Analogies

Topic: Analogies
Strategy Used: Building a Bridge

In every analogy question, there exists a strong, definite connection between the two stem words. Your task is to identify this relationship, and then to look for a similar relationship among the answer pairs.

Consider this example:

The words library and book have a strong, definite connection. A library is defined as a place where books are kept. LIBRARY : BOOK could be a question stem.

The words library and child do not have a strong, definite connection. A child may or may not have anything to do with a library. LIBRARY : CHILD would never be a question stem.

The best way to pinpoint a the relationship between the stem words is to build a bridge. A bridge is a short sentence that relates the two words. Often, a bridge reads like a definition of one of the words. For instance: "A library is a place where books are kept."

The ability to find bridges is fundamental to analogy success. Your bridge needs to capture the strong, definite connection between the words.

Other Strategy Sessions:

Sentence Completion
Analogies
Antonyms
Problem Solving
Quantitative Comparisons