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How to get rid of huge LG inconsistency before June

cmelman95cmelman95 Alum Member
edited April 2016 in Logic Games 730 karma
Been trying for several months to tie down logic games. Hasn't happened yet. I'm averaging about -3 on my last several preptests, but that belies big swings. For example, PT 60 crushed me, PT 61 was -0, and PT 62 was -6.

I don't know if I'm very good at diagnosing my own problems. The only trend I can maybe see -- and this might just be recency bias -- is that I struggle with open-ended and even slightly nonstandard games. For example, PT 62 game 2 is definitely a grouping game, broadly defined, but it's a weird one. Same with game 3 from that test. I've done literally every game ever published multiple times but I don't have the pattern recognition necessary to adapt on my first time through lots of games.

Is there any specific remedy for this type of thing? Should I just keep "foolproofing?" I don't want to keep banging my head against the wall if there's something more targeted I can do, because time is becoming precious for us June takers.

Comments

  • danilphillipsdanilphillips Alum Member
    edited April 2016 200 karma
    I don't have any tips but I'm having the same problem. I only started studying the games about 2 weeks ago, but when I read them I generally get the board set-up wrong. Once I watch the video explanation it all makes perfect sense and I can do them easily. I realise I'm still learning and need more practice but the games are incredibly frustrating for me!!! I feel like plucking my eyeballs out after doing them.
  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27809 karma
    When you drill the games outside of PTs, are you using a stopwatch or a timer @cmelman95 ? What is your process for fool proofing an individual game? Do you do it over and over again back to back or rotate through them all and then start over at the beginning or what?

    And don’t worry too much right now @danilphillips . You’re only just getting started. As long as you’ve got a good system and are doing it right, you’ll start getting the hang of it.
  • cmelman95cmelman95 Alum Member
    730 karma
    @"Cant Get Right" Yes I use a timer and re-do games on which I either got something wrong, did not hit JY's target time with a little room to spare, and/or didn't feel comfortable. After I'm fine with the foregoing, I'll return to the game in a day or two and repeat the process.
    Do you do it over and over again back to back or rotate through them all and then start over at the beginning or what?
    I'm not sure what you mean by that, but if I'm doing a game and something goes wrong, I'll immediately watch the explanation and re-do it until I have it down (or at least think I do...).
  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    edited April 2016 27809 karma
    @cmelman95 said:
    Do you do it over and over again back to back or rotate through them all and then start over at the beginning or what?
    Haha, yeah that was really poorly worded. What I was trying to ask is do you repeat games until you get them down or do you keep moving from one game to the next, cycling through a rotation of games. So I guess you answered that anyway!

    Anyway, here’s what I do that has been really effective for me. My only errors are typically careless misreads or things like that, or maybe I’ll stumble over a dreaded miscellaneous game, but even those, I’m improving on. So, like you, I repeat a game until I get it. Then it goes into a rotation I developed for systematically revisiting games. I repeat the game at intervals of one day, one week, and one month. By increasing the interval, the game gets a little hazier with each take. The month retake is very different from the day retake. So when I take the month retake, it has to be perfect- every question right and every game under time. If it is, I retire the section. If it isn’t, it goes back into the rotation from the very beginning.

    I’m also a big advocate of not using a timer during drills. I’ve found a stopwatch to be much more useful. If a section takes you 40 minutes at your natural pace, let it. My goal is to get my natural, untimed pace to under 35 minutes. If I’m racing a clock it’s much more difficult to do. I did that for awhile, but since I’ve changed I’ve seen huge progress. I finished one section -0 (a month take) in under 25 minutes yesterday, it was an incredible feeling. And I didn’t rush it. Rushing is bad. Speed comes from understanding, not from moving really really really fast. Until I stopped timing myself, that’s exactly how I’d try to make up speed. Without a countdown, I’m able to relax and focus on learning the things that speed really comes from. I don’t think I could have gotten to a 25 minute pace on even the easiest section without that realization.

    So that’s what has worked for me.
  • cmelman95cmelman95 Alum Member
    edited April 2016 730 karma
    @"Cant Get Right" Huh interesting, so you just don't worry much about your individual game splits when drilling sections? I suppose it ultimately doesn't matter if you exceed JY's target time for one game while beating it for another, assuming you get everything done and right well under 35 mins. I like to have data to measure myself, but I can see how such a mentality could be counterproductive.
  • Cant Get RightCant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage 🍌 7Sage Tutor
    27809 karma
    Oh, I do it for each game. But because I'm not worrying about the time I just stop between games to record the individual game time. Then at the end I add it all up for my section time. From there I can see how my natural pace compared to my 35 minute target. I don't sweat it if I go over, but it sure feels nice when I come in way under!
  • runiggyrunruniggyrun Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    2481 karma
    I have an almost identical strategy to @"Cant Get Right" - repeat at longer time intervals, time with a stopwatch and record time for each individual game, but only really care about the section. My one exception is that I hardly ever retire a section - only if I've done it like 10 times and I can tell you just by looking at the words what the answers are. But because there are something like 320 games in 81 sections, and I've only been studying since September, that is hardly ever the case.

    Make sure you're not just going through the motions though, and you're not just trying to remember how you solved the game last, but rather use your experience to look for better, faster ways to solve even games you've seen before.

    One thing that helped was occasionally doing game "binges" where I'd go through ~15 sections over the course of a weekend. I get into a rhythm that translates into improved performance on subsequent PT's.
    But yes, it's a hard, long process for some of us. Keep at it, there's only up from here!
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