This is an explanation of the fourth logic game from Section III of LSAT Preptest 62, the December 2010 LSAT.
Six witnesses will testify at a trial. The witnesses are Mangione, Ramirez, Sanderson, Tannenbaum, Ujemori, and Wong (M, R, S, T, U, W). Each of them will testify only once, and one at a time.
Game Setup
I found the first three questions easy, and the last two questions hard. I drew a lot of diagrams to eliminate answers on the final two questions.
The key to drawing diagrams quickly is to have a ready list of the rules you can refer to. Any diagram that doesn’t violate a rule is legal. I find most students are way too hesitant when drawing “could be true” diagrams. Usually the problem is that they don’t know the rules and they don’t have a clear list.
I couldn’t make any upfront deductions on this game. Instead I just drew the rules. I did draw the third rule second. This makes for easier scanning, because the first and third rules are similar:
Note that the or’s are exclusive. I just committed this to memory.
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Membermasteryofmath says
The first rule says that you must have either ST or SU. I realized that this means that collectively T and U cant clog up spots 1 and 2. Either TU or UT in spots 1 and 2 would preclude ST or SU. This let me answer Q 23 instantly, since it asks which pair cannot go in spots 1 and 2 and choice D is UT. Likewise TM or WM means that TW or WT cant take up spots 5 and 6.