How to Tackle 'Open Ended' Questions (P23.S3.G3.Q18 - Compositions)

kshutes13

PrepTest 23.Section 3.Game3.Q18 (https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-32-section-3-game-3/)

Questions like 18 always get me confused. I was able to narrow R down to 6 and 7 fine, but after that, I just didn’t know where to go. None of the other rules seemed immediately relevant, and then I started stressing out because I didn’t know where to go from there.

The way JY explained it made complete sense but it would have been a huge time sink for me. I.e. making the inference that if R goes into 7, then we remember our rule that S can’t go into 6 or 4, which means P & S must go into 1 and 3, which means T won’t be able to go before F or after R. As I am very new to logic games, interpreting or making all those inferences in my head in a short amount of time has been really hard for me. This did not come naturally to me and I was completely stuck -__-

Does anybody have advice for a question like this where, once you get to a certain point it becomes very open-ended (i.e. multiple slots open with no immediately obvious rule to jump to)? Is it really just trial and error?

I am aware that this is a relatively easy game but I am struggling with LG in general lol

10000019

@kshutes13
In the question you mentioned my approach was:
- Got it down to 6/7
- Decided I was going to brute force. I decided to put R into 7 to begin with because it was more restrictive. When you put R into 7, you then have to put T in front of F.

Sometimes you need to quickly sketch and test possibilities. You should be comfortable quickly drawing out possibilities based on the rules you have.

akistotle

Since this is a MBT question, I would only come up with one scenario.

The question gives us [F＿ ＿O] block.

＿ F＿ ＿ O＿ ＿ L/H

R has to be in 6/7 because of rule (2).

Then, follow the original rules from the top. (1) Use either [TF] block or [RT] block. I'd just use [TF] block.

T F＿ ＿ O＿ ＿ L/H

(5) P - S (=S cannot be in 3)
(6) (O＿ ... S) (= S can only be in 3 or 7)

S is in 7 in this scenario. So R must be in 6.

It's actually easier to use [RT] block.

＿ F＿ ＿ O [R T] L/H

P F S H/L O [R T] L/H

@kshutes13 said:
None of the other rules seemed immediately relevant, and then I started stressing out because I didn’t know where to go from there.

No matter how good you are at LG, this happens! Under the timed pressure, I panic all the time. So my advice is to use follow the rules from the top. Calmly.

kshutes13

@akistotle said:
Since this is a MBT question, I would only come up with one scenario.

The question gives us [F＿ ＿O] block.

＿ F＿ ＿ O＿ ＿ L/H

R has to be in 6/7 because of rule (2).

Then, follow the original rules from the top. (1) Use either [TF] block or [RT] block. I'd just use [TF] block.

T F＿ ＿ O＿ ＿ L/H

(5) P - S (=S cannot be in 3)
(6) (O＿ ... S) (= S can only be in 3 or 7)

S is in 7 in this scenario. So R must be in 6.

It's actually easier to use [RT] block.

＿ F＿ ＿ O [R T] L/H

P F S H/L O [R T] L/H

@kshutes13 said:
None of the other rules seemed immediately relevant, and then I started stressing out because I didn’t know where to go from there.

No matter how good you are at LG, this happens! Under the timed pressure, I panic all the time. So my advice is to use follow the rules from the top. Calmly.

You are the best @akistotle. Thank you!!!

kshutes13

@10000019 said:
@kshutes13
In the question you mentioned my approach was:
- Got it down to 6/7
- Decided I was going to brute force. I decided to put R into 7 to begin with because it was more restrictive. When you put R into 7, you then have to put T in front of F.

Sometimes you need to quickly sketch and test possibilities. You should be comfortable quickly drawing out possibilities based on the rules you have.

Thank you @10000019 !! I'm going to work at practicing testing possibilities in a timely fashion, hopefully that can help!

akistotle

I'm glad you found it helpful, @kshutes13! Also, don't worry about the difficulty rating of the games/questions. We tend to think that sequencing games are easy and that we have to do this quickly. And we try to jump to certain rules immediately, but I think it's actually quicker to follow the rules from the top especially under the timed condition when you start panicking.