To prepare for analogies involving history on the MAT, it’s best to start with the most important terms — kind of like what you’d pick up from a basic college course in world history. Before taking the MAT, brush up on your history knowledge by studying these terms and their definitions.

  • Abolitionism: Movement to get rid of slavery

  • Allies: Nations that fought the Axis powers in World War II, including the United States, England, and Russia

  • Apartheid: Racial segregation in South Africa

  • Axis: Nations that fought the Allies during World War II, including Germany, Japan, and Italy

  • Bill of Rights: The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution

  • Bourgeoisie: The middle class in France before the revolution

  • Caste: A hereditary social class in Hinduism

  • Cold War: Period of tension after WWII between the United States and the Soviet Union

  • Communism: Economic system in which the people control the means of production

  • Confederate States of America: Government of the southern states that seceded from the United States during the Civil War; the northern states were known as the Union

  • Cultural Revolution: Led by Mao Zedong, a social-political movement in which the Chinese military worked to strengthen the ideals of the Chinese Communist Party

  • Czar (tsar): An emperor of Russia

  • Emancipation Proclamation: An order given by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, to free all slaves

  • Fourteen Points: Speech given by Woodrow Wilson outlining the post–World War I peace plan in Europe

  • Geneva Conventions: Developed humanitarian laws to be applied in wartime

  • Glasnost: Introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev, a period of increased openness and freedom in the Soviet Union during the 1980s; often paired with Perestroika

  • Great Depression: Decade-long worldwide economic recession preceding World War II

  • Imperialism: The domination of one country over another

  • Laissez-faire capitalism: Economic system in which the government does not regulate

  • Magna Carta: Forced upon King John by his subjects to attain liberties, it is the origination of English law; written in 1215

  • Manifest Destiny: Belief that Americans were destined by heaven to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean

  • Mayflower Compact: Governing text of Plymouth Colony

  • NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): Alliance of nations to defend against Soviet threat

  • New Deal: Economic programs during the Great Depression proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt

  • Perestroika: Political movement for restructuring within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; often paired with glasnost

  • Prohibition: The sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol was outlawed in the United States from 1920 to 1933

  • Proletariat: The lower, working social class

  • Republic: Type of government in which the people elect representatives to rule

  • Suffrage: The right to vote

  • Trinity: Code name for the first atomic bomb

About This Article

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Vince Kotchian is a full-time standardized test tutor specializing in the MAT, SSAT, ISEE, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. He teaches a GRE prep course at the University of California, San Diego, and has an extensive understanding of analogies and the MAT.

Edwin Kotchian is a MAT tutor and freelance writer who has contributed to a variety of test-prep material.

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