Yesterday you learned how to approach logical reasoning questions. Today we’re going to dive into logic games.
[Edit: Since you’re on my website, it’s possible you never signed up for my course at all. Someone might have sent you this link, or you found it on Google. This page is part of my free five day email course for getting a better LSAT score. If you’d like to see the rest, let me know your email here.]
Logic games are a BIG topic. This email will only scratch the surface. I’m not going to teach you about game types or how to draw specific diagrams (though I’ve listed some resources at the bottom). Instead, I’m going to give you a general approach that I use for all logic games. I’m also assuming you’ve tried at least a couple logic games.
Logic Games Want You To Think Like A Computer (You Are Not A Good Computer)
In early 2012 I started learning computer programming. I was astonished to find that it felt familiar. I realized that there’s a lot of similarity between computer logic and logic games. Now, what does a computer program do (roughly):
1. A computer has a set of rules (a program)
2. A computer can apply those rules to a specific situation
3. A computer does not forget the fucking rules!
Unfortunately, you are not a good computer (neither am I). We humans forget things.
So point three is where most LSAT students fall flat on their faces. Ever spend 3 minutes on a question, then realize that the answer is obvious, because you forget that T has to go before F? Forgetting rules is the number one cause of mistakes and slowness on logic games!
The core of my logic games strategy is aimed at beating this very human weakness. To beat logic games, there’s no way around it: You’ve got to remember the goddamn rules! Fortunately, there’s an easy solution.
Read The Rules Four Times
I read the rules four times. Yes, four. I take my time, because the rules are the most important part of a logic game. I notice that if I’m doing a logic game alongside a student, they usually start drawing before me, and they start on the questions before me. Yet I finish first, because I took the time to learn the rules.
You probably feel rushed on logic games. You’ve got to reach the end, right? You do, but you can get there faster by going slow at the start. Spending an extra 30 seconds on the rules can save you 2-3 minutes on the questions.
And while it can take time to first read the rules, rereading them usually doesn’t take much time. Here’s what I do the four times I read:
- I read everything once before drawing, and think about how I should draw. I check the first question to see how they set it up. This is the most important step. If you haven’t read everything, how can you know how to draw?
- I read a second time to draw the rules
- I read a third time to double check. Extremely important: make a mistake in your rules and you’ll be very confused and frustrated by the questions.
- I read a fourth time to solve the first question, assuming it’s an acceptable order question. I don’t use my diagram: Eliminating answers one rule at a time is the fastest way to solve these questions.
Each time I read the rules has a purpose, but there’s a side effect to reading the rules four times: I memorize them. I rarely forget rules when I follow this method.
The more times you see a fact, the longer you remember it, and the longer you remember it for. Science supports this, check out the Wikipedia article on spaced repititon for more details. Specifically, rereading the rules roughly follows the timing used in the Pimsleur approach to languages.
You are entirely capable of learning the rules well on any logic game. Try it.
Make Clear, Consistent, Minimal Diagrams
A couple years ago, a student of mine asked me to review her diagrams. I looked at her pages – the diagrams were a mess of scribbles. Every inch of the paper was covered. I told her I couldn’t understand her diagrams, and I asked her what they meant.
She looked sheepish, and said that she no longer remembered what her diagrams meant. I said: If you don’t understand your diagrams now, that means you didn’t understand them well enough while you were doing the games. There were three big problems with her diagrams:
1. The page was cluttered. It was impossible to find the right diagram quickly.
2. There was no consistency to her diagrams. She’d draw the same type of rule differently on different games
3. Her diagrams themselves were cluttered. She had a ton of unnecessary detail
Diagramming is a language. Logic games are complicated: they present more information than you can handle. The purpose of a diagram is to reduce this information to a manageable amount. Like any other language, it takes a while to get comfortable with a good system of diagramming.
There’s no single right way to diagram. If you read guides, you’ll find multiple fairly good methods, but they all have differences. So you should develop your own method that makes sense to you. But make sure you follow the right principles. Here’s how any good system of diagrams should be:
1. Consistent
Most types of rules appear in many logic games. If a rule type is identical, then you should draw it the same way every time. This is what separate language from scribbles. Here’s a good test of consistency: look at some diagrams you drew last week. Do they make sense to you? If yes, congratulations, you have fairly consistent diagrams. If you can’t understand your old diagrams, the meaning was never clear.
