Analogies


Yes there are few tips and tricks for solving questions in Reasoning section. Here are some Important Tricks on Analogy (Logical) in Reasoning Section which will surely help you to score better in Reasoning section of every Competitive Exam.

Analogy means a similarity or comparability between two things, where both the things are related to each other in a certain way.

MIND IT !

Several relationships between pairs of words are possible. For instance, expect relations such as:

  • Antonyms: words that have opposite meanings.
  • Synonyms: words that have similar meanings, such as Buy – Purchase.
  • Descriptive: in which one word describes the other word, such as Blue – Ocean.
  • Part to Whole: in which one word is a part or piece of the other, such as Head – Body.
  • Steps in a Process: such as Cooking – Serving.
  • Cause and Effect: such as Fire – Scorch and Blizzard – Freeze
  • Things and Their Functions: such as Scissors – Cut.
  • Item to Category: in which one word names something that falls into the group named by the other, such as Lemonade – Beverage.
  • Implied Relationships: such as Clouds – Sun. Symbol and What it Represents: such as Heart – Love.

It does not matter how many relationships you can find between the words given in a logical analogy, what is important is that you give the answer the test-maker is looking for. This strategy is to give the exact answer. Many times, the relationships you think you see are much more in depth than what the test maker is looking for.

The following is an example of what this means:

Bigotry : Hatred

a. sweetness: bitterness

b. segregation: integration

c. equality: government

d. fanaticism: intolerance

You might automatically think that ‘bigot’ is to ‘hate’ or that ‘bigots hate’ is very similar to ‘c.’ as equality is normally associated with the government or ‘d.’ ad fanatics are often seen as intolerable. The problem is that this way of thinking is subjective or prejudiced and that not everyone thinks like this, so how can those choices be true. You will notice though, that choices ‘b.’ and ‘d.’ are not a subjective thought but rather a social extreme, just as ‘Bigotry/hatred’ is. The way to narrow down the choices more is by looking at the words in accordance to each other, ‘bigotry and hatred’ are similar terms, but choice ‘b.’ is not, they are opposite words. ‘d.’ would be the correct choice because they are also similar terms.

Tips for solving Logical Analogies


  • The only way to become better at anything is to practice and the same is true for logical analogies. Our logical analogy exercise and tests are developed by professionals and provide you with full explanations.
  • Try to determine the relationship between the first pair of words.
  • Turn the analogies into sentences. Read the analogy problems as sentences, even if they aren’t actually written that way.
  • Go through tough problems systematically.
  • Read all of the answer choices first before making a decision. This might sound obvious, but candidates commonly stop reading the answer choices once they’ve found what seems like a strong match.
  • Eliminate any pairs in the answers that do not have a similar type of relationship.
  • If the meaning of a word is unknown, then try to recollect the context in which you have come across the word.
  • Also, consider alternative meanings of words.
  • Take another look at the relationship possibilities as described above and try to look for them when trying to solve analogies.
  • If all else fails, eliminate the unlikely answers and make an educated guess.

LearnFrenzy provides you lots of fully solved "Analogies" Questions and Answers with explanation.