There are 120 analogies on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), and you only have an hour to answer them all. Unless you are trying for a perfect score on the MAT, spending time equally on each question may not work to your advantage.
The truth is, despite the fact that you’ve studied hard, certain questions won’t immediately lend themselves to the step-by-step analogy solving technique you’ve practiced.
There is a three step technique for solving analogies that you should familiarize yourself with. This method provides a plan for attacking the analogies on the MAT.
Step one of the three-step analogies is to identify the structure used to relate terms in the analogy. Step two involves creating a sentence that uses this relationship to connect the terms in the analogy. In step three, you analyze each of the answers to see which one best fits the relationship you’ve defined in your sentence.
As soon as you realize a question will be hard for you, skip it immediately. This decision should be made within a few seconds after seeing the question. Don’t fiddle around with it: All the questions on the test count the same towards your score, so never struggle with a tough question when there might be an easier question later.
You can always come back to the skipped question if you have time. Of course, make sure to fill in a quick guess (never leave blanks!), and write down the number of the question on your scratch paper so you remember to come back to it.
This is easier said than done. Like any test-taking technique, make sure that you practice it consistently if you want to use it efficiently on the real MAT.