General Advice re: LG Forum

[patricksouthern]

I'm in the final stages of the Blueprint online course and am taking the June LSAT. My experience seems to be a rarity, at least from what I've read on these forums: I'm consistently testing well on both LR and RC, but LG is still a real pain (I'm only rarely able to score 20 points on an actual timed section).

I understand the basic methods for mapping out each game type and have no problem diagramming rules. My real problem comes in terms of making deductions, which seems to be the key to making the answers far more evident and allowing one to get through each game considerably faster. Obviously, practicing actual games between now and test day is a high priority, but are there any general strategies or tools you've found that helped hone your eye for making crucial deductions in LG?

This may be the difference in scoring a 175 (I've PT'd a 174 once and a 175 once) or a 168 (scored that once and a 169 once), so my concern with my inability to get a better grasp on this particular portion of the exam is growing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[03152016]

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[cc.celina]

I don't know how many others have this experience, but what helped me most wasn't drilling new games, it was going over and over old games that I had trouble with. The second time around you have a better grasp of how the game works and what kind of questions they're going to ask, and a lot of the time that helped me figure out how I could have done it faster. For the new/used CDs game, for example, the first time around I used subscripts of N and U, and some sort of weird quadrant system for on sale/not on sale that turned out to be a disaster. The second time around I realized I could probably just draw boxes around the new CDs and circles around the used ones, and that made it miles easier. Now whenever I have a hybrid game that combines in/out with some sort of binary distinctions, I use a similar system and it helps a lot.

For the deductions thing you probably just have to drill. That only comes with experience and familiarity, really.

I've also heard terrible things about the Kaplan 180/Kaplan advanced books, but it definitely helped me for LG (because its the hardest games + decent explanations.) Plus you can get it on amazon for like $10.

[bp shinners]

Hey Patrick,

Did you go over the LG clinic in our course yet? I feel that does a great job of helping make scenarios.

As far as deductions go, that's a fancy way of saying 'combining two rules'. As such, there's a sure-fire method to hit those deductions:
1) Look at your first rule. Compare it to the second rule. Do they have anything in common (a slot/player/distribution)? If so, combine them to get a deduction.
2) Look at your first rule. Compare it to the third rule. Do they have anything in common (a slot/player/distribution)? If so, combine them to get a deduction.
3) Repeat this process with the first rule and every other rule.
4) Repeat 1-3 with the second rule and every other rule.

After you've done that, you should have all the deductions. Easier said than done, but that's the process.

On another note, you can use the questions to let you know if you're missing anything. If there are a lot of conditional questions, then you probably don't have many big deductions to make. If there are a lot of absolute questions, you should have a few deductions. If there is a question that says, "Which one of the following must be true?" and you can't answer it with your setup, you're missing a big deduction. If you can 'brute force' that question, you'll have your deduction (since it always must be true, you can add it to your setup).

Hope this helps! Feel free to send me a PM if you have any other questions, as I'm very familiar with the course

[patricksouthern]

Hey Patrick,

Did you go over the LG clinic in our course yet? I feel that does a great job of helping make scenarios.

As far as deductions go, that's a fancy way of saying 'combining two rules'. As such, there's a sure-fire method to hit those deductions:
1) Look at your first rule. Compare it to the second rule. Do they have anything in common (a slot/player/distribution)? If so, combine them to get a deduction.
2) Look at your first rule. Compare it to the third rule. Do they have anything in common (a slot/player/distribution)? If so, combine them to get a deduction.
3) Repeat this process with the first rule and every other rule.
4) Repeat 1-3 with the second rule and every other rule.

After you've done that, you should have all the deductions. Easier said than done, but that's the process.

On another note, you can use the questions to let you know if you're missing anything. If there are a lot of conditional questions, then you probably don't have many big deductions to make. If there are a lot of absolute questions, you should have a few deductions. If there is a question that says, "Which one of the following must be true?" and you can't answer it with your setup, you're missing a big deduction. If you can 'brute force' that question, you'll have your deduction (since it always must be true, you can add it to your setup).

Hope this helps! Feel free to send me a PM if you have any other questions, as I'm very familiar with the course

I just finished the fifth scheduled practice exam in the course (scored a 172, which I would gladly take on the actual exam), so the LG clinic is up next. I'm hoping it's beneficial as well, because I have zero doubt that if I can consistently get 20+ on LG, I'm going to score no worse than a 170 on the exam. I've also got the PowerScore LG bible to work through in the last week before June 11, and I'll be working through extra problem sets from the Blueprint course, going back over all the ones I've done in the past and probably repeating several of the video lessons related to games.

I've noticed what you said about paying attention to the questions within each game, and that's helped me. If I see a lot of "if" questions, I don't tend to spend much (if any) time looking for deductions. But that's been more of a crutch than anything -- it helps me in those specific games, but on games where the majority of the questions aren't conditional, I'm still struggling. A lot. So I'm still concerned, but I know I've got time and materials to go through that should help me.

[bp shinners]

I've noticed what you said about paying attention to the questions within each game, and that's helped me. If I see a lot of "if" questions, I don't tend to spend much (if any) time looking for deductions. But that's been more of a crutch than anything -- it helps me in those specific games, but on games where the majority of the questions aren't conditional, I'm still struggling. A lot. So I'm still concerned, but I know I've got time and materials to go through that should help me.

I wouldn't call it a crutch as much as approaching the games in an intelligent manner. After reading the rules, there's no way you can possibly tell if there are a lot of deductions, or only a few. If you can take 2 seconds to figure that out, take any advantage you can get.

As far as the deductions/scenarios go, the clinic should help you a lot. The games with a lot of absolute questions are usually those that are scenario-heavy, and the clinic focuses almost exclusively on those types of games. If you get through it and really start to see which rules generate scenarios, you'll be in good shape.