Bombing Logic Games Questions

Jennie RH

Hi everyone –

I've been studying for a few months and am using all the study materials I can (I'll test in August or September). I am not, however, getting much better at Logic Games. I've done them a LOT and my setups are generally correct, but I completely choke when looking at the questions, and I take too long doing them. I also don't see inferences, or I take too long to see them. Not sure how to proceed or get better. Any tips?

J

Logician

Be sure you watch JY’s videos for each game after completing it. Pay attention to all of the inferences he makes, memorize them, then try doing that game shortly after, then a week after, then a month. Rinse and repeat this method with as many games as you can.

Andrew_Neiman

Like @"Cant Get Right" often says, the games are won during the set-up. Make sure you are fundamentally sound in this regard. If you are "choking" during the questions, it usually is a sign you aren't setting up the games in a way that works for you / representing the rules efficiently. Second, I would recommend having a consistent process. Everything from when and how you read the stimulus & rules to how and where you diagram things should be down to a science IMHO. This also includes how you approach the questions themselves. Everything from leaving room for diagrams, having your own marks to be able to see valid previous game boards and every other nuance that helps you solve questions should be consistent from game to game. It also includes the sequence of how you proceed from question to question to a priority list of thigns to do when you approach specific question types. Find out what works for you and do it consistently and in the same way. I think analyzing this step is critical because fool-proofing often masks a lot of your own deficiencies since you've seen the solution before. Inferences are important but how do you get to the point where you can make the inferences on your own when you've never seen the game? Memorization, repetition and familiarization helps but only to a certain degree. For example, early on in my prep I would watch the video and see how the game was set-up. In my FP process, since I was familiar with the game, I would find myself mindlessly replicating what I knew from previous experience without critically thinking about what I was reading. I was tripping over my own feet- jotting down game board pieces half way through reading the stimulus, not critically thinking about the hidden rules that signal the best way to approach the games, etc. Since I already knew what I was going to do, my mind often went on auto-pilot.These steps might be easy to overlook when fool-proofing but you often won't have this luxury when you are taking a test you've never seen before so make sure to think it through and practice building these skills into your process even if it seems redundant. Doing the game doesn't just mean being able to solve it but also extracting what was important to getting to that point if it was your ideal first take. My biggest advice would be to go back to the CC to make sure you are 100% solid on your foundational skills. The LSAT presents us LG games in English but often the key to simplifying them is to lean on visual representations to sort the mayhem. The CC will expose you to different ways this is done so think about why the Jedi Master.... I mean JY .... does things a certain way and why- Add these to your arsenal so you have a variety of methods to express the common ways the writers express things to us in ways that is easier for you to digest. My second major advice would be to read critically. You want to measure carefully and cut once. Sorry for the long answer but hope this will help shine light for you and anyone else reading. Happy studies fellow Jedi.

studyingandrestudying

There are sometimes multiple ways to write out the rules, like with math there's sometimes different ways of writing the same concept. Often we'll find that one way looks more intuitive and it takes trial and error. There are a ton of LGs--more than enough to practice with, and repeating games is a good strategy. Also, LSATHacks has some blogs on games that you might find helpful.

Taha Jomha

maybe try thinking out loud when doing the questions, and with every step try to see what changes or what you find new before moving to the next step. I had the same problem (still do), but got better with time. I was surprised to see myself making an inference as I got better doing this.

ahnendc-1

So much of the LSAT is psychological. If you're at the stage where there's room for improvement with the fundamentals then maybe try to take some of the pressure off; why not let yourself run-over the 35 minute mark when drilling LG sections?

I did this. I would still time myself to simulate going through the games as quickly as I could but this allowed me to get the benefit of doing a whole section "timed". Sometimes the whole section would take 45 minutes, other times it would take 50 minutes. If you are following the full-proofing method then eventually you will start to see improvements such that doing the section within 35 minutes is manageable. If you are full-proofing make sure you are full-proofing EVERY game; for me, sequencing games come the easiest but I still full-proof them so now I can do them even quicker than before; this buys me precious time when I'm doing grouping games (which I still struggle with).