LG Game 3 Setup, by LSATHacks
This is an explanation of the third logic game from Section IV of LSAT 68, the December 2012 LSAT.
A maintenance company takes service requests from three clients: Image, Solide and Truvest. The service targets are set either by voicemail or through the company website.
This is a complex game. I’m going to use a few symbols that aren’t often used in logic games. To make these clear, I’m going to give you a math refresher.
Greater Than Signs (Aaah, Math!)
This is a greater-than sign. It means that what comes on the left (or first) is bigger than what comes after.
For example, 6 is bigger than 5:
This next sign is a greater-than-or-equal sign. It means that what comes first is the same size as what comes second, or it’s bigger.
For example, 7 is greater or equal than 7 (it’s equal) and 8 is greater or equal than 7:
6 would not work, because 6 is smaller than 7.
If you’re not familiar with these symbols, you should get comfortable with them. They’re occasionally useful in logic games.
The Main Diagram
So, there are three clients, and two different targets for each client: a voicemail target and a website target.
The clients are the base of the diagram. I represented them horizontally, though you could just as easily represent them vertically. That difference rarely matters.
This game is a little tough to wrap your head around. Service target are just numbers that get written in this diagram. So if T’s website target is 3, then you would write in in like this:
The First Rule And Its Restrictions
The rules restrict what numbers we can set the targets to. The first rule says that clients can’t have website targets that are longer than their voicemail targets.
This means that the voicemail targets are greater than or equal to the website targets. Which is why I showed you the greater than or equal to mathematical symbol. Here’s how I represented that on the diagram:
This is a non-standard game. I’ve never seen a game that required this type of symbol before (arrow + greater-than). So the exact symbol you use isn’t that important. You should only worry about perfecting symbols when a rule occurs in many games.
I’m going to draw the third rule next. S’s website target is shorter than T’s. This means T’s is greater than. This is not the same symbol from the first rule, since the two targets can’t be equal.
Since the arrow goes from T to S, that means that T is bigger, since it is at the start of the arrow.
This a bit ambiguous, because the greater than side is facing S. I found this way clearer, but feel free to reverse it in your own diagram if you prefer.
Now, I’ll explain the not rules I drew on the diagram.
T’s website target can’t be 1, because then it couldn’t be bigger than S’s website target. Likewise, S’s website target can’t be 3.
Since T’s website target can’t be 1, that means T’s voicemail target also can’t be 1. The voicemail target has to be bigger or equal to the website target.
S Restricts T
If S’s website target is 2, then T’s website target has to be 3. T’s voicemail target also has to be 3, since it has to be larger or equal.
If S’s website target is 1, then T’s website target can be 2 or 3.
Two Scenarios, Using The Second Rule
Now, the second rule. Image’s voicemail target is shorter than the other two clients’ targets. The targets can only be 1, 2 or 3.
That means Image’s voicemail target can only be 1 or 2 days. If Image’s target were 3, then the other targets couldn’t be bigger.
Whenever there are only two possibilities, it’s good to draw them both and see what happens.
(technically, there are also only two possibilities for S’s website target. I’m splitting based on Image’s voicemail target because this leads to more restrictions. Image’s voicemail target also restricts Image’s website target)
In the first scenario, Image’s voicemail target is 1 day. This means Image’s website target is also 1 day, since is has to be smaller or equal than the voicemail target.
S and T’s voicemail targets can’t be 1, because they have to be larger than Image’s website target.
That’s all we can deduce for the first scenario. For the second scenario, Image’s voicemail target is 2.
That means S and T’s voicemail targets are 3, because the second rule says their voicemail targets are bigger than Image’s.
Image’s website target can’t be 3, because the website target must be smaller or equal to the voicemail target.
That’s all we can deduce for this diagram. Still, making this deduction upfront simplifies things.
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