Best way to get -0 on games?

Comments

• whatsmyname Member

  January 2021 606 karma

  bump - i want to follow this thread.
• tatas911 Member

  January 2021 76 karma

  following
• 3 Likes

  canihazJD Alum Member Sage ⭐

  January 2021 8491 karma

  With sufficient volume of exposure and review, they really do just all "click". What most people leave out when they tell you this is that it never feels like it until it actually happens. Just keep jamming and you'll get it. That includes working on flow and speed through the ones you can get -0 on. Like a simple sequencing game with all the game pieces chained up? That should just be a blur of nonstop action and smooth transitions, banking time at the end to catch those careless errors. The more you do the less nerves get to you... at a certain point, you just realize that short of a misc game, there's nothing they can throw at you that you haven't seen before.
• emmorens Core Member

  January 2021 1470 karma

  @canihazJD thanks for this! that was really helpful advice, I'm definitely gonna keep plugging away as much as I can before January.
• whatsmyname Member

  January 2021 606 karma

  @canihazJD said:

  I've been through all the games except 89, A, B, C...
  they can definitely throw stuff at you that you haven't seen before.
• lgarcia3 Member

  January 2021 4 karma

  Following
• sfabedi Alum Member

  January 2021 5 karma

  Keep practicing, and you'll get it! I get the nerves thing, it's easy to get thrown off when you see an unfamiliar game. Just try to go through as many games as possible, and soon you won't feel stressed out because you will have solved many different kinds of games. After a while, you realize that even the "weird" games do follow a pattern that you'll see in other games.
• canihazJD Alum Member Sage ⭐

  January 2021 8491 karma

  @whatsmyname said:

  @canihazJD said:

  I've been through all the games except 89, A, B, C...
  they can definitely throw stuff at you that you haven't seen before.

  I'll agree to disagree... though I'm just talking about the patterns and setups, excluding misc games of course. The difficulty in LG is literally the recognition of the same patterns and applying the same principles and strategies a novel situation... so in that context, sure many aspects are new. That is what makes misc games so challenging... its something you've never seen before. They just jack up that one aspect (unfamiliarity) for difficulty. But at an ideal state of prep those parts shouldn't matter. Even in misc games... just stay calm, figure your your setup and the rest easy.
• nnnnnnzzzz Member

  January 2021 177 karma

  You really need to practice on newer prep tests. The old logic game section is easier than the new ones by a lot.
• whatsmyname Member

  January 2021 edited January 2021 606 karma

  @canihazJD said:

  Yes, the nature of the games are all similar, but the novelty is what makes the games both exciting and difficult. It's impressive how they can come up with so many different permutations for these games.

  IMO most misc games are not bad at all, even the difficult ones. The odd one, sure, but its really the nasty hard grouping/in-out and even sequencing games -- that have a key inference that you have to dig out before the game clicks -- that make or break the LG section. If you by chance don't see it on time and start scrambling or you keep looking for it while wasting precious time and don't find it, you're screwed. Or when they put two tough games back to back. I'd rather have 4 roughly equally difficult games than 3 easy and one really hard. That's the worst.

  I think we can agree that a perfect LG section requires you to work flawlessly throughout. One major blunder that forces you to reconsder your boards, or perhaps three or so small hiccups because you misread one word or forgot a tiny notation, or a game that is mentally taxing/demanding because you didn't gauge and diagram fully/properly, you're getting wiped out.

  Best advice I think is to practice, reflect, repeat and establish an algorithm/flowchart/process of operation for solving question types as well as have a list of mental reminders for common trip-ups. Don't be too mechanical and remain open to improv in your process.

  No one is innately perfect at these games unless they're some sort of savants. Anyone that picks up quickly has some history playing puzzles, similar games, or an educational background working with discrete maths.
• 1 Like

  canihazJD Alum Member Sage ⭐

  January 2021 8491 karma

  @whatsmyname said:
  I think we can agree that a perfect LG section requires you to work flawlessly throughout.

  I don't completely agree but that's a valid view... we're all different. I'll just take issue with this in particular. I don't have data but everyone I know who reliably goes -0 on LG, including myself, commonly picks up points correcting mistakes on a second pass. I've gone so far as to have redone an entire game. I would guess I make corrections half the time. That's why, for me at least, flow, aggressiveness, and skipping/timing is so important through the test—anyone can make mistakes, so I just make sure I have that time at the end to check my work.
• whatsmyname Member

  January 2021 606 karma

  @canihazJD said:

  thanks for sharing!