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How to Compare Analogy Words

For those taking college and graduate school entrance exams, analogies can feel like a cruel joke. The purpose of analogies is to test a person's understanding of the relationship between a pair of words. The main idea is that if a test taker understands the relationship between the words, then they should be able to choose another pair that share a similar relationship. While analogies may feel overwhelming, if you can understand how to compare the words and evaluate their relationships, you will be correctly completing analogies in no time.

Things You'll Need

  • List of analogies
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Instructions

    • 1

      Determine if you know what both of the words mean and if you understand the relationship between the words.

    • 2

      Create a basic sentence to describe the relationship. For example, in an analogy comparing peas and pods, you would create a sentence to describe how the two things are related. Peas grow in pods, would be a good example. Or, as another example, when comparing birds and nests, birds live in nests.

    • 3

      Evaluate any further complexities within the relationship. Peas grow in a pod, yes, but peas are also grouped together when they are in a pod, so the pod could also be acting as a means of grouping. Additionally, "like two peas in a pod" is a colloquialism that implies closeness. To look at the bird and nest example, birds live in nests, but they also build them for themselves.

    • 4

      Apply the initial simple relationship to the answer choices. Say the first word in each choice, then the basic sentence you created, and then the second word. If the sentence doesn't make sense, the answer is probably wrong. If more than one answer seems like it could be correct, try applying the other relationships, as determined in Step 3.

    • 5

      Cross off each answer that does not fit with the relationship until you are left with the correct one.

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