LSAT 26, Game 4 Setup, Lawmakers and Scientists, LSATHacks

LG Game 4 Setup, by LSATHacks

Game Setup

This is a grouping game. We’ve got lawmakers and scientists. We need two from each group to be in. The rest will be out.

You should always draw your variable list so that you know who is who.

The letters earlier in the alphabet are lawmakers and the variables later in the alphabet are scientists.

We can draw this as four lines. We can put two lawmakers and two scientists underneath those lines.

Now for the rules:  G can’t go with V, H can’t go with Y and I can’t go with V.

Also, someone needs to be the chairman in the first meeting and then they are not permitted in the second meeting.

Some people get stuck here. They move onto the game and find it a horrible, agonizing experience. (Actually, that happened to me. )

But, looking at it again, I see there is a much simpler way. We need either I or V, but we can’t have both. Whether I or V is in almost completely determines the other people who can be in.

Let’s see what happens if you put I in. Then you can’t have V. V is a scientist so that leaves only two scientists, Y and Z. H can’t go with Y so we can only put F or G in.

Now, what if we put V in?  Then we can’t have I or G. That leaves only two lawmakers: we need F and H. H means that we can’t have Y. The only remaining scientist we can use is Z.

Amazing. There is just two ways to set up the rows. They are reversible. We could also use the same row twice, if we switched out the chairman from the first year.

We have to think about who can be chairman.

If we put F, H, Z and V in the first row then F can be the chairman in the first row. Z can be chairman in the second.

If we reversed the rows then G could be the chairman in the first row. Z could be chairman in the second.

There’s other possibilities, just know that we can create working scenarios no matter which order the rows are in.

Could we use the same row twice?  Yes. We just have to make sure to obey the rules about chairmen.

This game is incredibly restricted. Whether we put in I or V determines almost everything. This shows why it’s worth trying things out on paper before starting. Often you’ll learn something that just makes the rest of the game incredibly easy.