The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is a standardized graduate school admissions exam that measures analytical ability through analogy completion. Unlike most admissions tests, the MAT has a singular focus: it presents 120 analogy questions and nothing else. No quantitative section, no verbal reading comprehension, no essays. Just analogies — 120 of them, across a wide range of content areas.
Developed by Frank L. Miller in the 1920s and now administered by Pearson, the MAT has been used by graduate programs for decades as a measure of academic aptitude. Many doctoral programs and some master's programs require or accept MAT scores as an alternative to the GRE. Psychology doctoral programs in particular use the MAT frequently.
The test is 60 minutes long. You complete 120 analogy items. Scores are reported on a scaled score from 200 to 600, with a mean around 400 and a standard deviation of approximately 25. Percentile ranks are reported by field of study — a score that's strong for one graduate program may be average for another.
An analogy on the MAT presents a relationship between terms and asks you to complete a parallel relationship. The standard format is:
A : B :: C : D
Read as "A is to B as C is to D." One of the four terms is missing, and you choose from four options to complete the analogy correctly.
Example: DOCTOR : MEDICINE :: LAWYER : ___
(Answer: LAW — A doctor practices medicine; a lawyer practices law.)
That example is simple. MAT analogies cover the full range from straightforward to genuinely challenging, pulling from:
Vocabulary and language. Synonyms, antonyms, word roots, grammatical relationships. Many questions test whether you know rare or academic words.
General knowledge. History, literature, art, music, philosophy, science, mathematics. The MAT is intentionally wide-ranging in its content — you can't prepare by mastering a single subject.
Logical and mathematical relationships. Part-to-whole, cause-and-effect, numerical patterns, category hierarchies.
Scientific and technical content. Chemistry, biology, physics, geography. Not at expert depth, but broad knowledge is tested.
The breadth of content coverage is what makes the MAT challenging. You can't study for it the way you study for a chemistry exam — you need to have a wide base of general knowledge across many fields, plus strong analogy-reasoning skills.
The MAT is primarily used for graduate school admissions. Programs that commonly use it include:
Psychology doctoral programs. Many PsyD and some PhD programs require or accept the MAT. The test's cognitive ability orientation makes it a natural fit for psychology program admissions.
Education graduate programs. Master's and doctoral programs in education frequently list the MAT as an acceptable admissions exam, sometimes preferring it to the GRE for teacher preparation programs.
Other graduate programs. Various social science, humanities, and professional graduate programs accept the MAT. Check your specific target programs — requirements vary widely.
Some test-takers choose the MAT over the GRE because it's shorter, cheaper to take, and — for those with strong vocabulary and broad general knowledge — may be a better showcase of their strengths than a test with a large quantitative component.
The Miller Analogies Test overview covers the exam in detail including accepted programs and how scores are used in admissions decisions.
The MAT consists of 120 analogy items, of which 100 are scored and 20 are experimental (pilot questions being evaluated for future use). You won't know which items are experimental — treat every question seriously.
Time limit: 60 minutes. That's 30 seconds per question if you divide evenly — in practice, some questions take 5 seconds and others might take 45 seconds. Managing your pace is important. Don't get stuck on a single hard question for too long; move on and come back if time permits.
There's no penalty for wrong answers (no guessing penalty). If you're unsure, make your best educated guess and move on. Leaving questions blank helps nobody.
Scoring:
Your raw score (number correct out of 100) is converted to a scaled score between 200 and 600. The scaled score accounts for slight variation in difficulty across different test forms. The mean scaled score for all test-takers is approximately 400, with a standard deviation of roughly 25.
Percentile ranks are reported separately by candidate group and field of study — this is important because what counts as a competitive score varies by program and field. A 420 might be the 60th percentile overall but the 40th percentile among applicants to a highly competitive doctoral program in your field. Programs often provide their own median or mean MAT score for accepted students — find those numbers for your target programs.
Scores are valid for five years. You can retake the MAT if you're not satisfied with your score, with a 30-day waiting period between attempts.
MAT analogies follow several common relationship patterns. Recognizing these patterns quickly helps you work through questions efficiently:
Semantic relationships. Synonyms (HAPPY : JOYFUL), antonyms (HOT : COLD), broader/narrower terms (FRUIT : APPLE), part-to-whole (CHAPTER : BOOK).
Functional relationships. A tool and what it does (HAMMER : NAIL), a person and their work (ARTIST : PAINTING), cause and effect.
