How to Tackle 'Open Ended' Questions (P23.S3.G3.Q18 - Compositions)

kshutes13kshutes13 Member
edited December 2017 in Logic Games 634 karma

PrepTest 23.Section 3.Game3.Q18 (https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-32-section-3-game-3/)

Questions like 18 always get me confused. I was able to narrow R down to 6 and 7 fine, but after that, I just didn’t know where to go. None of the other rules seemed immediately relevant, and then I started stressing out because I didn’t know where to go from there.

The way JY explained it made complete sense but it would have been a huge time sink for me. I.e. making the inference that if R goes into 7, then we remember our rule that S can’t go into 6 or 4, which means P & S must go into 1 and 3, which means T won’t be able to go before F or after R. As I am very new to logic games, interpreting or making all those inferences in my head in a short amount of time has been really hard for me. This did not come naturally to me and I was completely stuck -__-

Does anybody have advice for a question like this where, once you get to a certain point it becomes very open-ended (i.e. multiple slots open with no immediately obvious rule to jump to)? Is it really just trial and error?

I am aware that this is a relatively easy game but I am struggling with LG in general lol

Comments

  • 1000001910000019 Alum Member
    3279 karma

    @kshutes13
    In the question you mentioned my approach was:
    - Got it down to 6/7
    - Decided I was going to brute force. I decided to put R into 7 to begin with because it was more restrictive. When you put R into 7, you then have to put T in front of F.

    Sometimes you need to quickly sketch and test possibilities. You should be comfortable quickly drawing out possibilities based on the rules you have.

  • akistotleakistotle Member ⭐ 🍌🍌
    edited December 2017 9382 karma

    Since this is a MBT question, I would only come up with one scenario.

    The question gives us [F＿ ＿O] block.

    ＿ F＿ ＿ O＿ ＿ L/H

    R has to be in 6/7 because of rule (2).

    Then, follow the original rules from the top. (1) Use either [TF] block or [RT] block. I'd just use [TF] block.

    T F＿ ＿ O＿ ＿ L/H

    (5) P - S (=S cannot be in 3)
    (6) (O＿ ... S) (= S can only be in 3 or 7)

    S is in 7 in this scenario. So R must be in 6.

    It's actually easier to use [RT] block.

    ＿ F＿ ＿ O [R T] L/H

    P F S H/L O [R T] L/H

    @kshutes13 said:
    None of the other rules seemed immediately relevant, and then I started stressing out because I didn’t know where to go from there.

    No matter how good you are at LG, this happens! Under the timed pressure, I panic all the time. So my advice is to use follow the rules from the top. Calmly.

  • kshutes13kshutes13 Member
    634 karma

    @akistotle said:
    Since this is a MBT question, I would only come up with one scenario.

    The question gives us [F＿ ＿O] block.

    ＿ F＿ ＿ O＿ ＿ L/H

    R has to be in 6/7 because of rule (2).

    Then, follow the original rules from the top. (1) Use either [TF] block or [RT] block. I'd just use [TF] block.

    T F＿ ＿ O＿ ＿ L/H

    (5) P - S (=S cannot be in 3)
    (6) (O＿ ... S) (= S can only be in 3 or 7)

    S is in 7 in this scenario. So R must be in 6.

    It's actually easier to use [RT] block.

    ＿ F＿ ＿ O [R T] L/H

    P F S H/L O [R T] L/H

    @kshutes13 said:
    None of the other rules seemed immediately relevant, and then I started stressing out because I didn’t know where to go from there.

    No matter how good you are at LG, this happens! Under the timed pressure, I panic all the time. So my advice is to use follow the rules from the top. Calmly.

    You are the best @akistotle. Thank you!!!

  • kshutes13kshutes13 Member
    634 karma

    @10000019 said:
    @kshutes13
    In the question you mentioned my approach was:
    - Got it down to 6/7
    - Decided I was going to brute force. I decided to put R into 7 to begin with because it was more restrictive. When you put R into 7, you then have to put T in front of F.

    Sometimes you need to quickly sketch and test possibilities. You should be comfortable quickly drawing out possibilities based on the rules you have.

    Thank you @10000019 !! I'm going to work at practicing testing possibilities in a timely fashion, hopefully that can help!

  • akistotleakistotle Member ⭐ 🍌🍌
    9382 karma

    I'm glad you found it helpful, @kshutes13! Also, don't worry about the difficulty rating of the games/questions. We tend to think that sequencing games are easy and that we have to do this quickly. And we try to jump to certain rules immediately, but I think it's actually quicker to follow the rules from the top especially under the timed condition when you start panicking.

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