Introduction

Analogy means Similarity or equivalence. It is derived from two French words, ‘Ana’ meaning relation and ‘Logus’ meaning knowledge. Analogy is an important section in Reasoning. Here the ability of the candidates to compare and make decisions is tested. Competitive exam aspirants must be able to understand diverse relationships between various elements, things, terms etc. The candidates need to form proper relations among the given items based on some similarities.

It is pretty simple to recognize common features between given items. The given figures may have similarity in movement, rotation, shape, size etc. It depends on the candidate ability on how well he can identify the similarity.

Candidates can develop and improve such ability thorough practice of the questions and answers. Our practice test section has hundreds of questions for you to practice the questions. Moreover we have detailed explanations and solutions for each and every question .

Types of questions :

Questions on Similarities and Differences mostly cover the topics which we observe in our day-to-day life. Below is the list of topics commonly asked in examinations:

• Alphabets
• Shapes
• Quantity and units
• Numbers
• State and capital
• Disease and causative organism
• Animal and living place
• Animal and its food
• Parents and child relationships
• Industry and product
• Raw material and final product
• Action and reaction
• Instruments and measurements
• Word and antonym
• Word and synonym

Examples of Similarities and Differences questions

Instrument and Measurement
Barometer : Pressure : : Thermometer : ?

Barometer is the instrument which measures atmospheric pressure
Thermometer is the instrument which measures the temperature. Hence, temperature is the correct anology for thermometer.

Individual and Class
Lizard: Reptiles :: Man: ?
Lizard belongs to the class Reptiles where as man belongs to the class Mammals .

Ostrich: Bird : : Butterfly: ?
Ostrich belongs to the class Birds while Butterfly is an insect .

Male and female similarities
Stag: Doe :: Son: ?
Doe is the female counterpart of Stag while Daughter is the female counterpart of Son

Tiger: Tigeress :: Nephew: ?
Tigress is the female counterpart of Tiger whereas Niece is the female counterpart of Nephew

Animal and living place
Bee: Apiary :: Dog:?
Bee lives in an apiary where as Dog lives in a kennel

Monk: Monastery:: Fish :?
Monk lives in a monastry while Fish lives in an aquarium

Word Synonym
Blend: Mix:: Presume: ?
Mix is the synonym of blend while Assume is the synonym of Assume

Vacant: Empty:: Brim: ?
Empty is the synonym of Vacant while Brim is the synonym of edge

Word Antonym
Sink: Float:: Cruel: ?
Sink is the Antonym of Float while Cruel is the antonym of Kind

Initial: Final:: Brim: ?
Final is the Antonym of Initial while Ignore is the Antonym of Notice

Some example and solution

Example 1: 11 : 121 :: 13 : ____
156
169
179
216
Answer: The answer is clearly B) 169 as 112 = 121. Therefore, 132 = 169 but if you haven’t memorized the squares of the first few numbers, it will eat into your time. So the main objective is to cut down on the time and for that, you need to commit certain things to the memory. Following is a list of some numbers and their squares that are commonly encountered. Some important squares:
112 = 121; 122 = 144; 132  = 169; 142 = 196; 152 = 225;
162  = 256; 172 = 289; 182  = 324; 192 = 361; 212 = 441;

Example 2: Complete the analogy: 144 : 23 :: 169: _____
a) 32
b) 24
c) 25
d) 26
Answer: I will make it easy, the answer here is C) 25. How did I get it? If you look above to the common squared values of a few numbers, you will see that 144 is the square of 12 and 144 – 23 = 121, which is the square of 11 or the square of the number “one” step below 12. Similarly, 169 is the square of 13 and we can reach the answer in two easy steps:
Step 1: Find the square of the number “one” below the given number (which is 13). The number is 12 and 122 = 144.
Step 2: Subtract this value of the squared number from the given number i.e. 169 -144 = 25. Therefore, the answer is 25. You will find a lot of interesting number analogies. Let us try and see an example where you will be asked to guess a pair based on a given pair

Example 3: Select the pair that has the same analogy as the given pair: 9876: 12234567
a) 34562: 89776
b) 123: 122345
c) 654321: 922346
d) 9993: 8886
Answer:d :- These questions can look very difficult, sometimes even not solvable. This would be true if you hadn’t read this article! If you take a careful look at the given set of numbers, you will find that they are related to a rule. The sum of all digits is 30 in both the numbers. There is no other relation between the two numbers. So start checking the options. You may want to save time and argue that you only need to check the first number of the given pairs. But that would be wrong and dangerous. What if the options followed the rule that the pair should have the same sum of the digits, even if it is different than 30 ? That said, you should ideally check both the numbers.