Ace from the logic games section LSAT

These tips from Logic Games will help you tackle each Logic Game in less than 7 minutes. Do you think it is impossible? Think again!

1. Draw a diagram.

LSAT preparation companies often say that you need to draw a grid for each game, rather than a simple slot diagram. What is a slot diagram? I will explain briefly: it is a simple way to map the information in linear and combination games (games with a linear and grouping element). The grids are very time consuming, but drawing spaces for each letter (in a game of six people / things, it looks like: _ _ _ _ _ _) takes less space and time.

2. Use diagrams from previous questions.

Keep your diagrams for the first few questions in each game because they will often save you time on later questions. If you haven’t noticed yet, try something new. Draw a separate diagram for each “if” question next to the answer choices for that question. Use the space at the bottom of the page to sketch your main diagram, which should contain your inferences from all the rules. In the vast majority of games, at least one previously drawn diagram will help you solve a later question in a particular game. This allows you to solve the question without having to draw a completely new scenario.

3. For all “Yes” questions, draw a diagram before looking at the answer options.

If you’ve looked at any LSAT logic game, you’ll probably see a question like the following: “If R is placed in the third position, which of the following must be true?” or “If S is placed last, it could be true that …” I tell my students to stop reading the question right after the first half of the sentence (where the comma is) and immediately draw what it must be true. Most of the time, this basic sketch will only get you to the correct answer. Rather than reading through the answer options and trying each one, you have effectively predicted the correct answer, saving valuable time.

4. Apply each rule, one at a time, to the answer choices in the general “acceptability” questions.

Most games start with a question like “Which of the following is an acceptable order / grouping / assignment …?” Etc. Four of the options will each contain a scenario that violates one rule or another, while only one will be acceptable. There are two ways to approach these issues. The first is the slow way: you can look at option “A” and see if it follows each of the five roughly rules of the game. If not, go to option “B”, and so on. However, this approach requires you to go back and forth between the rules and the options, which takes you more than a minute for what is often the easiest question in a game. The most efficient method is to take an “assembly line” approach to this type of question. Take the first rule of the game and compare it with each answer choice. After (hopefully) eliminating one or two options, take the following rule and apply it to the remaining answer options.

5. When the possibilities in a game are limited, map all of them.

Sometimes the rules of a game interact in very restrictive ways. For example, in Game 2 of PrepTest 37 (June 2002), which tries to place seven trucks in a certain order, the possibilities for the first three spaces become severely restricted after placing the other four trucks. Trucks X, Z and U are the only ones left to be placed. Since Z must come before U, the only options are “XZU”, “ZXU” or “ZUX”. Of course you could map one possibility and if that doesn’t work then start with another. However, many students end up trying a possibility and then get frustrated when it doesn’t work, wasting valuable time.

It is quicker to sketch out the “skeleton” or “must be true” aspects of each possibility and then see which one might actually work. I recommend listing each possibility right away and then reviewing the game questions. The bottom line: do one type of task at a time (diagramming each possibility and then reading the answer options for each question). This will significantly reduce the amount of time you spend on each game.