LG improvement in 1 WEEK?

Amrina96k

So I've done many logical games and fool proofed them by watching the explanation videos. Everything gets so much easier when doing it the second time after watching how it's done. I overall understand a majority of logical games, however, I am still struggling with finishing all of them on time. I end up spending 8-9 minutes on average on each game, so I can never get around completing all four games.
Any last minute suggestions that could help me improve on this section for next week?
I did the November lsat and got -5 on the LG section. I'm looking to improve my score by 4-5 points, so an increase in this section will definitely help.

Alex

So much of games is banking time so you have enough to finish the last game(s). Have you tried recording yourself taking a section? Where are you spending your time? That’s the first thing you want to figure out.

A few tips that helped me with time:

-If you’re brute forcing answers, you can be more strategic. Look at your rules first to see which game peices are most restricted.

-Once you find the answer, especially on the easy games, choose it and move on. Checking other answers may give you confidence, but it comes at the cost of time. So it’s always a constant trade off.

-Be deliberate with the order in which you do the questions. Do the ones that give you an additional premise first so you have more info when doing the naked MBT/CBT questions.

-Consider whether a game is rule-driven or is better suited for splitting/making inferences. There are some games you can do in under 5 minutes with the right inferences/game boards that can otherwise take double the amount of time.

Amrina96k

@Alex said:
So much of games is banking time so you have enough to finish the last game(s). Have you tried recording yourself taking a section? Where are you spending your time? That’s the first thing you want to figure out.

A few tips that helped me with time:

-If you’re brute forcing answers, you can be more strategic. Look at your rules first to see which game peices are most restricted.

-Once you find the answer, especially on the easy games, choose it and move on. Checking other answers may give you confidence, but it comes at the cost of time. So it’s always a constant trade off.

-Be deliberate with the order in which you do the questions. Do the ones that give you an additional premise first so you have more info when doing the naked MBT/CBT questions.

-Consider whether a game is rule-driven or is better suited for splitting/making inferences. There are some games you can do in under 5 minutes with the right inferences/game boards that can otherwise take double the amount of time.

Thank you so much for your reply!
So i spend most of my time when answering questions. I'm able to set up the main diagram in a short period of time, however, it takes me a lot of time when i have to answer the questions. For instance, when i have to plug in a specific game piece and create new diagrams for individual questions. I end up getting to the correct answer, it just takes a lot of time.

DivineRaze

@Alex Hey whats the best way to figure out if a game is rule driven or inference/splitting driven?

Alex

@Amrina96k said:

@Alex said:
So much of games is banking time so you have enough to finish the last game(s). Have you tried recording yourself taking a section? Where are you spending your time? That’s the first thing you want to figure out.

A few tips that helped me with time:

-If you’re brute forcing answers, you can be more strategic. Look at your rules first to see which game peices are most restricted.

-Once you find the answer, especially on the easy games, choose it and move on. Checking other answers may give you confidence, but it comes at the cost of time. So it’s always a constant trade off.

-Be deliberate with the order in which you do the questions. Do the ones that give you an additional premise first so you have more info when doing the naked MBT/CBT questions.

-Consider whether a game is rule-driven or is better suited for splitting/making inferences. There are some games you can do in under 5 minutes with the right inferences/game boards that can otherwise take double the amount of time.

Thank you so much for your reply!
So i spend most of my time when answering questions. I'm able to set up the main diagram in a short period of time, however, it takes me a lot of time when i have to answer the questions. For instance, when i have to plug in a specific game piece and create new diagrams for individual questions. I end up getting to the correct answer, it just takes a lot of time.

So I think you'll want to do a few things. First, like I wrote above, be strategic when you're looking for the correct answer. One way to do this is to check the answers for each inference you make once you plug in a piece into your new gameboard. All of these types of questions are just trying to see if you can make the correct inference.

Let's say they ask you "What MBT if F is performing on day 2."

Write out your gameboard and plug F into day 2. Okay, what are the effects of that? Well, if F is in 2 then maybe that box item might be relegated to be in the last two days. Maybe F can't perform on the day before or after G performs. So where does that relegate G? Maybe G will have to be in day 6 now, and R that can either be in 1 or 6 is forced into 1... The point is, consider your rules and what is forced to happen when F is in 2. Each time you make a new inference, check the answers choices for that inference. Often, they're only a layer or two down on the inference chain.

You also want to avoid just blindly trying out answers. Sometimes, there's no other way, but 9/10 times there's strategy involved. Look at your rules first and see which game pieces are most restricted. For instance, let's say you have a floater that is unrestricted in where it can be placed. You probably don't want to start there when trying out MBT answers. OR, alternatively, on a CBT, you might want to start exactly there!

You say you do your gameboard set ups relatively quickly. You might want to be spending more time there if you find yourself brute forcing a lot of the answers. I generally spend 1:30-2:00 minutes on my gameboard and inferences before hitting the questions. More time if I split the boards up. But that is almost always time well spent because the value add comes back-end when you can answer the questions quicker and with more confidence. Don't ever diminish the value of confidence on games... Being confident is the best bulwark against stress and the careless mistakes that come with it.

Alex

@DivineRaze said:
@Alex Hey whats the best way to figure out if a game is rule driven or inference/splitting driven?

Basically, rule-driven games are ones that don't have many inferences to be made up front. They generally have only a 2-3 rules or several that don't combine to make any helpful inferences.

Imagine you're given these rules:

7 companies ----G, R, S, Q, X, Y, Z---- are being given awards one at a time from 1pm to 7pm. The order in which the awards are given must follow these rules:

G must be given an award before both R and Z

   R
/

G
\
Z

X must be given an award before Y

X --- Y

You can't really combine these two rules or make any meaningful inferences here. So without more info it's looking like a rule driven game!

Hope this helps!

MindyKale

@Alex Hi
@DivineRaze I think good example of rule driven games are the game in PT 79 which I don't want to spoil too much if you haven't done it.
Wherein you can pretty much not determine information about exact position of game pieces on game board. I have found that for these sort of games, you are rewarded if you don't try to make too many inferences up front, go with the questions and increase your understanding of the game from there.
For games that depend on inference making--certain rules tend to be very powerful to help make inferences, or and not both in in/out games, sequential chains in seq games and so on. The rules can help determine where some of the variables place exactly on the game board.

Alex

@MindyKale said:
@Alex Hi
@DivineRaze I think good example of rule driven games are the game in PT 79 which I don't want to spoil too much if you haven't done it.
Wherein you can pretty much not determine information about exact position of game pieces on game board. I have found that for these sort of games, you are rewarded if you don't try to make too many inferences up front, go with the questions and increase your understanding of the game from there.
For games that depend on inference making--certain rules tend to be very powerful to help make inferences, or and not both in in/out games, sequential chains in seq games and so on. The rules can help determine where some of the variables place exactly on the game board.

Mindy! I miss you!

Also, this is solid advice on rule-driven games.