Barron's How to Prepare for the MAT: Miller Analogies Test, 9th Edition

by Robert J. Sternberg

The Miller Analogies Test is widely used to screen applicants to graduate level academic programs and as a placement exam for management positions in many businesses. It is a timed word-association test. This updated manual prepares applicants by presenting a diagnostic test and ten additional full-length practice exams. Self-scoring answer keys follow each test, and answer sheets for test-takers' use are located at the back of the book. Test-takers will also find approximately 1300 additional practice exam questions with answers, plus advice on solving analogy problems. This edition's updated introduction fully explains recent revisions to the MAT test, including the addition of experimental questions, many of which are included among this manual's added practice questions. Helpful brush-up check lists cover graduate level vocabulary with brief definitions, selected foreign words and phrases used in English and their meanings, and names of important persons in history, science, technology, and the arts that test-takers should recognize.

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Robert J. Sternberg's spectacular research career in psychology had a rather inauspicious beginning. In elementary school he performed poorly on IQ tests, and his teachers' actions conveyed their low expectations for his future progress. Everything changed when his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Alexa, saw that he had potential and challenged him to do better. With her encouragement, he became a high-achieving student, eventually graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University. In a gesture of gratitude, Dr. Sternberg dedicated his book, Successful Intelligence to Mrs. Alexa.

Dr. Sternberg's personal experiences with intelligence testing in elementary school lead him to create his own intelligence test for a 7 th grade science project. He happened to find the Stanford-Binet scales in the local library, and with unintentional impertinence, began administering the test to his classmates; his own test, the Sternberg Test of Mental Abilities (STOMA) appeared shortly thereafter. In subsequent years he distinguished himself in many domains of psychology, having published influential theories relating to intelligence, creativity, wisdom, thinking styles, love and hate.

Dr. Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of (Successful) Intelligence contends that intelligent behavior arises from a balance between analytical, creative and practical abilities, and that these abilities function collectively to allow individuals to achieve success within particular sociocultural contexts. Analytical abilities enable the individual to evaluate, analyze, compare and contrast information. Creative abilities generate invention, discovery, and other creative endeavors. Practical abilities tie everything together by allowing individuals to apply what they have learned in the appropriate setting. To be successful in life the individual must make the best use of his or her analytical, creative and practical strengths, while at the same time compensating for weaknesses in any of these areas. This might involve working on improving weak areas to become better adapted to the needs of a particular environment, or choosing to work in an environment that values the individual's particular strengths. For example, a person with highly developed analytical and practical abilities, but with less well-developed creative abilities, might choose to work in a field that values technical expertise but does not require a great deal of imaginative thinking. Conversely, if the chosen career does value creative abilities, the individual can use his or her analytical strengths to come up with strategies for improving this weakness. Thus, a central feature of the triarchic theory of successful intelligence is adaptability-both within the individual and within the individual's sociocultural context.

Reviews

[Michael Goodine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tracked down this old study guide to read on November 15, 2023... the day of the final administration of the MAT. Rest in Peace, MAT.

Introduced in 1926 (the same year as the SAT), the MAT was created by W. S. Miller of the University of Minnesota to assess applicants to graduate schools, it was offered (for that purpose) by a series of owners, including the Psychological Corporation, Harcourt and (finally) Pearson.

It’s a weird little test. People used to have such faith in analogies as a tool to predict graduate school performance. And the MAT was nothing but analogies. I guess the end of the MAT means the end of analogies as an assessment tool.

Here's an analogy (not from this book, but from the most recent official MAT study guide):

Plane : Air :: Car : (a. motorcycle, b. engine, c. land, d. atmosphere)

That makes sense.

But then you get ones like this:

Frost : Poetry :: Miller : (a. grain, b. drama, c. literature, d. bard)

Or, good lord, ones like this:

Napoleon : Pergola :: (a. baker, b. general, c. lumber, d. trellis) : Carpenter

You can only solve that one if you realize that a Napoleon is a tasty pastry. Not if you think of Napoleon as a French general.

As the author of this book points out, the MAT was not so useful as a predictor of academic success. That said, neither were/are the other tests used for grad school admission.

[Caroline]

Mostly practice tests with a little bit of info on content. Only took 3 or 4 tests.

[Tanesha]

Made me cry!

[Sylvia Pachecano]

Wish me luck, guys! I want to take the exam before Nov. and start school at TWU in January!