Alex Hollis, Founder & Wonderlic Expert, Beat the Wonderlic
April 16, 2017
The following is an explanation for QUESTION 16 from our Free Wonderlic Practice Test. The strategy listed below is just one of many from my online course, which has helped thousands of people beat their Wonderlic test and land their dream job.
16. __?__ is to FIRE as EXACERBATE is to ARGUMENT.
A. WATER
B. FUEL
C. BLANKET
D. FIGHT
E. EXTINGUISH
Analogies on the Wonderlic test.
Analogies tend to scare test takers. We encourage you to not fear these problems on the Wonderlic.
Even if you have always hated analogies, or if you have never seen one until now, we have an approach that helps demystify how to answer these questions.
Turn analogies into relationship sentences.
Completing an analogy is all about establishing a relationship with the completed group of words and then finding the word that copies that relationship in the other group.
16. __?__ is to FIRE as EXACERBATE is to ARGUMENT.
A. WATER
B. FUEL
C. BLANKET
D. FIGHT
E. EXTINGUISH
1. Create a sentence that describes the relationship of the two completed words.
We have EXACERBATE and ARGUMENT. A sentence that describes the relationship of these two words would be “To EXACERBATE an ARGUMENT is to make the ARGUMENT worse.”
2. Apply the same relationship sentence to the second group.
If we apply that same sentence to the other group we get “To [BLANK] a FIRE to make the FIRE worse. The word that best completes that sentence is FUEL.
Use relationship sentences
to make analogies clearer.
Another Wonderlic test example question.
Let’s try another one using the strategy outlined above. You’ve got this! 😉
MOUSE is to CAT as __?__ is to POLICE.
A. COP
B. ARREST
C. CRIMINAL
D. CHASE
E. SIREN
Relationship sentence:
A MOUSE gets chased by a CAT.
A [BLANK] gets chased by POLICE.
The word that best completes our relationship sentence is CRIMINAL.
Answer: C.
How did you do? Was our strategy helpful? Let us know in the comments section!
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