UP Police Constable · Bite-size lessons

Analogy Test

About 6 min · Numerical & Mental Ability · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 412 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Analogy questions test your ability to identify logical relationships between pairs of numbers, figures, or objects and apply that same relationship to find a missing element or odd one out.

Key ideas

• Direct relationship identification: The first pair establishes a rule (e.g., "multiply by 3" or "rotate 90° clockwise"). Your job is to decode this rule and apply it to the second pair.
• Numerical analogies: Common patterns include arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), exponential relationships (squares, cubes, square roots), digit manipulation (sum of digits, product of digits, reverse), and positional patterns (prime numbers, even-odd sequences).
• Figural analogies: Look for transformations like rotation (clockwise/anticlockwise), reflection (horizontal/vertical mirror), size changes (enlargement/reduction), shading changes (filled to unfilled), addition/removal of elements, or positional shifts of internal components.
• Odd one out: Instead of completing a pair, you identify which of 4–5 given options doesn't follow the same relationship pattern as the others. Test each option against a hypothesis about the common rule.
• Multiple operations: Some analogies involve two-step relationships (e.g., "add 5, then multiply by 2" or "rotate 45°, then add one element"). Always check if a single operation doesn't explain the relationship.

Watch out for

• Assuming only one operation: Students often try a single arithmetic operation (like addition) and stop. Fix: Always test 2–3 common operations (square, cube, digit sum, multiplication) before concluding.
• Ignoring digit-level patterns: In numbers like 23 : 5, students miss that 2+3=5. Fix: When direct arithmetic doesn't work, immediately check sum of digits, product of digits, or digit reversal.
• Not checking all transformations in figural analogies: Students see rotation and stop, missing that shading also changed. Fix: Use a mental checklist — rotation, reflection, size, shading, element count, position — and verify each.

Quick reference

• A : B :: C : D → Decode the A→B transformation, apply to C to find D.
• Top 5 numerical patterns: Squares, cubes, digit sum, multiply by constant, reverse digits.
• Top 5 figural patterns: 90° rotation, horizontal/vertical flip, shading change, element addition, position swap.
• Odd one out strategy: Find the common property in 3–4 items, identify which item lacks it.
• Time management: Spend max 45 seconds per analogy; if stuck after testing 3 patterns, mark for review and move on.

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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