GRE Analogies?

Question

Does anyone know any tricks to solving analogies on the GRE? That's the one section that I can't seem to get. I'm getting most of them wrong.

I'm using the Barron's book which has helped me greatly, but I'm stumped on the analogy section.

I just don't want my score to suffer.

Answer 1

There's a book, I think it was Kaplan, that had a CD program in it, with a car-driving theme, that I used and found very helpful. My brother and I both scored very high using this book, but we're pretty good with verbal sections anyway.

Try putting the first analogy into a descriptive sentence or visualizing it. For example:
kitten:cat :: seed: ??
"A kitten is a small, young version of a cat; a seed is a small, young version of a plant or tree."
Try to find what makes the first two items similar yet *different* (kittens and cats are both felines, but kittens are younger, smaller, cuter) - that will give you a clue as to how to relate the other two items.

Answer 2

The 2004 Kaplan GRE course book has a good section (page 887) on analogy practice. it provides a sample test and then has a section describing why each answer is correct or incorrect.

I think it takes practice to think abstractly about the qualities of the terms so that you can form a correct choice.

Other than study of the written answers and practice, I can suggest the following approach:

Make up a sentense that includes the two words and help describe the relationship between the words.

Plug the answers into the setence

If more than one answer seems to match, refine your original sentence a bit.

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

wow thats tough- I think you either "get it" or you don't.
just because thats not your strength.. you can step it up on our parts and score well all around..