LSAT 79, Logic Game 3, Question 15

LG Game 3 Question 15 Explanation

This is a could be true question. As with question 14, you should think about which answers make it easy to comply with rules, and which ones make it hard. Then, try drawing the easy one.

• A: This makes things easy. V can’t be with Z. Since this answer fills group Markets with RZ, this means it prevents us from violating rule 3.
• B: This splits up TS. Hard.
• C: This splits up TS. Hard.
• D: This splits up TS. Hard.
• E: This directly violates rule 3. We can rule it out immediately.

I want to further explain the mindset I have when looking at these questions. I’m not deciding whether B-D could be true. I’m just deciding they’re harder to make true, because something has to happen in each of them which isn’t listed in the answer. 

E.g. in D, we’d need to also add T to Pricing, but T wasn’t mentioned in the answer. So D directly affects three variables, unlike A, which affects only the variables listed in the answer. This makes D more rigid, and therefore it’s harder to avoid a rule violation.

And actually, by spending slightly more time on B and C, we can say they’re definitely wrong. They both place two people in Markets, and also require us to join together TS, in Markets. That would require putting three people in Markets. Which is impossible. 

But, figuring that out takes more time than simply thinking “TS separate, hard, move on”. I want you to cultivate the ability to make quick judgements about which answer to try first. In this case, A is the best candidate. So, let’s try drawing it. A places R and V in markets: 

We have TS left to place, and YZ. We know that YZ must either both be in P, or both not in. So this gives us two blocks of two, which are interchangeable:

So, this is possible. A is CORRECT.

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