Analogy and Odd One Out

Analogy and classification test whether you can spot a relationship and then either extend it or find the element that does not share it. They come in three flavours — word, letter and number — and together add three to five marks in SBI Clerk Reasoning. The winning habit is the same across all three: name the relationship in plain words first, then apply that exact sentence to every option before choosing. Skipping that naming step and choosing by gut feel is what turns an easy mark into a wrong one, so treat the one-line relationship as a compulsory first move on every question of this kind.

Word Analogy: Name the Bridge Sentence

For a pair like 'Doctor : Hospital', build a bridge sentence — 'a doctor works in a hospital' — and test the second pair with the same sentence. 'Teacher : School' fits because a teacher works in a school. If several options fit loosely, make the sentence more precise (worker-to-workplace, tool-to-user, part-to-whole) until only one option survives. The precision of your sentence decides the answer. Note the direction too: if the given pair runs profession-to-workplace, the answer must run the same way and not workplace-to-profession, because reversed pairs are a favourite distractor placed to catch a hasty reader who matched the theme but not the order.

Letter Analogy and Classification

Letter analogy hides a positional gap. In 'AC : EG', A to C skips one letter and E to G skips one letter, so apply the same gap to the target pair. For letter odd-one-out, convert each group to its gap pattern and the misfit is the group with a different gap. Reverse-alphabet pairs (like AZ, BY) are a favourite, so always check whether letters mirror around the middle of the alphabet. When each item is a block of three or four letters, read both the internal gaps and the jump from one block to the next, because the distinguishing rule sometimes lives in the step between groups rather than inside them.

Word: fix a precise bridge sentence. Letter: compare the gap pattern. Number: name one operation.

Odd One Out / Classification

Classification gives four or five items of which all but one share a category, and you name the shared category to expose the misfit. Rose, lotus, jasmine, mango — three are flowers and mango is a fruit, so mango is odd. Beware near-misses designed to distract: if two possible categories exist, the intended one is usually the more specific, cleaner grouping that leaves exactly one element out. When a set seems to split two ways, count how many items each proposed category captures — the correct rule always leaves precisely one item outside, so a rule that excludes two items or none at all is the wrong reading and should be dropped before you commit to an answer.

Solved Examples

Q1 (word): Pen : Write :: Knife : ? A pen is used to write; a knife is used to cut. Q2 (letter): DF : HJ :: PR : ? Gap of one within the pair, and each pair jumps four letters forward from the last: P R then T V, so the answer is TV.

✗ Picking the first option that feels related to the pair  |  ✓ Writing the exact bridge sentence and testing every option against it