Advice for getting to -0 on logic games

LSATRando

Hey guys,

Sorry if this seems a bit naive but I'm hoping there's a bit of 'secret sauce' to help me get over this plateau I've hit.

I'm taking the January LSAT and have been batting around -4 to -6 on the logic games (diagnostic was -14 score 155) and I'm looking to make the final push to try and consistently keep it to -0. When I do sections untimed I'm able to get 100% without breaking too much of a sweat but I'm over time more often than not. I haven't left questions unanswered but I have noticed that roughly 50% of the time I do have a time crunch when answering the final two questions.

For the games themselves I do get a useful and inference rich diagram complete but I do notice that sometimes I get tripped up on rules and that adds a bit of time to completing the diagram (usually no more than 3 minutes).

I've moved over here from Khan Academy. I'm gunning for 170+ but the last 5 practice tests I've taken have averaged around 164 with my lowest at 162 and highest currently sitting at 167. My LR scores have quite a bit of variance from -2 to -7 and my RC scores fluctuate from -5 to -3.

I'm drilling the specific question types I'm getting wrong on LR hoping to get the last bits to 'click' and hopefully keep that to -3 consistently. What's left is logic games which from my understanding have the highest ROI for the effort invested.

Any advice/feedback is appreciated!

aydinjkarasapan

I was batting at around a -9 on Logic Games for a while, got to around the -4 to -6 ballpark a couple weeks ago, and now finally am consistently scoring 0 to -2 on LG.

The key was what everyone says--procedure and practice. Have a procedure for everything. Do you read the stimulus then draw the gameboard, then write out the rules? Or do you do it in another order? From what I've heard and seen in my own experience, the best order is read stimulus and rules, then write out the rules, then draw the gameboard.

The point is everything should come down to procedure so 100% of your focus and decision making goes to the game, and so that you can be sure you are using a consistent and reliable method for going through each game that has served you well in the past.

The biggest factor for me I resisted for a while--redo old games over and over and over again until a game that took you 12 minutes the first time takes you five minutes to perfect. It feels less rewarding then doing well on a fresh game, but it absolutely exercises your inference making muscles and makes you way quicker on new games.

Another thing that helped was adding procedures to help fill in the gaps where I tended to make careless errors. I would sometimes misread, and thus mistranslate a rule, and then bomb a section because of it. Now after I write the rules, I read them from the stimulus again and tap my pencil on each rule in the stimulus as I check it against what I wrote down. Another issue was misinterpreting the question or forgetting I was answering an exception question (ie. All must be true EXCEPT). So now before I answer a question I write down MBT, CBT, MBF, CBF on my paper depending on the question type, and then when I get the final answer I check the paper to make sure I am answering the question at hand. (ex. for "All must be true EXCEPT" Q's, I would write CBF, for could be false).

A final key is this, add extra time for your timed drills, make it time and half or double. However long you need. Just get used to doing logic games and getting them perfect with time pressure. The next day do the same game again with less time, and then again a few days later with even less time and repeat until you can perfect it in less than 100% time. This works by getting you used to working with that time pressure to start and then incrementing it up to increase your confidence--at the same time engraining the procedure of answering LG questions into a reflex.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

sh.francis

Great advice, thanks for sharing

ryan.lattavo

LSATRando,

To me, it sounds like you're doing everything correctly! This process takes a lot of time, and so plateau's like this one are unfortunately pretty common. Best thing to do is to continue forward with how you're operating. Like another commentator said, you want to be open and critical to your own procedure and how you're taking tests. You also want to be super reflective of your own mistakes, and really reflect on what you can do next time to be correct, rather than just continuing to drill/grind questions out. You're really close to a breakthrough with all that variance, so I hope you stick with it!

If the January test doesn't work out, I know you can hit your goals with a little while longer continuance. If you're interested in talking with a tutor about how tutoring with a later test date would work, visit this link here: https://calendly.com/7sage-tutoring/7sage-tutoring-free-consultation?utm_source=FCA_A

Overall though, keep at it! You'll hurdle over the plateau soon.

Best,

Ryan

cat_person

I have found Asstha's 7sage classes very helpful. She is an excellent teacher, and there are a bunch archived on a variety of games. I recommend watching a couple because her strategies have been a game-changer for me (no pun intended).

nz-1-1-1

It's been, said but truly the best thing you can do is just do sooooo many games untimed (this is crucial), all the time. I started at the same diagnostic as you and had a lot of trouble with the games. Within two months I got my self to consistently -0/-1 by doing multiple games a day in a really casual way until it felt natural. I would do them while eating lunch, while waiting for the bus, between tasks at work etc. I always did them untimed and gave myself as much time and grace as I needed to get them right. Eventually, it turned into a fun thing (gag! I know) that was more like taking a break to do the crossword than doing a test. This helped me really reduce the panic that I initially felt with LG which I think is how improved my score so much. Once I was consistently getting -0 individual games I would start doing multiple back to back and soon it became natural. I am very wary of giving specific advice on LG (i.e. order of operations, how to draw the board, etc), because I really believe that different things work for different people and forcing your brain into a formulaic method that doesn't work for you is going to do more harm than good. You will figure out the technique that works for you by doing a lot of practice and trial and error.

TLDR is that in my opinion, approach these as a fun, relaxed thing that you practice casually everyday and it will take away a lot of stress and angst. Good luck!