Analogies

You want to do analogies pretty much the same way you normally do them. Determine what each of the words mean, then find the pair of words that has the closest relationship to the clue words.  Matching the word types isn't crucial. You must match the relationships.  One of the ways to find the correct relationship is to put words together in a sentence or phrase that will illustrate the relationship between the two words.
 

BEST ANSWER

A few things make the analogies on the SAT unique. The SAT uses the term "best answer." Before you leave this page laughing saying that obviously you want the best answer read on. The way the SAT interprets that phrase is one of the keys to the test. This simple phrase gives them a wide latitude. They can give you five rotten choices.  You look at the choices and don't feel any are good. You're right, but one will be better than the other four. You have to reason out why one is better than the other four.  It takes practice, but it can be done.

The other thing this phrase does, and this is more frustrating, is allows them to give you two correct answers. You will look and say that "I could make a case for either of these two. "You have to learn to tell why one is better than another. And that is what you are comparing, why one of the answers is better than the other. This "Best answer" strategy applies to all of the verbal sections.

When you're in the verbal section, one of the ways to improve performance is to look at the answers and try to eliminate answer choices.  This way you won't be caught up defending a major choice, rather you look for the weakness of each of the answer choices and leave yourself the best choice.
 

SAME PART OF SPEECH

The SAT loves to use words that are spelled the same and sound the same, but have different meanings depending on the part of speech. We all know that a table is a piece of furniture that we eat on or write on. Do you know what table means as a verb?  I say I want to table something. When I say I want to table a motion in a meeting, I set it aside. I pause; I am going to consider it later. When you look at the analogies, you don't have any sentence context. All you see is the word table. How do you know if they want it table as a noun or table as a verb?

The answer is that it is in the answer choices. The answer choices below the analogy clue words will all be in one part of speech. That clue words you are trying to find the match for will be in the same part of speech as all of the answers; they don't switch parts of speech. So, look down at your answers and see what part of speech you are dealing with there. If they're all verbs, nouns, or adjectives, that is what your key word is.

Let’s look at an example:

VOID : CHECK
       (A) erase : typewriter    (B) dye : fabric    (C) empty : basket
       (D) nullify : contract    (E) close : door

Now I can write you a “check” or I can “check” to see if you are home.  But, if we look at the answer choices beneath “CHECK” we see that the words are all nouns, so “CHECK” has to be a noun.  Therefore, you “void” or cancel a “check” and you “nullify” or cancel a “contract.”

How about another one:

GUIDE : TOURIST
      (A) defendant : prosecutors   (B) employer : applicants
      (C) candidate : voters   (D) recruit : soldiers   (E) usher : theatergoers

Here we see that I can “guide” you, or I can be  “guide.”  Once again, we look at the answer choices and we see that the words below the clue word are nouns, so “GUIDE” has to be a noun.  Notice that “recruit” and “usher” could be nouns or verbs as well.  But “defendant,” “employer,” and “candidate” have to be nouns, so “GUIDE” is used as a noun.  Therefore a “guide” directs a “tourist” and an “usher” directs “theatergoers.”
 
 
 
 

COMMON TYPES OF ANALOGIES ON THE SAT

SYNONYMS and ANTONYMS are the most clear and straightforward. The SAT knows you are used to seeing those types of analogies. Therefore they don't give you very many – there will be some, but not nearly as many as you are used to on tests at school.
 
 
 

A THING AND WHAT IT'S USED FOR
A TYPE OF PERSON AND SOMETHING THEY USE
A TYPE OF PERSON AND SOMETHING THEY DO

Those are three places where the SAT loves, simply loves to put monster
words, difficult words, like ichthyologist, cosmographer, farrier. Suppose I gave you the analogy: Farrier::Anvil. Too many students make the mistake here of thinking: "I don't know what farrier means, so I can't get this one." Do you know what an anvil is? Do you know what a farrier is? Well, you would see that an anvil is a noun, because there would be nouns as answer choices beneath it. So it's a thing. Farrier would also similarly be identified as a noun, and with "-ier" it's likely to be someone who is doing something. So, it is someone who works with an anvil, and in this case a farrier is a horseshoer. So that is what he uses to work with. But because you knew of the type of analogy that it's where they like to put hard words, you can go down and find an answer choice that matches a person and something they use.

