HOW TO ANSWER ANALOGY QUESTIONS

WORTH READING: ANSWERING ANALOGY QUESTIONS

The relationships that are found in analogy questions fall into several general types.

■ Part to Whole. In this type of question, a pair of words consists of a part and a whole.

For example, spoke : wheel. A spoke is part of a wheel.

■ Type and Category. These questions use pairs of words in which one word is a specific type in a general category.

For example, orange : citrus. An orange is a type of citrus.

■ Degree of Intensity. These questions test your ability to discern nuance of meaning among pairs of words.

For example, shower : monsoon. A shower is light rainfall and a monsoon is heavy rainfall.

■ Function. These questions pair words that are related through function.

For example, hammer : build. A hammer is used to build.

■ Manner. This type of analogy describes the manner, way, or style by which an action is accomplished.

For example, shamble : walk. Shamble means to walk in an awkward
manner.

■ Symbol or representation. These questions pair words in which one word is the symbol of the other.

For example, dove : peace. A dove is a symbol of peace.

■ Action and significance. In this type of analogy one word describes an action and the other word indicates the significance of the action.

For example, cry : sorrow. To cry signifies sorrow.

Analogy questions can also be used to test word knowledge and factual content. Word knowledge questions are generally pairs of synonyms or pairs of antonyms.

 For example, tardy : ______ :: liberal : generous. 

Liberal and generous are synonyms, therefore you would look for a synonym of tardy among the answer choices.

Factual content questions demand a certain level of general knowledge, and cannot be deduced from the relationship alone. For example:
iron : Fe :: silver : ______
a. Na
b. Cl
c. Ag
d. K

In this case you need to know that the chemical symbol for silver is Ag. Even though these questions require some basic knowledge you can still apply logic to the question. For example, if you know that the chemical name for table salt is NaCl, you can eliminate these two answers. This leaves you with Ag and K. If you happen to know that the French word for silver is argent, then Ag would be an excellent educated guess.

There is a final type of analogy question that is purely a logic test. These questions pair seemingly unrelated words. The relationship is found in the arrangement of the letters. For example:
about : bout :: ______ : mend
a. amend
b. near
c. tear
d. dismiss

In this case, the answer is amend because that is the word formed by adding an “a” in front of mend. You will also find scrambled words and anagrams in this category of analogies.

Source: https://elearning.shisu.edu.cn/…/mo…/content/1/ANALOGIES.pdf