Frustrated with Logic Games... Forum

[notaznguy]

LG is suppose to be the easiest and should be free points, but I'm struggling so much with it. My main issue is timing. I can never finish a game very fast, even on the easiest ones. I always time myself 8:45 per game and even on the super easy 1-5 pure sequencing games, I always spend around 7:40 on the game. On games with more questions and higher difficulty, I will spend 10-13 minutes.

Often the main reason I'm screwing up is because I'm misreading a single word or a single rule. For instance, a problem may ask "How many possible combinations of MALES are there?" but I will instead check how many possible combinations of FEMALES there are. When I get screwed and realize how impossible it is to figure out the number of females, I reread the question only to read that it asked for MALES and not FEMALES. Basically, this causes me to get 1 or 2 questions wrong per game and ruins my timing.

Is there anything I can really do besides doing a game once...waiting 24+ hours....then redoing it? I'm just going by Pithypikes method.

[thelawschoolproject]

I vote that you take some time to do one LG at a time, without timing yourself. At least, for a while. Make sure you're mastering the concepts before you time yourself. Go as slow as you need to so that you're making sure that you get the right rules.

[lsatprepguy]

LG is suppose to be the easiest and should be free points, but I'm struggling so much with it. My main issue is timing. I can never finish a game very fast, even on the easiest ones. I always time myself 8:45 per game and even on the super easy 1-5 pure sequencing games, I always spend around 7:40 on the game. On games with more questions and higher difficulty, I will spend 10-13 minutes.

Often the main reason I'm screwing up is because I'm misreading a single word or a single rule. For instance, a problem may ask "How many possible combinations of MALES are there?" but I will instead check how many possible combinations of FEMALES there are. When I get screwed and realize how impossible it is to figure out the number of females, I reread the question only to read that it asked for MALES and not FEMALES. Basically, this causes me to get 1 or 2 questions wrong per game and ruins my timing.

Is there anything I can really do besides doing a game once...waiting 24+ hours....then redoing it? I'm just going by Pithypikes method.

To learn games I did the following:
1. Read the Powerscore LG bible
2. Took ALL of the games from prep tests 1-40 and split them up by game type. (basic linear, advanced linear, grouping, etc.)
3. Each day, I picked up a different stack (the stacks were the different game types) and worked on about 6 games in a row.

By the time a month went by, I had done each stack all the way through, and then I started all over again and did those same stacks again.
By the time the end of the second month rolled around, I was consistently -0 in almost every single game, except for some stupid mistakes here and there.

For timing, I did it like this: Each game I timed myself with a stopwatch, not a countdown. Upon completion of the game, I wrote down the time that it took me to complete and logged it into an excel spreadsheet. I did this for each and every game.

You will find that by the second time you go through each stack, your time on each game will be significantly decreased.

Also, one thing to keep in mind that eased my nerves a lot with games is: On test day, you have 4 games in one section, which means that you don't have to finish EVERY game in under 8:45. Some games are naturally harder than others, and some are more time consuming. If you can breeze through the easy ones, you can use that time on other games. Therefore, if you see a lot of games where you are finishing in 6 minutes, don't panic if you see some games that take you closer or a little over 10 minutes.

[3v3ryth1ng]

LG is suppose to be the easiest and should be free points, but I'm struggling so much with it. My main issue is timing. I can never finish a game very fast, even on the easiest ones. I always time myself 8:45 per game and even on the super easy 1-5 pure sequencing games, I always spend around 7:40 on the game. On games with more questions and higher difficulty, I will spend 10-13 minutes.

Often the main reason I'm screwing up is because I'm misreading a single word or a single rule. For instance, a problem may ask "How many possible combinations of MALES are there?" but I will instead check how many possible combinations of FEMALES there are. When I get screwed and realize how impossible it is to figure out the number of females, I reread the question only to read that it asked for MALES and not FEMALES. Basically, this causes me to get 1 or 2 questions wrong per game and ruins my timing.

Is there anything I can really do besides doing a game once...waiting 24+ hours....then redoing it? I'm just going by Pithypikes method.

To learn games I did the following:
1. Read the Powerscore LG bible
2. Took ALL of the games from prep tests 1-40 and split them up by game type. (basic linear, advanced linear, grouping, etc.)
3. Each day, I picked up a different stack (the stacks were the different game types) and worked on about 6 games in a row.

By the time a month went by, I had done each stack all the way through, and then I started all over again and did those same stacks again.
By the time the end of the second month rolled around, I was consistently -0 in almost every single game, except for some stupid mistakes here and there.

For timing, I did it like this: Each game I timed myself with a stopwatch, not a countdown. Upon completion of the game, I wrote down the time that it took me to complete and logged it into an excel spreadsheet. I did this for each and every game.

You will find that by the second time you go through each stack, your time on each game will be significantly decreased.

Also, one thing to keep in mind that eased my nerves a lot with games is: On test day, you have 4 games in one section, which means that you don't have to finish EVERY game in under 8:45. Some games are naturally harder than others, and some are more time consuming. If you can breeze through the easy ones, you can use that time on other games. Therefore, if you see a lot of games where you are finishing in 6 minutes, don't panic if you see some games that take you closer or a little over 10 minutes.

