Test in 10 days, LGs are killing me, any advice?

lucidpersian

I'm hitting 2 games with a few mistakes, but then I get to the third and fourth and I get overwhelmed because I took too long on the first two. Today, I scored a 159 on my practice test because I only got 11 right in LG, but the rest I was satisfied about relative to how terrible my LGs are. (23 in RC, 21 & 17 in LR)

Do I just need to foolproof LGs up until the test day?

jasminesade

Hey! I would say yes to fool proofing, but certainly don't overdo it. I don't think there's much that can be learned in 10 days. Right now focus on getting your confidence up. By that I mean, maybe go back to sections that you felt great doing and re-doing a few games you had trouble with, watching the video J.Y. has up, and seeing exactly where your mistakes are happening, especially if they are repetitive mistakes. If you notice a recurring pattern, then make sure you pay more attention next time around. At the beginning of my studies I would take logic games and make sure to finish them in the recommended time J.Y. puts in the videos. I would do them so many times over until it was at or below that time. If timing is an issue, then focus on that. But, if you are also missing lots of questions then focus on your set-up and try anticipating the game/making inferences - this will make it easier to go thru a game and quicker.

Cant Get Right

Not much you can do at this point. Sounds like you have great potential, is there any way you can delay the test to June in order to shore that up? Plenty you could do in that kind of time frame.

There’s two main things you have to do in LG that have the biggest impact on your timing. The first is to represent the rules accurately. This has to be a given; it has to be something that you’re just not going to mess up. If that’s a problem, you just haven’t put in the necessary time learning Games yet and need more practice to build familiarity.

Once accuracy is pretty much a given, it’s all about efficient representation. You can represent a rule in three ways:

1. on your rule list
2. directly on the board
3. by splitting the board

Those are your options. If you make good decisions for each rule, your game times will reduce dramatically. Sometimes arguments can be made for a couple different representations. That gives you some flexibility to work within your preferences. Usually, though, there is a clear winner. In these situations, choosing the correct representation will dramatically reduce the complexity of the game. This, of course, means that choosing the wrong representation will result in a correspondingly large increase in complexity.

Complexity is hard and should be avoided wherever and to as great a degree as possible. I’m phenomenal at LG, but it’s not because I’m particularly skilled with processing great complexity. My primary skill in LG is eliminating complexity and creating simplicity. Once I’ve got my setups, I don’t need to be good at LG. For most games, I think people with no LSAT experience could use my setup and do decently well fairly quickly.

Once you’ve got the basics down and aren’t making mistakes of accuracy anymore, this should be what you work towards. It can’t happen in 10 days, but you could make enormous gains with something like 10 weeks.

MissChanandler

The above posters have given you great advice, so I just want to add one thing- it's better to do three games accurately than two games accurately and two games really poorly. If you can make your goal to finish three games with accuracy, and maybe the "list" question from the fourth game, that might put you in a better place than freaking out during two whole games.

ExcludedMiddle

Definitely withdraw if at all possible. LG is the key to doing well on the LSAT.

alyssa.hunt86

I think the mistake you are making is focusing on how much time you spend on the questions instead of thoroughly understanding what it is you are doing. It seems counterintuitive to NOT focus on timing because the test itself is timed, but the test itself IS NOT testing you on how fast you can solve the problems, IT IS testing your psychological abilities TO solve the problem. It's a timed test because there needs to be a time limit on test taking.

I also made the mistake of focusing on timing because I crack under pressure but what I have found, and not just with the LSAT but with multiple things in life is that when you completely understand what is it you are doing, you will end up doing it in no time. That's why in class, you get taught a concept, given homework to practice the new concept learned, and then tested on your ability to perform the concept well.

I hope you will postpone this test or plan to retake it and next time focus on understanding the material first.