Is there something I am perhaps missing in my studying? To just go over the lessons regarding logic games in the core curriculum takes a few days, and, unfortunately, almost every time I'm faced with a new game with no guidance it's as if I don't retain any of the information, and basically have to start out at square one - even though I've drilled many different games repetitively until I've "memorized the inferences" under the proper time time constraints. It's frustrating to think that despite spending entire days devoted to studying for the LSAT at times, I've essentially wasted my time and efforts because my performance doesn't seem to be improving with this section. Over the span of 3 PTs my score has only improved by 5 points, and I'm sure it's because logic games seem to be so inscrutable to me. I'm starting to feel that my energy on logic games is most likely futile at this point and I would have done better to just skip over it in favor of improving my skills with logical reasoning, which seems a lot more straight forward. I can't get that time back though, and now I'm most likely going to have to reschedule my LSAT exam for later in the year. Scheduling so soon was probably very overly optimistic. I just didn't think they would still be such a challenge after devoting so much time into them, I really expected to see an improvement. Any suggestions on what I can do beyond drilling games to the memorize inferences? Or suggestions as to why it's not seeming to work? It's very worrying because the concepts just seem to build and build on top of one another and I can't seem to develop much confidence. Even though there are identifiable types of logic games, they - so far - seem far from uniform, and I can't seem to get them down to a system although I've really tried.
Any help is appreciated.
Comments
Same inferences keep occurring over and over with different game boards and different scenarios.
@tanes256 I think it's a combination of not knowing which game board comes into play and misreading questions. Misreading questions happens A LOT. For some reason, when I'm initially faced with a game, I end up taking in the information in ways the writers I'm sure didn't intend. It gets interpreted in a more open-ended way, which obviously shouldn't happen. I can do some of the basic games, but as soon as more layers and complexities come into the picture, I become stuck on how to visually represent it properly. Plus, I do my deductions pretty slowly. So, the usual scenario is that I get frustrated and skip to the 1 or 2 easy questions on a game set and guess on the others.
I am doing the fool-proof method as in going over the logic games that challenged me and redoing them until I get all the answers correct under the right amount of time. After that, I move on to another one. The process so far has been very time-consuming, and apparently not effective because it's like almost every new game I attempt seems to introduce new elements as far as the game board is concerned, even though they may be of the same game type (sometimes this is due to misunderstanding questions, but there has been times when it was simply due to a lot of unfamiliar information being introduced that doesn't seem to uniformly translate to game board set ups I've seen before).
@ozboy You may be right, and I simply just need to keep doing the fool-proof method, 'cause it's just not clicking most of the time. I guess just keep doing even the ones I've "mastered"- reviewed until I got all the questions right and under a good amount of time. I wish it wasn't so much of a time-sink, but if that's the way to actually improve...
Given that this is all very time-consuming, delaying my test for later seems certain. I think maybe withdrawing my registration all together is a good idea too, I don't want to commit the same mistake and underestimate just how much time I may actually need to prepare in order to perform optimally. After all, I've only gone over a little over a quarter of the core curriculum at this point, so I've got a while to go actually.
When you say you've studied for a long time, how long is that? And how many games would you say you have you done >6 times (for most people that would constitute "foolproofed")?
Sometimes it takes a long time (>3 months) and a lot of games (>100) to reach that AHA moment when things start to click.
Try focusing on "perfect form" rather than time for now (still time yourself to keep track of progress, but use a stopwatch rather than a timer and take as much as you need).
Make sure you go through all the steps properly, especially the setup ones:
Figure out type of game/basic board
Read first rule
Write down first rule and contrapositive if needed (you will reach a point where you don't need to do that anymore, as they become second nature)
Check that written down rule matches game rule; Whenever possible, write rules on the board (Like if N is 7th, put an N on the 7th spot of your game board)
Cross-off items that are firmly placed on the board.
Repeat for all rules.
Check for rules that link up (either as given or as contrapositives).
Check for free-floaters and circle them.
Take a minute to think how rules might go together, whether it would be good to split the boards, etc.
CHECK RULES AGAIN. CHECK split boards against the rules as well.
Proceed to questions.
I know this sounds like a lot, but you want the good habits to be ingrained in your memory so you don't even have to think about them (doesn't take a ton of extra time to check your rules twice- maybe 20-30 extra seconds per game, and a single mistake on a single game will cost you a lot more than those 2 extra minutes).
Keep practicing the games in a rotation, even the ones you "get". The point of this is to accumulate knowledge and mastery in layers - once you've done 6 grouping games for example, you'll notice new things when redoing the first grouping game you've ever done. If you don't go back, you'll miss capitalizing on those revelations.
Whatever you do, don't just "go through the motions", but think about the how's and the why's and the general things that you see over and over.
Best of luck!
Since certain elements of LG likely have not clicked or meshed yet, making this adjustment will allow you to focus on honing skills more. It's usually said that finishing LG accurately and under time is a byproduct of skill-set anyway. While you do this, you can still keep time so you know where you stand.
This progression will help (a) reinforce the basics, (b) isolate problems to fix, and (3) recognize different game types. Hope this helps.