Trouble with a particular LG question Forum

[zanzbar]

I noticed recently when attempting to go through Grouping games that I have a major issue with games that bring in a new rule (if....) and then ask how many acceptable orders are left when including this rule into the group. I was wondering if anyone had any advice when it comes to tackling this type of question.

[OnlyLivingBoyinNY]

I noticed recently when attempting to go through Grouping games that I have a major issue with games that bring in a new rule (if....) and then ask how many acceptable orders are left when including this rule into the group. I was wondering if anyone had any advice when it comes to tackling this type of question.

What I do in these cases is just draw the rule out by the question, just as you would local diagrams. So, for instance #9 might say "If all other rules stay the same, and you add the rule that, if I is chosen, it must be chosen immediately before J, it must be true that H ....." Here I would just write it out like and then draw the diagram below that:

"If all other rules stay the same, and you add the rule that, if I is chosen, it must be chosen immediately before J, it must be true that H ....."
IJ
_ _ _ _ _ _
J_______I

[Kurst]

What precludes J from being first when I is not chosen?

[OnlyLivingBoyinNY]

What precludes J from being first when I is not chosen?

Right, right. Good eye, Kurst. I just made that example up on the spot after a beer or two last night. It would be diagrammed like that if I and J must be chosen. Otherwise you could just say

I -> IJ

and the not laws would have to be implied.

[zanzbar]

I think you guys might be misinterpreting what I am asking for instance (this is an over simplification since it is off the top of my head without any LSAT material around) Say you have 5 people A,B,C,D,E. you might have 2 rules like:
C is #3
B comes after D

And the new rule states if D comes after C how many acceptable orders for this game are there?
A. one
B. two
C. three
D. four
E. five

In this instance its B, but I was wondering what is the mental process some of you guys go through to quickly solve questions like this?

[OnlyLivingBoyinNY]

Zanzbar,

and then ask how many acceptable orders are left when including this rule into the group

You are right-I didn't read your question very closely.

More rules do not mean a more difficult game. Rather, they add another restriction to the game. This should allow you to solve the game faster. Usually, these questions will come at the end of the game, so I will look back and see if I have already seen a template that abides by that rule (AECDB, for instance). So, From there I can just take the CDB lock and create a quick little diagram to see what else might happen:

_ _ CDB (CDB is a lock)
EACDB
AECDB

That's how I usually treat these problems. Creating the templates usually takes a few seconds, but I think it saves more time than trying to just think about it in your head.