Miller Analogies Test (MAT)

[Gaze]

I'm taking this test in two weeks.

Has anyone ever taken it? How do you think it compares to standardized tests such as the GRE Verbal/Analytical, the typical IQ test, etc.?

How do you interpret your score?

What do you think of the testing of analogical reasoning to judge cognitive/analytical thinking ability vs. the typical logical/mathematical reasoning tests?

The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is a standardized test used primarily for graduate school admissions in the USA. Created and still published by Harcourt Assessment, the MAT consists of 120 questions in 60 minutes (formerly 100 questions in 50 minutes).
Contents

• 1 Content and use
• 2 Format and scoring
• 3 See also
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Content and use

The test aims to measure an individual's logical and analytical reasoning through the use of partial analogies. A sample test question might be

Bach : Composing :: Monet :

• a. painting
• b. composing
• c. writing
• d. orating

This should be read as "Bach is to ) Composing as Monet is to ) _______." The answer would be a. painting because just as Bach is most known for composing music, Monet is most known for his painting. The open slot may appear in any of the four positions.
Unlike analogies found on past editions of the GRE and the SAT, the MAT's analogies demand a broad knowledge of Western culture, testing subjects such as science, music, literature, philosophy, mathematics, art, and history. Thus, exemplary success on the MAT requires more than a nuanced and cultivated vocabulary. In-house factor analysis studies, however, show that only one major factor accounts for most of a person's performance.

The MAT has fallen out of favor among some admissions departments, yet it is still widely accepted in the social sciences, education, and occasionally in the humanities. For most graduate programs the GRE is the most common qualifying exam.
Format and scoring

In the fall of 2004, the exam became computerized; test-takers can now opt to take it as a computer-based test (CBT), although the pen-and-paper exam still exists.

Out of the 120 questions, only 100 count in the test taker's score. The remaining 20 questions are experimental. There is no way for test takers to identify any of the 20 experimental questions on a given test form, as the two types of questions are intermingled.
Tests taken before October 2004 were scored simply by the number of questions the test-taker answered correctly, with a range from 0-100. Scores using this metric have historically been known as "raw" scores.

Tests taken in October 2004 or later have a score range from 200 to 600. The median score is 400, with a standard deviation of 25 points. These scores, based on a normal curve, are known as "scaled" scores. Because of their grounding in this model, scaled MAT scores of 500-600 are extremely rare, as they would be more than four standard deviations above the norm of 400.

Percentile ranks are also provided along with the official score report. Test takers receive an overall percentile rank as well as a percentile rank within their intended graduate school discipline.
http://pediaview.com/openpedia/Miller_Analogies_Test

 

[sassafras]

Can you give us a little more info/background on this test, Anita? What is it testing exactly?

 

[Gaze]

Can you give us a little more info/background on this test, Anita? What is it testing exactly?

I posted a description in the OP.

 

[Siamese cat]

I did some of those, though nobody called them Miller analogies. If all questions are like the one you have posted it might be relatively okay, though I think that there is still room for those who pose those questions to make a mistake in making it.

I'll give an example of what that what I think refers to this type of analogy slightly differently posed:

If a mouse is represented with first, and the cat as second object on the picture

Then the sentence "Cat ate a mouse" equates to ?

What would be your answer to it?


I did several tests that consisted only of questions exactly how like the example you gave, and it was fine, I assume that someone with your broad knowledge should do more than fine on that type of test.

 

[Gaze]

I did some of those, though nobody called them Miller analogies. If all questions are like the one you have posted it might be relatively okay, though I think that there is still room for those who pose those questions to make a mistake in making it.

I'll give an example of what that what I think refers to this type of analogy slightly differently posed:

If a mouse is represented with first, and the cat as second object on the picture

Then the sentence "Cat eat a mouse" equates to ?

What would be your answer to it?

[MENTION=2300]Siamese cat[/MENTION]

Again, depends on the choices offered. It's more about selecting the relationship in the answer choices which most correlates with the relationship in the question. So, it depends. Of course, you could derive any number of relationships from the objects or ideas presented, so on some level it is subjective. But there are some relationships which can more reasonably correlate compared to other options.

I've always liked analogical reasoning compared to other types of reasoning because it made more sense than learning things by rote or recalling factual details. Storytelling uses analogical reasoning, as an example.

 

[Gaze]

what i'm a little concerned about with the MAT, is that it's not a "culture fair" test.

