How do you all speed up logic games time? Forum

[ltrutledge]

I always get all the questions correct when I'm not timing myself (like most people here), but I just can't seem to force myself to speed up and can't seem to get myself to move on to the next games when it's time either. How did you all speed up your performance besides just plain practicing?

[WWAD]

Questions and inferences repeat themselves. You have to get used to what happens when you have 5 slots and 7 people. Once the pattern is easier to see you can speed up. Go back through or do LG again and keep notes on what goes right, what goes wrong, and what you notice.

[malfurion]

Honestly, it really is just doing lots and lots of practice. You wouldn't become a fast runner or bicycler without doing a lot of running or cycling, and this is the same way. Once you've seen the same game type so many times, you immediately know how to start setting it up as soon as you glance at the ruleset, and you can do the most common inferences without even consciously thinking about them, leaving more brainpower for the harder ones.

Personally, I've never done any sections untimed because I think it would just lead to developing bad habits. There's no use in drilling a method that takes 11 minutes to solve a game when you need to be able to do that game in 8 minutes or less on the real test. The time pressure is just as much a part of the test as the logic, diagramming, etc. are, and I definitely feel like doing lots of strictly timed PT's helped me improve my speed dramatically.

[LSAT Blog]

+1 on what WWAD said.

The more inferences (connections) you make initially, the easier the questions in the game will be.

Practice is key, but it's not the only thing. You also need some solid strategies and techniques to understand how the variables interact and make the most of the rules before jumping into questions.

Whatever strategies and techniques you use (a lot of people on the forums will recommend the Logic Games Bible as a textbook), complete the section on the relevant game type before doing lots of practice on this type. Otherwise, you may just end up frustrating yourself. Some people like to just go it alone and develop their own strategies without outside help, but that can be a very time-consuming process (reinventing the wheel).

A lot of timed practice is important, of course, as malfurion indicated. However, I do believe that untimed practice on LG is important as well. You need to give yourself a chance to learn how LG work before limiting yourself to timed conditions.

Btw, I would not recommend ever limiting yourself to 8 mins 45 seconds for the harder LG. 8:45 is only an average, some games will (or at least, should) take less than 8:45, and others will take longer than that. The time you save on the easier games can be applied to the harder ones.

When timing yourself, limit yourself to the time for the full section as a whole.

-Steve

[balzern]

practice increases speed if you understand the game types and can easily recognize how to diagram them. diagramming and inferences are two important keys when thinking about speed.

[09042014]

Do the games individually timed to 8:30 min. And do them all, sorted by game type.

[malfurion]

I remembered one more thing that I think has helped increase my speed a lot, which is to reuse as much info as possible from previous questions in the same section. Any time you have come up with a valid solution while working on a question, circle it or something so that you can look back at it when working on the later questions. You almost always get one "free" correct solution from the first question, and just using that one can often eliminate a couple answer choices on other questions, which saves you time. I've often had questions that I was able to answer solely using solutions from other questions to eliminate 4 of the choices, meaning that I saved time and didn't have to use any brain power whatsoever. In those cases, I'll usually take the time to work out the remaining choice and prove its correct so that I catch any stupid mistakes I might have made.

[LSAT Blog]

+1 on what malfurion said.

Reusing previous hypos is key (as well as reusing the common "which one of the following is a valid scenario").

See PT34, G3 for an example of a game that is huge on reusing valid scenarios.

[sluguy14]

+1 on what WWAD said.

The more inferences (connections) you make initially, the easier the questions in the game will be.

Practice is key, but it's not the only thing. You also need some solid strategies and techniques to understand how the variables interact and make the most of the rules before jumping into questions.

Whatever strategies and techniques you use (a lot of people on the forums will recommend the Logic Games Bible as a textbook), complete the section on the relevant game type before doing lots of practice on this type. Otherwise, you may just end up frustrating yourself. Some people like to just go it alone and develop their own strategies without outside help, but that can be a very time-consuming process (reinventing the wheel).

A lot of timed practice is important, of course, as malfurion indicated. However, I do believe that untimed practice on LG is important as well. You need to give yourself a chance to learn how LG work before limiting yourself to timed conditions.

Btw, I would not recommend ever limiting yourself to 8 mins 45 seconds for the harder LG. 8:45 is only an average, some games will (or at least, should) take less than 8:45, and others will take longer than that. The time you save on the easier games can be applied to the harder ones.

When timing yourself, limit yourself to the time for the full section as a whole.

-Steve

+1. In terms of timing, I found it much more helpful to do full sections at 35 minutes rather than individual games at 8:45. I almost always burn through the easier games with plenty of time (11-12 minutes) to spare on a more difficult game. So even with a game that takes far longer than average, it's still possible to ace the section.

[WWAD]

It also helped when I finally got confident enough to get out of a game that was bogging me down and come back to it. I had always stuck with it if I committed to it and that took all the time away. Your brain keeps working on the game you left and when you come back it seems a little more obvious.

[makingwaves]

Make sure you have a very complete diagram and find all the inferences! I find that I do better time-wise when I take a tiny bit of extra time to make sure I make every inference I can. Many times i've found that that extra time is offset by being able to blow through the questions because of the diagram and the inferences.

[Kobe_Teeth]

For me it was repetition. I would do the same game 3-5x's. It helped me get to know my mistakes and therefore speed up. I didn't do them all over and over, just a select few that gave me trouble.

[daesonesb]

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