Was anyone else disappointed when the College Board eliminated analogy questions from the SAT? I know it’s been a while, but I’ve been lamenting their demise since their phase-out in the 2005 exams. It’s not the first time a breed of questions was jettisoned. In 1994, the Board stopped asking antonym questions in favor of other question types.
Analogies are powerful tools for arguments. Business author Jonathan Kantor explains, “The use of analogies … allows your target reader to grasp an unknown concept by using something that they already know.” This is powerful advice for advertisers. Someone who is adept at writing and understanding analogies is likely to be an effective communicator, a more informed consumer and citizen, a more critical thinker.
Being a solid thinker includes being able to construct, extend, and effectively use analogies, and it also includes the skill of recognizing flawed analogies. Adam Cohen wrote in a 2005 editorial published in the New York Times, “Obviously, every American should be able to write, and write well. But if forced to choose between a citizenry that can produce a good 25-minute writing sample or spot a bad analogy, we would be better off with a nation of analogists.”
Among the many other standardized tests that one may encounter are the GRE, the LSAT, which asks its takers to find analogous arguments, and the Miller Analogies Test. Some graduate schools, and even the high-IQ society Mensa, accept high Miller Analogies Test scores as evidence of an applicant’s cognitive capacity.
Certainly skills in analogies aren’t obsolete. The College Board decided that testing writing would provide an informative glimpse to college admissions officers of a student’s a
1 Comments on Birds : Dodos :: SAT Questions : Analogies, last added: 4/13/2011
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Bad news...ETS has actually decided to eliminate analogies from the new GRE exam, which will be given as of August, 2011.