June 2007 LSAT, Logic Game 4, Question 19

This question asks where plastic can be recycled. There are three ways to solve this:

1. The setup. If you did the setup scenarios, you already know P can only go in centers 1 and 3.
2. Brute force. Just diagram scenarios proving where P can go.
3. The lazy approach. Use other questions to make scenarios.

Obviously, the setup approach is most efficient. Solving the question in advance is nice, when it happens.

The Lazy Approach

But what do you do if you haven’t? I recommend option 3. Often, drawing scenarios for other questions will help you prove where P can go.

• Question 18 proves that P can go 3rd. The right answer to that question (B) has P in 3rd.
• Question 22 proves that P can go 1st. That question makes you draw this diagram:

So that would make the answer either B or D. The only remaining question is can P go in center 2.

For this, you’d either notice that no other questions had placed P in 2. But, the best way to know that it can’t is logic. P can only go once, but anything placed in center 2 goes twice: in center 2, but also in center 1 (rule 3).

Therefore, D is CORRECT.