How to answer synonym questions
Closest in meaning: precision beats association
Synonym items are decided at the margin — between the true synonym and a strongly associated neighbor. Define first, then match.
Updated
Every synonym item contains one true synonym and one associate — a word that lives next door (prohibit/punish, candid/kind). Associates attract the eye because they co-occur in life. The defense is to define the target word in your own words before reading any option.
Define, then discriminate
Definition first: 'PROHIBIT — to declare something not allowed.' Now the options: forbid matches the declaration-of-rule meaning; prevent (stop physically) fails it; punish (respond after the act) fails it. Without the definition, all three glow.
Check the dimension
Many wrong options are right-direction, wrong-dimension: for FRAGILE, the options thin, light, small all accompany fragility, but the dimension is 'easily broken' — only delicate lives on it. Ask: what dimension does the target word measure?
The strategy
- Define the word before looking down.
- Eliminate options that are associates, consequences, or causes rather than meanings.
- Prefer the option that could replace the word in a sentence without changing the claim.
- Unknown word? Mine its parts (bene-, mal-, -volent) and its echo in words you do know.
Common traps
- Emotional-flavor matches: candid ≠ kind — a candid remark can wound.
- Stronger/weaker versions of the meaning (furious ≠ annoyed).
- Words true of the same objects but along a different dimension.
Speed · ~20s/item: Vocabulary items are the fastest on any test — 10–25 seconds — which makes them the place to bank time for matrices.
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Questions people ask
Will synonyms questions be on the free test?
Maybe. The free test gives verbal & logic 5 of its 20 questions, spread across 11 different question types, so any one test may or may not include this kind.