Conditional Reasoning Games and Diagramming (pt31 vs others) Forum

[lawyerdude]

Hey guys, as most of you have probably noticed, preptest 31 contains the infamous CD game that is pretty much impossible to diagram. After epically failing it at first, and then reading up on explanations that suggest doing it without a diagram, I found that I could finish it in a reasonable amount of time (8-9 minutes) by thinking it through.

My question is, if this is the case that certain in/out conditioning games can be done better without diagramming, how do I know which ones to diagram and which ones not? Does anyone have a good rule of thumb for this?

[TripTrip]

I don't think there is a rule of thumb. I read the first of your post ("preptest 31 contains the infamous CD game that is pretty much impossible to diagram") and took that as a challenge. I spent about twenty minutes trying to diagram it or even just simplify the rules, and I came up with nothing.

It wasn't until I just dove into the first problem that I realized how easy it might be without the diagram. I think the deal breaker for diagramming was that you have a large number of elements (10) broken into multiple different overlapping groups (new/used, genre, and on/not on sale). That huge amount of information means that any inferences will be inherently complicated, but the answers will need to be simpler to compensate.

I've heard that the recent PTs have more games like this, that are better to do without inferences.

[lawyerdude]

I don't think there is a rule of thumb. I read the first of your post ("preptest 31 contains the infamous CD game that is pretty much impossible to diagram") and took that as a challenge. I spent about twenty minutes trying to diagram it or even just simplify the rules, and I came up with nothing.

It wasn't until I just dove into the first problem that I realized how easy it might be without the diagram. I think the deal breaker for diagramming was that you have a large number of elements (10) broken into multiple different overlapping groups (new/used, genre, and on/not on sale). That huge amount of information means that any inferences will be inherently complicated, but the answers will need to be simpler to compensate.

I've heard that the recent PTs have more games like this, that are better to do without inferences.

That's exactly my point! Everyone who does it seem to realize that it's easier to jump into the questions... but only after spending a good chunk of time diagramming. I'm wondering how to distinguish between when to diagram and when not.

TripTrip, are you saying that you could tell by the large number of elements and lack of inferences? Essentially the more information you have or are given to deal with, the more simpler the questions would be and they should be attacked accordingly? My worst fear is seeing something like this on test day and spending 5-6 minutes trying to diagram, thus wasting valuable time I could utilize attacking the questions themselves.

[PeanutsNJam]

Conditional q's:

still diagram, but diagram the RULES. Don't try to treat every game like a linear one.