I finally can confidently say I get games for the most part. I did okay on on the Sept. test but I think that may have been a lucky break because they seemed easier than usual. I fear December won't be so kind, so I want to beef-up on my skills. However, my greatest weakness is that I am slow. From reading posts it seems the consensus is to just keep doing them. Does anyone else have added advice on how I can get to Sensai level on games without losing accuracy??
Thanks--cat

It seems to be that the only way you can get better at games (just as other components of LSAT) is keep doing it. But, if I can add something on top of that, I would say DO NOT PANIC if a game doesn't "click" right away. Once you panic, you are done!

I wrote this stuff down somewhere, hope it helps at all but its basic strategy stuff.

.....................................................................................................
The advice I have to give is going to be saturated with TM vocabulary, but as far as Must be True questions:

In my experience many of these are found in linear (adv) or grouping games where a good diagram is essetial (actually essential to every game minus some in/out)

These are considered global questions, as in they do not alter any rules and only apply to what has been given initially. So look immediatly to your design. Most of the wrong answers are going to be "could be true" selections which, again if properly diagramed, should be found as double options, triple options, or just plain blank areas. Use these to eliminate all selections that do not apply to the must be true qualification.

If you find yourself stuck still that usually means there was a secondary deduction that is crucial to the game that you overlooked. This deduction will lead you to know that one variable has to go somewhere no matter what given the original guidelines.

Basically, read question. Diagram rules. Find out what are the "moving variables". Graph approprate design using rules. Find all 2nd deductions. Move on to the 1st (list) question.

If you get serious about these there are many other tactics to use (numerical dist. or "mastering" )


further


IN/Out Games and Must be True questions

Some people here might have another take on this but as far as I remember there are multiple kinds of IN/OUT games.

1) non set numerical dist. Basically these are in/out games where the question does not reveal how many would be chosen or selected for the in group. Typically these are matched with rules that are made up mainly of conditions (ie if A then B-If No C then No A etc) These are not that bad, but look daunting due to the sheer amount of rules that are given.

My advice here is to graph all these conditionals, DO NOT forget to also graph the contrapositives ! there is often a 2nd deduction right there.

A global "must be true" question in this case does not happen if at all being that a new "local" rule must be added to get the game going.

Example
If A then B /// No B then no A..........contrapositive
If B no C /// If C then no B...................."
If C then D /// No D then no C................ "

The question would be something like, if C's in what must be true ?
IN ------ OUT

C,D.........B,A

2) Set numerical Dist IN/OUt games- Here you will be given a set amount of variables, say 10 animals, and the question will want you to place some of them in a cage. The rules will dictate who can go with whom, and of course who can not go with whom. But here you can find a rule that states "only 6 animals can go in the cage" or something along those lines. Your setup will look like this:

IN ------------- OUT

_ _ _ _ _ _ ............_ _ _ _


There will be rules that give conditionals and some that place variables perminantly

If A then B
C is always in
If D then F
If R then No C
If no R then A

Here you get :

IN -------------- OUT

C,A,B_ _ _ ........._ _ _ R

A global Must be true will ask you about this setup, a local must be true will introduce a new rule that creates another perminant variable.

3) Not going into this too much, already wasting time at work here, but you can also see IN out Games with set linear numerical dist.

Looks like 15 kids want to join a baseball roster. There are 11 players in the lineup. The players are in the lineup according to there skill level.

Rules

Jose is better then Jim
Sam is on the team
Sally is better then Sam
Jackie hits better then Sam but worse then Keith.

Here you have both conditionals and a linear setup. Again make the right gragh using the rules and you should be fine.

To reinforce...

Always write contrapositives
Recognizing an IN/OUT game is half the battle, many people do not graph the OUT group which makes the games very difficult if not close to impossible.
If mostly conditionals like exp 1 expect to do a "mini" graph for many of the questions becuase the Question itself will set the game in motion.

Late


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Mitch-my-dear (ha),

Your post rocks. Thanks.

No, You rock..rock.

Glad it makes some sence, now if I could only do this stuff on my exam that would be swell.

BTW that info covers only one game type (in/out..duh)

Watch out for "grid style" games in which there are two or more variables, these are becoming more prevelant. Basically I think they are hard because I find it tough to know the correct way to make the grid, or setup quickly.

Visually they look like

4 Friends 5 sports

...............Basketball Soccer Volleyball Softball Kareoke
Me

You

That Guy

That other Guy


You can only play two sports at most
Me and you will never sing kareoke together
That other Guy will only do one sport
That guy plays Volleyball but not Softball
You really dislike That guy, and refuse to do something together with him


Or if they throw in three variables sometimes I set them up like this.

1st V-5 Days in a week

2nd V-4 friends

3rd V-5 daily chores

Here I do a little something like this...

