Logic Games – Approach #Help

Trusttheprocess

Hey 7sagers,
I am right now in the midst of doing practice LG sections from PT36 and up. I am timing up, meaning I trying to feel out how many minutes I am behind/ahead in LG sections. The LG commentary videos are very helpful. So far, these are my observations:

• Usually either 0 – 4 wrong
• Timing on sequencing games are not going as fast as JY seems to be mentioning to get them done in. For example, my sequencing games are around 8:20, however some of the games that I have completed JY has mentioned to get them completed in 7 mins or under.
• MISC games are time killers for me and I am having difficulty in figuring out if the game is MISC or not. Usually they take me 10 – 15 mins sometimes and are the main reason why I can be anywhere b/w 0 – 7 mins above the 35 minute time frame.
• Usually questions I do get wrong are due to not diagramming a particular rule in the game accurately

Before I start doing my timed LG sections (PTs 52 & above) – I really wanted to iron out my approach to this section that I can implement in my current phase. This is usually what I try to do:
1- Get the first game in the section done immediately, regardless of what it is.
2- Thereafter, scan the other games and look for the first question in each of them to see if a game board description is given in the ACs (example: sequencing games will have all the elements in a row in the AC). Based upon my game comfortability, I will choose the next game
3- If I see a MISC game type (which I am having difficulty in deciphering), I try my best to skip it and come back to it at the end.

I am not sure if this above approach of mine is a good idea. Just wanted to ask other 7sagers what’s their approach when doing LG? How do you think I can improve mine? How did you improve on the timing of the LG section?
Thanks for all your advice in advance. 😊

chicago234

-Practice your logic. Having logic down really well is the easiest way to speed up. Even if this isn't what your diagramming error is from, I'd still practice this.
- look for patterns wrt your diagramming error, and try to fix the pattern. you'll be a lot more comfortable with the various game boards when you've repeated the games a lot. recently identifying the type of game isn't an issue for me because I've done a lot of games, and the game boards are all really repetitive (except for MISC)
- the key to LG imo is doing the easy games really quickly so you have more time for the hard games. 10-15 for a 5 star MISC game wouldn't be that bad/might even be reasonable. I think you're diagnosing your time problems incorrectly. I would imagine they come more from taking too much time on the easy games. When fool proofing, try to do 1 and 2 star games in 4 minutes or less. On my last LG I spent 8 minutes total to finish the first 2 games, no Qs wrong on those two games. I got tripped up by a 5 star game but still did well because of how much time I had.
-especially for sequencing games if that's where you're struggling, try to identify where you're burning time. (this applies to all sections and is as helpful imo as the CC) Where do the psyshometricians that write the test cause you to waste your time (and knowing that they're trying to get you to waste your time)? Maybe you're not spending enough time making inferences up front. maybe if you find a question that you don't know what to do on, you spend 20-30 seconds thinking about what to do before just brute forcing it. Maybe when writing down a new game board you write kinda slow because you're confused/discouraged. Maybe when you can't find the right answer easily you go back to the rules to see if you wrote something down wrong, made a logical error, etc. maybe you're spending too much time deciding which question to do. Everyone's different. My main time sinks were not making inferences up front (I now force myself to spend at least a full minute thinking about how the pieces interact for each game, otherwise I jump into the questions too early) and hovering around various questions if I don't know what to do next.
My current approach is to do the games in order, and I skip a game if I think it seems difficult. I also skip substitution questions, which appear on later prep tests, until I have answered all the other questions. Skimming the games and deciding which to do next could work for some people, but I think it burns too much time and could lead to indecision or doubting if you made the write choice.
Congrats on your scores thus far that's a very good starting point! Hope this helps!

Trusttheprocess

@ncarball

Hey,

Just wanted to ask you a follow up question: how are you able to do the "easy" LG so quickly? For me, reading the rules + digesting the game boards + making inferences I am feel takes me 3-5 mins (at the most). Doing the questions thereafter do not take me to long.

Are there any tips you'd recommend? How did you take the 8 min games down so quickly to 5 mins?

I really appreciate your diagramming error recommendation and my question "trend error" recommendation. Will be going back through my last few sections and going over all the rules and as well as making a note of the questions that I had difficulty with.

Thanks in advance.

chicago234

It takes a decent amount of practice do the easier games really quickly. The game boards are all really repetitive (except for MISC games) so just keep practicing and the time it takes you to know what the game board is will decrease. try doing speed foolproofing where you try to answer all the questions and prove all the inferences in writing in decreasing amounts of time (this really helps you to practice writing quickly) (and note if this leads to making mistakes or writing down the game or pieces less legibly) (i.e. I had a lot of trouble with U and V pieces when I would try to increase my speed, so now I always write U more like a 3 sided square sort of a thing), finishing with trying to complete simpler sequencing and grouping games in 4-5 minutes (and note what it takes to do it this quickly). and practice when to split and when not to split (and when you mess up and decide to split and it's not helpful). depending on the number of slots in a sequencing game, I won't write all the numbers underneath (like for a 5 slot game I just write a 3 under the third slot). I wouldn't worry too much about time this early on, as the time it takes to identify the type of game decreases a lot the more games you do. But I do think that it's very possible to speed up the speed at which you write down the rules, set up the master game board (I generally don't rush through inferences bc they almost always end up saving time) and any time it takes to copy down the game board. Another strategy that I am quite fond of is, after writing down the rules for the game, while you're thinking about how they interact with each other, just copy down a bunch of blank game boards. (this might not work for you, but I can pretty mindlessly write a bunch of game boards, especially for sequencing games, while still fully thinking about how the rules will interact with each other, and then I don't have to write out as many game boards during the questions). try doing this and see if you like the strategy. Another thing that I did that I think helped a lot was to listen to JYs explanations without looking at the screen sometimes. I have youtube premium so I would download some LGs and listen to them on the walk to class. and then pause the audio after he reads each question stem and think about all the possible correct answers by imagining the game board in your head.
TLDR (I'm really bad at concise messages sorry):
1)"Speed foolproofing" (start with however long the game took you and then decrease the amount of time you give yourself to re-complete the game by 1min or 30 seconds each time (prove out the answers, don't just select the correct answers).
2) trying to do games mentally while just listening to the audio and imagining the board and pieces in your mind.
3) identifying personal things that slow you down
4) not worrying because you'll speed up as you get more comfortable with the repetitiveness of the games structures and the inferences
Best of luck! Hope this helps!