb meaning "to put up with or tolerate." Use the information about the increasing order of difficulty to make educated guesses when guessing. It is OK to leave one blank, but only if you weren't able to eliminate anything.
AND REMEMBER THIS....Practice can REALLY make you better at these. Practice analogies for 10 hours and you will get SO MUCH BETTER at them. I don't think that is necessarily true of the Critical Reading section. It is harder to improve in that area than in the analogy area. So, get as good as you can in the analogy area by working as many as you can stand. How about one a day?