Test-Taking Strategies

8: Verbal Analogy Strategies

8 Verbal Analogy Strategies Verbal analogies are those sophisticated word problems (cat: dog =seed: ) found in SATs and other standardized tests. Typically, you are given two words that are somehow related and then told to pick out two other words that are related in the same way. These tests rarely contribute to your grades in courses, but they do determine the courses or schools to which you are admitted. STRATEGY 1: PRACTICE The best way to become good at doing verbal analogies is to practice. Find copies of similar tests from earlier years that you can work on (if the answers are available). Or work with a book like the one listed in Appendix A. It's tough to cram for verbal analogy tests. The best results come from practicing for an hour a day for several weeks before the exam. In fact, several months is none too long. 49 50 TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES STRATEGY 2: GIVE THE EXACT ANSWER CALLED FOR It doesn't matter what relationships you see between words; what counts is what relationship the test-maker sees. Often, the tester's relationship is not as sophisticated as the one you might come up with. Example: bigotry: hatred (a) sweetness: bitterness (b) segregation: integration (c) equality: government (d) fanaticism: intolerance If your first conclusion is, "Bigots hate," you probably end up trying to choose between (c) and (d) since people often equate government with equality and fanatics with intolerance . The trouble with such reasoning is that it's highly subjective; many people don't believe that bigots hate, that governments foster equality, or that fanatics are intolerant. In the above example, you might instead notice that both bigotry and hatred are forms of social excess or extreme, and thus narrow down your choices to (b) and (d) since both are considered social extremes by many people. However, in (b) the related words are opposites; in the stem, the words are not opposites. If you choose (d) as the correct answer, you're right. STRATEGY 3: TURN THE ANALOGIES INTO SENTENCES Read the analogy problems as sentences even if they aren't actually written that way. In the example given above, read, "Bigotry relates to hatred in the same way that sweetness relates to bitterness? segregation relates to integration? Verbal Analogy Strategies 51 equality relates to government? fanaticism relates to intolerance ?" STRATEGY 4: FIND A WORD FOR THE POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP You can work faster and more accurately if you pick out a word-or, at times, two or three words-that describes the relationship between the given analogy words. Here are some of the main relationships. Purpose: A is used for B the same way X is used for Y. Cause and effect: A has an effect on B the same way X has an effect on Y. Part to whole (or individual to group): A is part of B the same way X is part of Y. Part to part: A and B are both parts of something the way that X and Yare both parts of something. Action to object: A is done to B the same way X is done to Y. ObJect to action: A does something to B just as X does something to Y. Word meaning: A means about the same as B, and X means about the same as Y. Opposite word meaning: A means about the opposite of B, and X means about the opposite of Y. Sequence: A comes before (or after) B just as X comes before (or after) Y. Place: A and B are related places just as X and Yare related places. Magnitude: A is greater than (or less than) B and X is greater than (or less than) Y. Grammatical: A and B are parts of speech related to each other-noun to noun, adjective to noun, etc.-in the same way that parts of speech X and Yare related to each other. 52 TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES Numerical: A is numerically related to B in the same way X is related to Y. Characteristic: The attributes of A and B are related in the same way as those of X and Y. STRATEGY 5: ATTACK TOUGH PROBLEMS SYSTEMATICALLY If you can't figure out a relationship by looking at the first word and then the second, turn them around. See how the second relates to the first. If you still can't come...