GRE Analogies

  1. An analogy tests...
    ... your understanding of the relationship between the pairs of example words and your ability to recognize other pairs that have a similar relationship.
  2. The basic techniques for solving analogies are:
    • (A) process of elimination. eliminate words or pairs that definitely do not fit.
    • (B) make a sentence that describes the relationship between the words.
    • (C) define one word in terms of the other word.

    common analogy relationships: A is a type of B, A is used to B, A is a degree of B, A is charactrized by B, A lacks B
  3. If more than one answer seems to fit...
    ... make the sentence more specific, until only one anwer is left.
  4. If you don't know some of the answer words...
    • use process of elimination
    • - get rid of answers that you know can't be correct
    • - if you know one word of an answer pair but not the other, don't eliminate it unless you know the other word doesn't fit the analogy
  5. Common analogy relationships are:
    • A is a type of B
    • A is used to B
    • A is a greater/lesser degree of B
    • A is characterized by B
    • A lacks B
  6. If you don't know the stem words...
    • - eliminate answer words that do not have any relationship with eachother
    • - make sentences for the remaining answer pairs
    • - the example words should fit exactly in the sentence you've made for the answer pairs
    • - is there likely to be a word that fulfills the kind of relationship you describe in your answer sentence?
    • ex: drawl:speak - scintillate:flash (is there likely to be a word that means "to flash slowly"? No)
  7. Review:
    (A) If you know both words in the eample pair:
    (B) If you don't know one of the words in the example pair:
    (C) If you don't know either of the words in the example pair:
    • (A) make a defining sentence, apply that sentence to the answer choices, use process of elimination, make a more specific sentence if needed.
    • (B) make defining sentences using the answer pairs, eliminate those without relationships, fill in the example pair to the answer pair sentences
    • (C) same as B but in the end, make an educated guess based on which answer choice has the strongest relationship

    don't forget to check the parts of speech & look for secondary meanings
Author
Goshawk
ID
15500
Card Set
GRE Analogies
Description
GRE Analogy test strategies
Updated