Culture-fair tests, also called culture-free tests, are designed to assess intelligence (or other attributes) without relying on knowledge specific to any individual cultural group.

http://www.enotes.com/gale-psychology-encyclopedia/culture-fair-test

 

[arbygil]

I took it, Anita. I had the option of either taking the MAT, or the GRE - and I opted for the MAT.

It's not bad, but it can be difficult. Sometimes the analogies don't make sense. Like, for example:

UNION JACK : VEXILLOLOGY

A. toad : ornithology
B. turtle : microbiology
C. gymnosperms : botany
D. friend : home economics
E. algae : zoology

First, you have to know the definitions of things. Then you have to know the relationships to the items. You may have math questions relating to psychology, or art relating to science. It's anyone's guess.

When I took the practice test I did fine, but when you're timed it's a lot more difficult (I think I had 90 minutes, and it wasn't enough). I did okay - enough for my program - but I was still bummed that I didn't do better.

Still, I preferred this to the GRE. At least I knew the ideas behind it, and I could figure it out. Better than getting a full math question I couldn't begin to solve.

 

[Gaze]

I took it, Anita. I had the option of either taking the MAT, or the GRE - and I opted for the MAT.

It's not bad, but it can be difficult. Sometimes the analogies don't make sense. Like, for example:



First, you have to know the definitions of things. Then you have to know the relationships to the items. You may have math questions relating to psychology, or art relating to science. It's anyone's guess.

When I took the practice test I did fine, but when you're timed it's a lot more difficult (I think I had 90 minutes, and it wasn't enough). I did okay - enough for my program - but I was still bummed that I didn't do better.

Still, I preferred this to the GRE. At least I knew the ideas behind it, and I could figure it out. Better than getting a full math question I couldn't begin to solve.

Yeah, i like the idea of taking it instead of the GRE, and i think i would do better on the MAT than the GRE. I'm a little afraid of the new GRE . I'd like to retake it in the next year but i don't want to get a score lower than i had the last time and i think it's a good possibility. This is why i'd rather take the MAT, and hope that it's acceptable for any programs I would apply to in the future. Although i still want to take the GRE just to see if i can do better than my last score.

And i like working on analogies. I'm just worried about the knowledge aspect - not sure i've kept up enough in the last few years to recognize all the cultural knowledge they may reference on the test.

 

[arbygil]

Yeah, i like the idea of taking it instead of the GRE, and i think i would do better on the MAT than the GRE. I'm a little afraid of the new GRE . I'd like to retake it in the next year but i don't want to get a score lower than i had the last time and i think it's a good possibility. This is why i'd rather take the MAT, and hope that it's acceptable for any programs I would apply to in the future. Although i still want to take the GRE just to see if i can do better than my last score.

And i like working on analogies. I'm just worried about the knowledge aspect - not sure i've kept up enough in the last few years to recognize all the cultural knowledge they may reference on the test.

You probably won't. And even if you understood the question, you might not understand all the answers. Even if the question is easy, you may still get the wrong answer if you think another answer might work.

It's easy, but it's not because it tests you in all areas: math, science, languages, English, history, political science, psychology...you name it. I liked it though because it made me think. Problem is, you don't have a lot of time to think when you're taking it.

 

[arbygil]

Oh; and when I took it it was 100 questions in 50 minutes. I swear it felt over an hour!

 

[Gaze]

Oh; and when I took it it was 100 questions in 50 minutes. I swear it felt over an hour!

They've now made it 120 questions in 60 minutes but supposedly 20 questions are experimental but of course test takers won't know which of them are.

I already took a practice test and did ok i guess, but they didn't give me a score just a percentile range - 75-85. So, i'm hoping if take some practice tests that this will improve my chances of moving into a higher percentile. Not sure if i'll get into the 90s but i'll try

 

[arbygil]

They've now made it 120 questions in 60 minutes but supposedly 20 questions are experimental but of course test takers won't know which of them are.

I already took a practice test and did ok i guess, but they didn't give me a score just a percentile range - 75-85. So, i'm hoping if take some practice tests that this will improve my chances of moving into a higher percentile. Not sure if i'll get into the 90s but i'll try

On the practice test I got 70s; on the real test I got 30 points lower. I also freaked when I saw I had twenty minutes left and I still had 30 questions...so I stared just filling in blanks hoping for a better score with the last twenty or so. Not the brightest idea in the world, but there ya go.