I suck at games. Or I did. They rely on some math sense that I missed out on, since I was kicked out of Algebra 2 and never took any higher math.

What I did was make a binder of EVERY logic games section from 1-63. I did 1-40 slowly and methodically. I didn't worry about timing. One of the best sayings I ever heard was "you get faster by getting better, not better by getting faster." I made sure to learn the cool diagraming tricks all of the books had to offer, then I changed them up to suit me. I made sure I could do every game perfectly. I even started to enjoy the games, possibly to the detriment of other sections. Finally, after every modern PT, I would redo each section games section untimed.

I had to retake June's LSAT on account of Kate Chopin (RC, my supposed strength!), but I only missed 2 on LG. As it turns out, these games have pretty high replay value, so I did them all again. I think I only missed 2 this time as well. Some people on here will think that's shitty. Whatever. I'm an idiot, and I went from missing 7-12, to missing 3-none. Do what I did, because if it worked for me, it must work for everyone.

[3v3ryth1ng]

LG is suppose to be the easiest and should be free points, but I'm struggling so much with it. My main issue is timing. I can never finish a game very fast, even on the easiest ones. I always time myself 8:45 per game and even on the super easy 1-5 pure sequencing games, I always spend around 7:40 on the game. On games with more questions and higher difficulty, I will spend 10-13 minutes.

Often the main reason I'm screwing up is because I'm misreading a single word or a single rule. For instance, a problem may ask "How many possible combinations of MALES are there?" but I will instead check how many possible combinations of FEMALES there are. When I get screwed and realize how impossible it is to figure out the number of females, I reread the question only to read that it asked for MALES and not FEMALES. Basically, this causes me to get 1 or 2 questions wrong per game and ruins my timing.

Is there anything I can really do besides doing a game once...waiting 24+ hours....then redoing it? I'm just going by Pithypikes method.

To learn games I did the following:
1. Read the Powerscore LG bible
2. Took ALL of the games from prep tests 1-40 and split them up by game type. (basic linear, advanced linear, grouping, etc.)
3. Each day, I picked up a different stack (the stacks were the different game types) and worked on about 6 games in a row.

By the time a month went by, I had done each stack all the way through, and then I started all over again and did those same stacks again.
By the time the end of the second month rolled around, I was consistently -0 in almost every single game, except for some stupid mistakes here and there.

For timing, I did it like this: Each game I timed myself with a stopwatch, not a countdown. Upon completion of the game, I wrote down the time that it took me to complete and logged it into an excel spreadsheet. I did this for each and every game.

You will find that by the second time you go through each stack, your time on each game will be significantly decreased.

Also, one thing to keep in mind that eased my nerves a lot with games is: On test day, you have 4 games in one section, which means that you don't have to finish EVERY game in under 8:45. Some games are naturally harder than others, and some are more time consuming. If you can breeze through the easy ones, you can use that time on other games. Therefore, if you see a lot of games where you are finishing in 6 minutes, don't panic if you see some games that take you closer or a little over 10 minutes.

This guy is spot-on too: track your data.
Revisit games and try to beat your old time. The good thing about games is that if you're making all the deductions correctly (and quickly), you're actually improving the skills you'll use in most games.

[allysca]

I'm doing PPike's method too and found some resources that might be of interest to you:

For pure sequencing, I find Manhattan's method superior to LGBs. Get a free copy to read/print here:
--LinkRemoved--

For the Excel sheet LG tracker, Cambridge LSAT offers an excellent free version (you email them at the link at the bottom of the page to get a free copy with instructions) :
--LinkRemoved--
I don't time myself on drills, I use the stopwatch and note how long it took me at the top right corner of the page. Then I input my answers into Cambridge's excel sheet and the wrong ones appear in red. Before trying to look at the right answer, I redo the question I got wrong to see if I can see the right answer on my own.

I bought Cambrdige's LSAT Logic Games By Type ordered by difficulty (you can buy the book or the PDF version and then just print them out). --LinkRemoved--
I found that starting with the easiest and working my way up to the hardest really boosted by confidence with regard to attacking the games section.

[McFly]

all of the above advice is good, but for what it's worth, just being persistant is huge. i was pretty much in the exact situation as you, maybe worse, as some games would take me 15-20 minutes. getting through the PS LG book, then going through the PS LG Workbook, along with taking timed tests, I just progressed. LG went from by far my weakest section, to now the only section I like and feel confident in. pretty sure i missed 2 on the Oct. test, which isn't perfect, but much better than -10 or -12 when i first started.

still think i'm going to need to retake, and i'll definitely continue drilling LG. specifically doing them by type, as i felt i made my best progress just crushing through the LG workbook which divides them by type.

[bp shinners]

It also seems another second or two to re-read the questions might save you a minute or so on wasting time trying to figure out something that isn't being asked for. I always tell my students to re-read the rules against their setup because the few seconds spent there will save you minutes overall - you might want to apply that advice to the questions themselves.