Classifying relationships. Something is a type of something else (SONNET : POEM), or a member of a category (PARIS : CITY).
Sequential or mathematical relationships. Numbers in a series, order of operations, historical chronology.
Linguistic/grammatical relationships. Verb tenses, suffixes, prefixes, word roots (AQUA : WATER for Latin roots).
Factual knowledge relationships. These are where general knowledge matters — knowing that Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, that the Mississippi flows to the Gulf of Mexico, or that Rembrandt was Dutch allows you to complete analogies that pure reasoning alone can't solve.
The fact that the MAT tests both reasoning and knowledge is what makes preparation genuinely useful — building your general knowledge base improves your score on a predictable category of questions.
MAT preparation is different from preparing for content-based exams. You can't master specific chapters — you're building broad knowledge and analogy-reasoning skills.
Vocabulary expansion. Many MAT questions turn on knowing the precise meaning of academic, technical, or uncommon words. Systematic vocabulary study — using MAT-specific word lists or GRE vocabulary resources — builds the knowledge base that vocabulary-based analogies require. This takes months of consistent work, not last-minute cramming.
General knowledge study. The MAT draws from history, literature, science, mathematics, art, music, and philosophy. Reading broadly — history books, science journalism, literary fiction — builds the general knowledge that factual analogy questions require. Some test-takers use MAT prep books that organize general knowledge by category.
Analogy practice. Working through analogy questions builds pattern recognition. You start to recognize common analogy structures instantly, which frees up cognitive resources for the harder content-dependent questions. Practice tests are essential.
Timed practice. The 60-minute time limit with 120 questions is real pressure. Practice timed sets of 30 or 60 questions to build pacing. You need to be comfortable skipping hard questions and coming back rather than agonizing over single items.
For structured MAT practice questions organized by content area and relationship type, the MAT practice questions guide offers organized preparation across all the major analogy categories.
The MAT is administered at authorized testing centers — not at major testing company facilities like Prometric or Pearson VUE, but at specially authorized institutions (often universities, graduate schools, or counseling centers). You find a testing center through the Pearson website.
The testing fee is approximately $75-$100 (fees vary by testing center and may change). This is considerably less than the GRE, which is one reason some test-takers prefer it.
You register with the testing center directly rather than through a central Pearson registration system. Contact your testing center for appointment availability, required identification, and payment procedures. Testing centers have different schedules and procedures — some offer testing on specific days of the week, others more flexibly.
Scores are reported to you and to your designated graduate programs. You can designate up to three programs at no additional cost at the time of testing. Additional score reports are available for a fee.
The MAT exam guide covers registration details, testing center locations, and score reporting procedures for applicants preparing to apply.
If your target programs accept either the MAT or the GRE, how do you choose? A few practical considerations:
If you're strong in quantitative reasoning — if math is a genuine strength — the GRE might showcase that better than the MAT, which has no math section.
If you have strong vocabulary and broad general knowledge but find quantitative tests anxiety-inducing or difficult, the MAT plays to your strengths without the math section.
If your target programs are specifically psychology, education, or social science doctoral programs, the MAT may be more specifically relevant to what those programs are looking for.
The MAT is shorter and cheaper than the GRE. If cost or time is a factor, that matters.
Some test-takers take both and submit whichever scores look stronger for specific programs. That's a valid strategy if you're applying broadly.
The MAT rewards a particular kind of intellectual breadth — wide vocabulary, solid general knowledge, and the ability to see relationships quickly. If those are your strengths, the MAT is a legitimate showcase of your abilities for graduate admissions. If they're not currently your strengths, they're buildable with the right preparation strategy.
Start vocabulary study now if you haven't. This is the preparation activity with the longest payoff horizon — you can't cram 1,000 academic words into a week. Daily study of 15-20 words using flashcards or spaced repetition apps builds vocabulary far more effectively than any intensive short-term approach.
Pair that with analogy practice. The Miller Analogies Test practice resources let you work through analogy questions under timed conditions and get feedback on which content areas and relationship types are giving you trouble. Use that information to direct your study.
The MAT is available on a flexible schedule at authorized testing centers. Take the time you need to prepare properly before scheduling your test date. Rushed preparation usually produces disappointing scores, and a second attempt means another 30-day wait and another testing fee. Prepare well, test once, and submit strong scores to your target programs.