For example:

FARRIER::ANVIL
a) gymnast::routine
b) musician:;orchestra
c) surgeon::scalpel
d) dancer::tango
e) artist::studio

You can see that a farrier is a person, because the answer choices are all people.  An anvil is a thing, so we are looking in the answer choices for a person and a thing.  We can see that a surgeon uses a scalpel and a farrier uses an anvil.

Those are the little things that buy you a point here and a point there. That's the difference between a 670 and a 740. That's what you are looking at; it's a very fine line of difference. Remember those three categories when you see words that are particularly arcane looking words.

CAUSE AND EFFECT. One thing causes another to happen. This is pretty straightforward. The catch point here with the SAT is that this is where they will flip-flop order on you. For instance, you will have Snow::Avalanche. Too much snow causes an avalanche. They will flip-flop it and give you Flood::Rain.  A flood is caused by too much rain. This analogy has got to be in the same order, cause and effect.   So the correct order would be Rain::Flood

RELATIVE SIZE. This is one that is directly targeted at students taking the test on the superficial or instinctive level. With relative size questions, they are going after students who are not completely schooled in analogies. In that, they will give you big is to huge as tiny is to small. Well, an inferior student is not going to see a relationship there because big and huge are big and small and tiny are small. On the surface, those don't fit. Remember that you are not comparing word types, you are comparing relationships between the two words.  So, huge is bigger than big and small is bigger than tiny. Remember you are looking for the best relationship, not the closest word types.
 

PART AND WHOLE. One thing is a part of another, and they usually have a little bit of an extra overlap in this analogy. For instance, the two that have come up recently: Quarterback::Football team as King::Countrymen or as Captain::Platoon. The answer is captain is to platoon. Quarterback is the leader and part of the football team and the captain is the leader and part of the platoon. The king is the leader of his countrymen but not a part of it.

RELATIVE DEGREES OF THE SAME THING. This one usually shows up in the difficult section, and it is an intensity question. The reason this is difficult is because they like to use nuances of words. For instance, in one case they had Hot::Torrid as Cold::Frigid. If something is very hot it is torrid. If something is very cold, it is frigid. So see how it is just a question of different degrees of the same thing and just turning the intensity up. You can get different degrees of the same thing and relative size mixed up. Relative size is a distinct one. It is related very closely to different degrees of the same thing, but it can go in the other direction. They don't do it with size. In other words, if something is very big, it's huge. If something is very tiny, it's infinitesimal. So, that would be relative degrees of the same thing. But, with regards to size, they are very distinct in terms of relative size. That's a very distinct analogy they use just on the SAT.

CLASSIFICATION, DESCRIPTIONS, AND CHARACTERISTICS. I am not going to belabor these. These are all different characteristics, and they can come ina  variety of types. You have got a general type compared to a more specific type, a word compared to a definition of itself, a male compared to a female, a family relationship can be compared, and a virtue can be compared to a failing. That one ought to be down with overlapping. That's a little bit of a stretch. You could have characteristics in terms of operation. It could be elements of time. It could be time sequences.  These are all characteristics.

Now, I put overlapping analogies down here at the bottom for a reason. There are no absolutes on the SAT. We're giving percentages.  We're giving tendencies. There are no rules that say that they are confined to just these particular analogies we have cited. So, they could have overlapping analogies like a creator compared to creation, a symbol compared to what it symbolizes, something compared to a need it satisfies, a reward is compared to an action, and an object is compared to something that hinders it.

In all of these cases, it is to make you wary that because you can see one that fits, and it doesn't happen to fit exactly everything that we have done, it does not mean it is wrong.

In the TIP down here, we scrambled two words which you can probably unscramble pretty easily, so don't focus on those.  Look at the five answers. One of those five answers is easy and distinct. The sentence or phrase you use to match the words is simple and direct. You don't have to insert a lot of modifiers. Which one is it?

HPARGARAP : SECNETNES ::

(A) cover : pages (B) book : chapters (C) grammar :errors (D) directory : graphs

(E) summary : comment

(B) Book is to chapters. The words that we scrambled were paragraph is to sentences. A book is made up of a lot of chapters that is a clear, distinct answer. Anybody would accept that. Now, you are smart enough to create analogies out of the other answers. A cover covers the pages of a book. If I have good grammar, I make no errors. If I write a summary, I am going to be writing or making comments. See, you can create analogies out of those, but you have stretch to make them fit. The correct answer is a clear, distinct one.

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