Chores....___,......____......____....._____......._____

Friends...____......____......___........_____......._____

.............MON......TUES.....WED ......THURS .......FRI

Rules are like, everyone does at least one chore.
Sam has to see the dentist on MOn and Thurs (serious help)
Janette will not take out the trash
I will not do anything whatsoever on friday
etc


riiiight

Uhh, hey Mitch...

What resources did you use to study for the test if you don't mind me asking. I'm not taking it until June but it seems like you really know your stuff and I'd like to get my hands on whatever you used.

I took a full length Testmasters course which I highly recommend, although I did choke in Sept (damnit)

It's expensive but you will not need any other material. I ended up buying the 10 real LSAT exams from LSAC anyway though.

The reason everyone on here that has had any success in games recommends doing as many as possible is because they are so easy to master and can be a real savior on test day.

The more you do, the quicker you will recognize the game type, the faster you will know which setup to use, the more comfortable the process will be.

They are usually a ton easier then you think right off the bat, most of the answers are obvious - IF - you get a correct setup rigth away.

I usually mess up on writing down a conditional wrong, or being lazy on the setup.

Ok, I've heard TestMaster's is good.. Can you tell me what's so good about it? I really want to make sure that once I do drop more than a thousand dollars on a course, I pick the right one. And how exactly did you choke on the test? What went wrong? Was it the TestMaster's method that failed you?

I am still terrible at games, although I just did test #7 and only got 2 wrong...

Anyways... the only advice I can give is to NOT mark up your actual copies of the lsat games sections... get a pile of scrap paper and do the actual charts and that on the paper. I've found this a real help.

I have a giant pile of questions that I cannot do in under 10 minutes without making mistakes and a very small pile of games that I can do in under 10 mins without any mistakes. (Advice I gleamed from this board somewhere!)

My method is to try the game out ... if I fail ... it goes back to the bottom of the pile and I try another. This is painful, to say the least. Failing on 3 in a row is enough to, well... you get the idea.

If anyone has any suggestions for me as well I would LOVE them... The games section is killing me.

Well it may be too early to tell in my case, but i have heard many people atest that the Logic Games Bible by PowerScore led them to earning a perfect score on the Games Section of the LSAT. I have had the book for about two weeks now and I've covered the sections on Linear Games and Advanced Linear Games. I must say that I do notice improvement. I am getting about 90-95 percent of the linear questions correct. I cannot speak on the other games just yet because I haven't yet reached those chapters. But if the first section is a hint to what the rest of the book will be like I say you should grab it. I plan to get 100% of the games correct on my June exam. My motto is that though they are difficult, they are not rocket science and if anyone can get 100% correct and not be a genius then I can do it too. Don't give up man... a good work ethic can take you to unimaginable places.

Being that I'm spending my spare time erasing all the LG sections I scribbled on, I think your advice to use seperate peices of paper is great. Just remember that coming into the exam I recommend doing them on the actual page only because space management is VERY important in many questions. Remember no scrap paper is allowed and learning to be neat and clean with your diagrams goes a long way.

Basically coming into the test you need to work on exactly what you going to be exposed to that day.

Chad-

Basically I was testing around 164-167 and dropped significantly. Even looking back I can't remember what exactly was the issue (the actual test is kinda like blacking out, if that makes any sense to anyone).

But I know that stress was a major part of it, my strength was LG and my 2nd section was experimental LG which I bombed hard. Then was hit with a brutal RC section so I was all flabbergasted by the time I hit the last two sections.

All I can tell you is time is HUGE on test day. I was doing well timewise before that day, and not finishing was really adding to my overall shittiness.

Otherwise, Testmasters was great. Taking a class forces the LSAT to be a daily activity, with massive amounts of homework. The tips go a long way. Any class is totally up to the instructor, I got lucky with mine. But testmasters only uses instructors who recieved over 172 on the test. That alone made me work because they show you its not that hard, just takes time and practice.


Lenin- Older exams have way harder games.

Things like circle structure (wheel), mapping, and so forth. Things that are not very common today. But if you can crack those in under 10 mins that a great start

Oh and lastly Testmaster teaches you how to "master" games, when/if this skill is down the you can finish most games in 5-6 minutes without error. I'm working on it

Well I'm not that great at the logic games right now and its really bumming me out.. Some of them I get immediately and I move along pretty smoothly but for about 2 out of 5 games, I start to panic. I find that the games that I struggle on are the ones I consider to be uninteresting. The ones that I perceive to be "fun" I do better on. I have about 6 months to master Logic Games... so do I have your reccommendation that TestMaster's will do the trick? I am so desperate it's sad... I hate not getting these things right under 8 minutes and 45 seconds.

Testmasters will only help you, if you can afford it I say go for it.