Digital Logic Games - Best Practices?

ahnendc-1ahnendc-1 Member
in Logic Games 642 karma

Hi everybody! Was hoping to be able to poll the sages (or anyone that feels the are able to consistently go -0/-1 in Logic Games) about best practices for doing Logic Games digitally.

I'm trying to break into the -0/-1 camp (very soon hopefully) but find myself occasionally thwarted by one or two 'stupid' mistakes per section - I'm talking about selecting a could be true in a could be true EXCEPT because halfway into the ACs I lost track of what I was doing. In the past, the recommended best practice is a tactile approach:
- Circling key words (game pieces, components of the game board, MBT, EXCEPT, etc.)
- Crossing out answer choices onsite to the error and as a whole (for acceptable situation)
- Ticking off rules as you transcribe them

Does anyone have any tricks or tips for translating these (and others that I might have missed) into the new digital LSAT era?

To share some of what I've done - I make an effort to organize EVERY game the EXACT SAME way on my scratch paper (which I much prefer to writing in the margins): I always list my game pieces in rows of 3; I always write my game board under my game pieces and write out the rules on the left-hand side of the page beneath my master game board; if there are any splits, I make those on the left side of my paper and save the whole right half for game boards to create when answering questions. I've found that this is very helpful because, my eyes/pencil know instinctively where to go.

Comments

  • Law and YodaLaw and Yoda Alum Member ⭐
    4312 karma

    I do a few things

    1) I highlight the rules when I've completed reading and translating
    1B) If there are rules in the stimulus that might help I highlight those as well (i.e, exactly two in group 1 and exactly 4 in group 2).
    2) Whenever I see question stems with EXCEPT I ignore it. I would read the example you gave as "could be true" and look for 4 that CBT rather than reminding myself to look for 1 CBT EXCEPT. Conversely you could look for 1 MBF... You could also highlight these words you use to circle for extra emphasis if that helps you.
    3) In the digital format you can cross off the AC which then grays out the bubble

  • ahnendc-1ahnendc-1 Member
    642 karma

    Thank you for your input; I'll try these out

  • knitterstitcherknitterstitcher Alum Member
    43 karma

    Just a thought--I've taken the digital LSAT and find it cumbersome to highlight and try to mark up the digital screen. Sometimes the highlights don't take and you have to attempt to highlight a second or third time, not to mention all the scrolling involved, so I stopped marking up the digital page entirely. Now I only ever practice using a computer and scratch paper so I'm always in the habit of looking back and forth from the screen to my paper. It's a different sort of time waste, all the checking and rechecking, but for me it's faster than trying to mark up a screen. And now my brain isn't scrambling in the background thinking, "...that's not what I'm used to..." which is another annoying subtle time/focus waster! Sounds like you won't have to change anything about how you organize your work once you get going, as you'll have plenty of paper to work with on test day. It's just the actual marking up of the text that will be a challenge. Try to practice as much as you can with the digital format to see what works for you. For me it's just so far from an apples-to-apples comparison it wasn't worth trying to transfer my old methods to the digital page. And just in case you're interested, the scrap paper you're provided on test day (assuming you take the test at an in-person location and not at home under quarantine---yet another fun consideration!) is a booklet like the ones you may have used in the past with other standardized tests. You'll have it for all sections of the test to use when you please, and you'll also be given a stylus/pen. I didn't find the stylus to work any better than a fingertip for manipulating the screen--and I'm certainly not in the habit of practicing with a pen--so I didn't use it. Hope that's helpful info for you!

  • lexxx745lexxx745 Alum Member Sage ⭐
    3190 karma

    I dont highlight or mark anything. I think it just wastes time. With practice youll be more sensitive to key words anyway? I think its worth it if your aiming for a super high score to not spend time highlighting. Sure it could be disastrous, but it could be easily avoided and the seconds you save is precious

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