 

[Gaze]

On the practice test I got 70s; on the real test I got 30 points lower. I also freaked when I saw I had twenty minutes left and I still had 30 questions...so I stared just filling in blanks hoping for a better score with the last twenty or so. Not the brightest idea in the world, but there ya go.

yeah, i was rushing through the last 40 questions, but i realized that i did worse focusing on the time than just moving through the analogies since some are easier than others. I think the ones that were harder were the ones where i didn't know a term or there clearly wasn't an obvious relationship between them or trick questions where one choice seems obvious because of the word association when the real answer was in the relationship between the pairs of words, not the common or typical references which come to mind when we think of the word.

 

[Gaze]

what i like about analogical reasoning tests is that it measures associative intelligence; a taken for granted form of intelligence.

ASSOCIATIVE INTELLIGENCE is the ability to think in non-sequential associations -- similarities, differences, resonances, meanings, relationships, etc. -- and to create (and appreciate) totally new patterns and meanings out of old ones.
http://www.co-intelligence.org/multiIntelligence.html

 

[Gaze]

EQ. Associative thinking underlies most of our purely emotional intelligence (EQ) - the link between one emotion and another, between emotions and bodily feelings, emotions and the environment. It is also able to recognise patterns like faces or smells, and to learn bodily skills like riding a bicycle or driving a car. It is 'thinking' with the heart and the body and so is thought of as our 'emotional intelligence' or the 'body's intelligence'. The structures within the brain with which we do our associative thinking are known as neural networks. Each of these networks contains bundles of up to 100,000 neurones, and each neurone in a bundle may be connected to as many as 1,000 others. Unlike the precise wiring of neural tracts, in neural networks each neurone acts upon or is acted upon by, many others simultaneously.

Unlike serial neural tracts which are rule bound or program-bound and thus unable to learn, neural networks have the ability to rewire themselves in dialogue with experience. All associative learning is done by trial and error. This kind of learning is experience-based: the more times I perform a skill successfully, the more inclined I will be to do it that way next time. Associative learning is also tacit learning - I learn the skill, but I can't articulate any rules by which I learned it and usually can't even describe how I did so. Neural networks are not connected with our language faculty, nor with our ability to articulate concepts. They are simply imbedded in experience. We feel our skills, we do our skills, but we don't think or talk about them. We develop our skills because they give us a sense of satisfaction or a feeling of reward, or because they help us avoid pain.
Thus most emotions are developed by trial-and-error, a slow associative build-up of response to certain stimuli. and they are quite habit-bound. Once I have learned to feel anger at a given stimulus, it is difficult for me to react differently next time. Much of psychotherapy exists to help people break the habit of long-standing but inappropriate emotional association.
Like other aspects of associative intelligence, emotions are not immediately verbal. We often have trouble talking about them, at least with any accuracy, and they are certainly not always 'rational' in the sense of obeying rules or predictions. They often respond to incomplete data in unpredictable ways.
Associative intelligence is able to deal with ambiguous situations, but it is also 'approximate'. It is more flexible but less accurate that serial thinking. The disadvantages of this type of thinking are that it is slowly learned, inaccurate and tends to be habit-bound or tradition bound. We can relearn a skill or an emotional response, but it takes time and much effort. And because associative thinking is tacit, we often have difficulty sharing it with others. We can't just write out a formula and tell someone else to get on with the job. All of us must learn a skill in our own way, for ourselves. No two brains have the same set of neural connections.
Similarly, no two people have the same emotional life. I can recognise your emotion, I can empathise with it, but I don't have it.
​

http://www.minessence.net/articles/iq_eq_sq-differences.aspx
​

 

[arbygil]

Hmm!

Very, very interesting...

 

[Gaze]

Associative thinking also affects what we think about or remember based on our experiences, so when you're taking an analogy test, you're calling on your mental/emotional associations of a word beyond the literal or technical definitions to understand the words and understand the nature of the relationship between the words presented. If the vocab used on the test is fairly a common part of your vocabulary, then it's more memorable because you're familiar with their use and you've grown to understand their use in a particular set of contexts. So, the challenge to the analogies test is in recognizing new or unique forms of association not previously considered, beyond the everyday associations we have with the words or the relationship between pairs of words.

 

[gita_p]

Hello,

I would like to take this test soon. But I am having difficulties in finding the best place to take the test. I couldn't find any information about this test in my home country Indonesia.

Does anyone know how to solve this?

Thank you very much