Analogies

We know that logical reasoning is a wide subject that tests the ability of the person to apply the correct logic at the correct time. Logical reasoning is an important subject in almost all competitive exams these days. Analogies are presented before the person in different formats. Analogies can be depicted in numbers, letters, alphanumeric series etc. In the given pattern, you have to identify the correct logic that solves the question and is applicable on that analogy properly. You cannot apply the logic which is being followed on a few values, it must apply to all the values of that series.

Varieties of Analogies

There are many varieties of analogies. A series continues with some values and then there is a question mark given, you have to give your answer in place of that question mark. 

It can be simply alphabetical or in simple words, you can call them letter-based analogies. These are given in the form of a word and you have to recognize the pattern of the letters being used in the word in the given series.

Sample question- AY, BX, CW, DV, EU, ?

In this question, you can see a chain going on with two letters in each value. Here we need to know the value of each letter as per their alphabetical order. We see that A= 1, B = 2, C=3 and so on this gives the value of above series as-

AY= 1&25, BX= 2&24, CW= 3&23, DV= 4&22, EU= 5&21, 

By observing closely, we notice the first letter of this chain is given in increasing order, the second letter of all values is going on in decreasing order. And by adding the two values, we are getting the value 26 every time in this series. 

A+Y= 26, B+X= 26 and so on. By applying this logic, the next value should also be 26 on adding the two letters. Following the above series, we can understand that the next term will be FT, which will be valued at 5&21 and again the addition will be 26.

The next variety in the analogies is the numerical series-

Sample question – 27, 38, 51, 66, ?, 102, 123.

Here we see a chain of some numbers and we have to find the pattern here also.

By observing closely, we find these numbers close to the squares of some numbers. Like – 25, 36, 49, 64, 100, 121. These are squares of 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 respectively. We see that all these squares are just 2 less than the given numbers. If we add 2 in our series of squares, we get the required series. Also, we find that the square of 9 is missing here. So the square of 9 is 81 and we add 2 in that, it becomes 83 which is our answer in place of the question mark.

Another important kind of analogy is the alphanumeric series. It is the combination of some numbers and some letters. We have to identify the pattern in it accordingly- 

Sample question – B7, C11, D13, ?, F19, G23

Now, to solve this question, we see letters in alphabetical order and with them a number is also associated. We know that prime numbers are – 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 23, 29 and so on. We find the prime numbers from 7 to 23 in this series. It means the number 17 is missing. And also, as per our alphabetical order, the missing letter is E. Here we got our answer E17.

A very interesting type of analogy is the picture-based analogy. Analogies’ meaning here is to find the missing content in the picture and get the idea of the pattern. Sample question-

Here, we see that in the first, second, third and fourth figure, we see the pattern of dots here. The place where the dots are left are moving from clockwise direction, we can easily detect here that going serial wise, we will place the three dots like this-

Here, we see that the picture in the answer is in harmony with its three counterparts. These all are in the clockwise direction that makes it the answer of the question. Such questions are often asked in analogies reasoning. 

Conclusion

Analogies’ meaning is quite self-explanatory. You have to find the pattern and give the similar answer that fits perfectly in the desired criterion. To solve the questions of analogies in required time periods, all we need to do is a lot of practice to solve them in a time-efficient manner. These can be of various kinds but the way to solve them is just to get the clue of the similar things on which they have been made. Analogies reasoning is crucial in logical reasoning.