Good on Individual Games, Terrible Timed Sections

devinstelter

Hey all!

I have currently taken 3 PT's and am confident on the LR and RC sections (still room for improvement, but doing well). However, I am consistently getting annihilated in the LG sections (like -10 average). When I am fool proofing individual games, I usually complete them under or close to under the suggested time, but when I take timed sections I still end up usually completing only 3 games and miss 10 questions. I don't know if it is solely a product of the added stress of the clock or if my strategy is just messed up. I usually try to initially find easier games to start with, but I noticed on the last timed section I did I skipped to other games before completing the one I was on. Do others see this as detrimental? I also find myself brute forcing the questions and plugging in the answer choices quite often. It seems I have a difficult time making the inferences up front under timed conditions. Does anyone else struggle with this?

I guess I am wondering if I just need to keep fool proofing the games from the PT's I've already took, or if anyone has specific strategies they use for reducing the stress of the clock? I'm currently doing 1-2 timed sections a day and 1 PT a week. Any help is appreciated!

Return On Inference

So, I was in a similar situation to you a few months back when I began to fullproof LG. I was getting wrecked on PTs despite getting the games under time when FPing, and I was missing 10-15+ questions per section.

For me, this basically boiled down to me doing 2 crucial mistakes:

1) Not performing key habits under time pressure

and

2) Not splitting the game board when necessary

To correct these issues, I first began by being incredibly strict with myself when it came to fool-proofing games. I only let myself move on to the next game if I felt like I had gone through all of the key habits and did the game 'perfectly'.

So even if I finished a game under time, if I had forgotten to do ANY of the key habits like checking for floaters, checking off rules, or crossing off redundant rules once they're represented on the board then I would redo the game. And I would keep redoing the game until I felt like I had done it perfectly. This made sure I drilled all of those key habits deep into my unconscious so when I did PTs it was like I was on autopilot.

I also find myself brute forcing the questions and plugging in the answer choices quite often. It seems I have a difficult time making the inferences up front under timed conditions. Does anyone else struggle with this?

This sounds a lot like the problem I had with splitting the game board. What helped me with this was when I would foolproof, I would always spend time up front trying to make inferences, and then try to make a conscious decision whether or not to split the board. One thing that really helps me when deciding to split or not is to glance at the questions. If you look at the questions and there's several 'could be true' or open ended questions, it's a good sign to split.

Generally, 'could be true' questions will start with the word 'which' and questions that give additional rules will start with the word 'if'. So scanning the questions should only take 3-5 seconds.

A good example of what I mean by this is given by PT68 S4 G1. When I did my timed drill a few days ago, I was tempted not to split because I didn't feel that the rules were all that restrictive, but then I glanced at the questions and saw 4 'which' questions and decided to split. Splitting makes the game so much quicker, so the 3-5 seconds I spent glancing at the questions translated into a lot of saved time.

devinstelter

Thank you so much for sharing your strategies! I will have to really force myself to perfect every game while fool proofing. I think I also am too hard on myself when I do make mistakes, which only exacerbates the issues.

I agree that splitting is key, but I don’t think I make a conscious effort to do so up front. I could see that making a big difference versus plugging in game pieces at random and then spiraling out of control, haha.

One again, thanks for the direction! I think I am just overwhelmed and needed some more concrete steps to stick to.

I wanna sleep

Hi @devinstelter, I closely reviewed JY's advice for LG speed and accuracy, which helped me to overcome the same problems after a few tries. Please review this lesson https://7sage.com/lesson/logic-games-habits-for-speed-and-accuracy/ , and summarize the steps and suggestions in that lesson. Some of the steps may sound unnecessary, but give them a try, and you will eventually come up with your own strategy.

Seeking Perfection

It sounds like it might also benefit you to foolproof games by section that way you get more practice completing sections under the time limit. Do the section noting whether you complete it on time. If you don't conplete it perfectly under time then watch the four videos and redo the section. Repeat until you finish fast with full confidence.