2. Clear
Success on logic games depends on having the right information at your fingertips. Your main diagram should be drawn on its own, without being surrounded by clutter. You should be able to glance at it instantly, and know all the rules.
If you’re always hunting around looking for the right diagram, then you need to draw more cleanly. You can use the same test: look at a game from a week ago. Can you find the diagram? Can you read the page? If not, you need to work on making a clearer page.
One helpful tip: draw smaller, and do games on the page. You’ll get no scrap paper on test day. A lot of students draw humungous diagrams, then complain about having no space. Practice making small, clear diagrams. You’re 22, you’ve got good eyesight. I’ve noticed that students who score perfectly tend to draw quite small.
3. Minimal
Look at these diagrams from LSAT Preptest 70, game 1:
(If you can’t see diagrams, scroll to the top and click “load images”, or follow this link to see the setup on my site)
These cover all the rules, but they’re pretty minimal. Once you are familiar with the symbols, this diagram is extremely easy to read at a glance. Some people would do things differently. They would draw “Not V” under slots 5 and 6, and draw “Not Z” and “Not W” under slot 6. They’d also draw not rules on slots 1 and 2: on slot 1, and X on slots 1 and 2.
I don’t think this is an effective approach. Those “not” rules represent true deductions, but they clutter the diagram. The fact that V can’t go 5th or 6th should be clear from the second image.
Now, look at the Y and U above the diagram. These symbols mean that Y can only go 1-3, and U can only go 4-6. This is the clearest way I know to represent those rules. I worked hard to make this diagram as simple as possible, and as a result I found I could do the game very quickly, as I was never stuck trying to figure out my own diagram. See the setup for game 3 from preptest 70 for another example of a minimal diagram.
If information isn’t necessary, then it is probably hurting you. Extra information is worse than useless, it will slow you down.
Master Games By Repeating Them
When I first started LSAT tutoring, I felt like a fraud. I could get a good score, of course. I’d sit down at a logic game, frown really hard, and do all the questions by concentrating hard and scribbling crazy diagrams. It was tense and stressful, but I could do it.
But then I had to explain myself to a student. This person had hired me as an expert, and here I was fumbling around, trying to explain something I didn’t fully understand. I’m surprised no one asked for a refund!
But after the first couple of students, something miraculous happened. I was seeing the same games over and over again with different students. The second time I saw a game, I’d explain it a bit better. By the third or fourth student, I’d breeze through it. By the fifth time through a game, max, I could explain it cold, and show them a system to solve that game effortlessly.
Repeating games taught me everything I know. Logic games have patterns. You won’t see them on the first try. But if you do a game until you master it, you’ll learn to spot the easy way through it. And if you find the easy way through 20-60 games, you’ll become good at spotting it even on games you’ve never seen before.
Don’t just do games and move on. Repeat them until you could explain them to someone else.
Resource For Mastering Logic Games
That’s enough logic games info for one email. Go try some games using the principles I outlined above. In logic games, you learn by doing.
Still, you’re going to want some resources. There are three major resources I recommend.
1. The LSAT Trainer. In my opinion, this is the best LSAT Prep Guide. It’s clear, concise, and full of useful drills. Many of my students said it revolutionized their approach. The book will teach you everything you need to know about how to draw games. You can find a link on my book list.
2. 7Sage. 7Sage completely changed how people study for logic games, by releasing free video explanations for every game. Note that JY focusses on explanation. The videos don’t necessarily show how you’d approach a game under timed conditions. But these videos are a great start if you don’t know how to approach a game.
3. LSAT Hacks free logic games explanations. I’m posting explanations for every LSAT preptest, including diagrams for the logic games section. However, it takes a while to write and post them, so far I only have explanations for recent tests. You can get pdf versions of more tests from the bookstore. I try to offer both a clear explanation of each game, and advice on how to do them fast. Check out the free versions to see what you think.
Now that you know how to approach logic games, tomorrow’s email will dive into Reading Comprehension.
Until then,
Creator of LSAT Hacks
P.S. If you’d like to get started with improving your LSAT score, you don’t have to wait for the rest of this course to do it. Check out the pdf versions of my explanations for 21 LSATs, and use them to understand all your mistakes + get more questions right: https://lsathacks.com/books/
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