OLSAT Level E cheat sheet

An antonym is a word of opposite meaning; the correct choice always matches the part of speech of the prompt word (noun to noun, verb to verb, adjective to adjective).

Reversing prefixes un-, in-, dis-, non-, and mis- flip a word's meaning, but a choice only counts if the resulting word is standard English (ungood is not a word).

Degree matters: a true antonym matches intensity, so cold is the opposite of hot while cool is only a weaker, wrong-direction-adjacent distractor.

Sentence completion order of testing: meaning first, then positive or negative tone, then grammar and usage, then whether the whole sentence reads naturally.

The words surrounding a blank fix its part of speech: a or an before the blank signals a singular noun; very signals an adjective or adverb; to signals a base verb.

Contrast signals (although, but, however, yet, despite) reverse the direction of meaning across the two halves of a sentence; cause signals (because, since, so, therefore) keep it in the same direction.

In sentence arrangement, the opener normally introduces a full noun rather than a pronoun; sentences beginning with it, they, this, or he must follow the sentence that supplies that referent.

Time and logic words (first, next, then, finally, as a result) set the order of a scrambled paragraph; a cause sentence precedes its effect sentence.

A closing sentence usually restates the topic or states a result, and rarely introduces a new named person, place, or object.

Analogy form is A : B :: C : ?; build one short sentence describing how A relates to B, then substitute C and test each option against that same sentence.

Direction of the relation must be preserved: a whole-to-part model pair requires a whole-to-part answer pair, and a reversed relation is the most common trap.

Standard analogy relations: synonym, antonym, category to member, whole to part, function, degree, cause to effect, worker to tool, worker to product, and object to material.

Odd-one-out items share a category that all but one item fit; the outlier typically fails on exactly one attribute, such as category, function, or physical property.

Beware the near member: an item in the same broad class but not the narrower shared class (a bat among birds of prey) does not belong with the group.

In logical selection, every stated condition is treated as strictly true; any answer choice that contradicts a statement is eliminated without further reasoning.

Quantifier precision: some means at least one and permits all; not all means at least one is excluded; none is the negation of some, not the negation of all.

If P then Q is contradicted only by P together with not Q; it never licenses the inference not P therefore not Q.

Following-directions items are executed one operation at a time, recording each object's state after every step so that no item is dropped, added twice, or swapped.

Picture classification: name the shared attribute of the majority (function, category, habitat, material) and select the picture that fails that attribute.

Picture analogy: state the left-pair change in words, such as whole becomes part or an insect gains wings, then apply that identical change to the right-hand picture.

Verify both the relation and its direction; an answer that applies the correct change backwards is the standard distractor.

Picture series: track each attribute separately (size, count, color, orientation, position), because several rules can run at once.

Numeric series inside pictures: record the object counts frame by frame and test for a constant addition, a doubling, or a short repeating cycle such as 2, 3, 2, 3.

Rotation series with quarter-turns repeat every four frames, so frame 5 normally equals frame 1 unless a second attribute changes independently.

When two rules each fit some frames, the simpler rule that fits every given frame is the intended one.

The correct answer must continue the sequence by one more step; it is not merely a picture that resembles the last frame.

Figural classification: compare side count, angle types, symmetry lines, and number of closed regions; the outlier differs on exactly one of these counts.

Figural analogy: describe the transformation precisely (rotate 90 degrees, reflect horizontally, add one line, shade one region), then apply it once to the second figure.

Reflection reverses orientation, so a detail facing left becomes one facing right; rotation preserves orientation and only turns the figure.

Pattern completion: extend every line to the border, and require the missing piece to match line position, angle, and shading at every edge.

Paper folding: each fold doubles the number of layers, so one punch yields 2 holes after one fold, 4 holes after two folds, and 8 after three folds.

A punch landing exactly on a fold line produces one hole instead of two, because the mirrored halves coincide.

Unfold in the reverse order of folding, mirroring each hole across the most recent fold line at each step.

In 2x2 or 3x3 figure matrices, the row rule and the column rule must both hold; identify the attribute that changes along only one axis to isolate the missing cell.

Number series first step: subtract each term from the next; a constant difference identifies an arithmetic series and fixes the next term.

If first differences are not constant, test second differences; if the series alternates, split it into odd-position and even-position subsequences.

Recurring rules: constant addition, constant multiplication, squares (1, 4, 9, 16, 25), cubes (1, 8, 27, 64), primes (2, 3, 5, 7, 11), and each term equal to the sum of the previous two.

Numeric inference: translate the words into an equation before computing, keeping units aligned; total equals rate multiplied by number of units.

How many more or how many fewer problems are solved by subtraction of the smaller quantity from the larger, in the order the question requests.

Number puzzles: use the given total to solve for one unknown, substitute it, then check the result against every stated condition.

Number analogies apply one identical operation to both pairs, as in 3 : 12 :: 5 : 20, where the rule is multiply by 4.

Estimate before computing: when answer choices are widely spaced, rounding to the nearest ten confirms the correct option quickly.

Distinguish must be from could be: a must-be answer holds for every arrangement the conditions allow, while a could-be answer needs only one.