Help needed! Any tips on maximum/minimum number-type in/out game questions?

Frank Debore

Hey LSAT Geeks~My test in 10 days and one of my lingering concerns is about the type of in/out game questions that asks "what's the maximum/minimum number of blablabla that can be in or out", or "Which one of following must be in for maximum number of blablabla in/out". It generally involves a huge cluster of in/out chains and can be intimidating. Is there any rules of thumb? Sorry I can't find any specific games right away, but this type is not uncommon.

K

for such games, your inference diagram is your best friend.

Here's a very simple example... let's say you have 6 variables: A B C D E F

after going through the givens, you come up with this inference:

/A -> B -> C ->/E

and B -> /F

D is a floater.

What's the maximum number who can be in?

well... you can have D in and you can have B and C in as well, which gives 3. But, if you run the contrapositive, you have E and A in, B and C out, and you don't know anything about F so you can add F in and then bring in the floater D. Now, you have 4 max.

BUT...

if you have F in, B is out and A is in. You can also have C in and E out, and D as well, so now you have 4 as well!

So, you can have most (4) in when either C, F or E in. I messed this example up, but the underlying concept should still be helpful...

EDIT: I MADE A FOOL OF MYSELF HERE LOL... FIXED IT ^^^^^^ If someone else can come up with a better game example please do so... i'm terrible at teaching others hahahaha

Remember, negating sufficient condition doesn't tell you anything about the necessary condition. If I don't have B for example, I can have F in or out. But if I have B in for sure, then of course F is out.

Frank Debore

Thanks that definitely helps!

Frank Debore

One more question, as to the game you created, my first reaction is to get rid of B, because B hates two others; In fact, I always tend to get rid of the one that contradicts the most number of others. Could that be a rule of thumb?

K

FIRST OF ALL I APOLOGIZE FOR MAKING A MISTAKE IN THE GAME ABOVE.

FIXED IT.

SORRY FOR MISLEADING ANYONE!!!! REREAD IT!!!

man i suck at teaching other ppl im sorry. shasang i hope i didnt confuse u lol.. if you have a specific example i'll be glad to help u with that... if i make up my own i'll just mess it up hahaha

Frank Debore

nono it's fine, I got what you were trying to say:)