Analogy

Never look at the options first. Turn the given pair into a full sentence that states the relationship, then read that sentence again with each option in place. Only one will survive.

1. Word analogies. The usual relations are part to whole (petal : flower), worker to tool (carpenter : saw), cause to effect (virus : disease), item to class (sparrow : bird), object to its study (stars : astronomy), and degree (warm : hot).
2. Number analogies. Test in a fixed order: square, cube, then a constant added or multiplied, then a position in the number line. 7 : 49 is a square; 7 : 343 is a cube; 7 : 50 is "square plus one".
3. Letter analogies. Look for a fixed shift (AB : CD), a reversal, or opposite letters, exactly as in coding.
4. Mixed analogies. A word paired with a number usually counts letters or maps a position.

The single most common mistake is choosing an option merely from the same subject area. If your sentence is too loose, two options will fit; the cure is to make it narrower until only one does. Direction matters as much as the relation itself: doctor : patient is not the same as patient : doctor, and the answer must keep the order of the given pair.

How to check: read your sentence aloud in both halves. If it makes the same claim twice, the pair is right.

State the relation as a sentence, then test each option in it · common relations: part–whole, worker–tool, cause–effect, item–class, subject–science, degree · numbers: check square, then cube, then ±k, then ×k · keep the direction of the given pair · if two options fit, make the sentence narrower

Ornithologist : Birds :: Entomologist : ? Options: Insects / Words / Plants / Fossils. → Insects. The sentence is "An ornithologist is a scientist who studies birds", so the answer must be what an entomologist studies. Sanity check: the near-miss is deliberate — "Words" belongs to an etymologist, which differs from entomologist by three letters, so read the stem twice before answering.