An analogy asks you to name the relationship between two words and find another pair that stands in the same one.
Say the relationship out loud as a sentence before looking at the options: `a thermometer measures temperature`. Then test each option against that exact sentence. A pair that needs the sentence reworded is not the answer.
Direction matters. If the first pair runs tool-to-purpose, the answer must run tool-to-purpose and not the reverse, and the reversed pair is almost always one of the options.
Where two options both seem to fit, the relationship you named was too loose. Tighten it until only one survives.
Worked examples
Try these, then read why.
Written for this platform and generated from the same bank the practice sets draw on. Every wrong option is explained, because knowing why a distractor was tempting is most of the learning.
wardrobe : garment :: atlas : ?
Ashrink
Bchart (correct)
Cvoltage
Dpanel
Name the relationship before looking at the options: in wardrobe : garment, the second is a part of the first. Applying the same relationship to atlas gives chart. State the relationship in a short sentence first. An option that is merely on the same topic will not survive that test.
A This word expresses a different relationship, where the second word means the opposite of the first.
C This word expresses a different relationship, where the second is what the first measures or produces.
D This word belongs to the right kind of relationship, but not to the pair in the question.
______ is to barren as unite is to ______.
Abarren - unite
Bthermometer - hour
Cfertile - sever (correct)
Dsever - fertile
Two words are printed in different positions, so name the relation from what you can see: the second word means the opposite of the first. Working backwards from barren gives fertile; working forwards from unite gives sever. Order matters here in a way it does not with one blank: the same two words in the other blanks is always on offer.
A This repeats the two words already printed rather than supplying the missing ones.
B Both words come from a relation where the second is what the first measures or produces, which is not the relation printed.
D This puts the right two words in the wrong blanks, which reverses the relation at both ends.
Practise this properly.
Three examples show you the format. Finding out whether word analogy is actually costing you marks takes a measured set, which is what the free diagnostic is for.