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Best way to get -0 on games?

emmorensemmorens Core Member
edited January 2021 in Logic Games 1470 karma

I'm taking the Jan flex and usually score between -3 or worst -5 on games. I know I have the capacity to get to -1/-0 and want to maximize this before my test!

To all you high scorers: wondering if there are any particular games that you would recommend focusing on and exhausting? I'm pretty good at in and out (I've exhausted the CD game and feel quite confident with the logic behind it) I am now going to be focusing on sequencing and grouping games.

I am also wondering how you confront the feeling of nerves from a setup you've never seen before. I tend to freak myself out as soon as I see a misc game and start to shoot myself in the foot lol

Please let me know if you have any advice for me :)

Total side note: i tanked on PT 84 and just feel like there is no way to be consistent in RC (which is what inspired this post) let me know if anyone else thought 84 was particularly difficult lol

Comments

  • whatsmynamewhatsmyname Member
    606 karma

    bump - i want to follow this thread.

  • tatas911tatas911 Member
    76 karma

    following

  • canihazJDcanihazJD Alum Member Sage
    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.

  • emmorensemmorens Core Member
    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. :)

  • whatsmynamewhatsmyname Member
    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.

  • lgarcia3lgarcia3 Member
    4 karma

    Following

  • sfabedisfabedi Alum Member
    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.

  • canihazJDcanihazJD Alum Member Sage
    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.

  • nnnnnnzzzznnnnnnzzzz Member
    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.

  • whatsmynamewhatsmyname Member
    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.

  • canihazJDcanihazJD Alum Member Sage
    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.

  • whatsmynamewhatsmyname Member
    606 karma

    @canihazJD said:

    thanks for sharing!

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