Logic Games Diagramming Forum

[lawschool2014hopeful]

Hey All,

I was wondering where do you guys do the main diagrams for your LG when you are given little space on the paper.
Also, I was wondering does anyone know any practice/techniques to improve your ability to visualize placements in your head so you dont always have to draw them out (always lack of space to draw out the possibilities, and takes more time)

[Lyov Myshkin]

if you want to improve your ability to hold multiple pieces of information in your head simultaneously, i'd suggest looking into working memory drills, i.e. http://www.lumosity.com/app/v4/personalization

it's interesting stuff. improving working memory has been shown to actually positively impact iq score results.

but in regards to games, i would actually avoid juggling stuff in your head, it's likely to get you into trouble and liable to get you to make sloppy mistakes. you'll end up accidentally flipping letters in sequencing games and stupid stuff like that.

personally the way i like to think about it, diagramming for games is really all about compressing possibilities into some sort of symbolic notation. your symbols should be easy to read, easy to understand at a glance, and as succinct as possible.

for example, say we have the rule A is before B but after C

C
|
A
|
B

i like this way of 'representing that information because it's immediately more understandable to me that reading a sentence and understanding what it means.

i can see immediately that A can't be last, C has to have at least two letters following it, and B has to be preceded by at least two letters. not to mention that all of this information is succinctly represented for me in a couple lines and a few letters.

my goal in improving my games technique (during my studying hey-day) was to take the existing way i was diagramming a game and improve on it. make it more succinct, more clear, while trying never to sacrifice one for the other. games techniques tend to evolve with this sort of deliberate practice, and i highly recommend that you continually redo games to try to figure out a better way of accomplishing those goals.

[Br3v]

Hey All,

I was wondering where do you guys do the main diagrams for your LG when you are given little space on the paper.
Also, I was wondering does anyone know any practice/techniques to improve your ability to visualize placements in your head so you dont always have to draw them out (always lack of space to draw out the possibilities, and takes more time)

I tend to draw as much as possible. And find room. Try to keep each questions work as close to the number if possible, but for some heavy hitters i find myself using the white space above where the oroginal info is presented.

And the usual blank white space at the bottom of the page is where most of the work (main diagram, etc.) is done, though I think this is obvious lol.

[lawschool2014hopeful]

I heard there is quite the controversy whether those brain games work or not. Do you have any personal experience?
Obviously, if given enough space, you would definitely use the bottom. But what about games that have minimum space at the bottom? how do you guys deal with those games?

[Br3v]

I heard there is quite the controversy whether those brain games work or not. Do you have any personal experience?
Obviously, if given enough space, you would definitely use the bottom. But what about games that have minimum space at the bottom? how do you guys deal with those games?

Write smaller.

Not being sarcastic lol

[rinkrat19]

I heard there is quite the controversy whether those brain games work or not. Do you have any personal experience?
Obviously, if given enough space, you would definitely use the bottom. But what about games that have minimum space at the bottom? how do you guys deal with those games?

I never had a game that didn't have enough room.

And I, because I only studied for 7 weeks and totally half-assed it, was still whipping out "try every combination" tables for some games once I made a few inferences and narrowed it down a bit. So I was using more room than would ideally be necessary if you've really prepped properly.

Absolutely diagram. Only freaky savants can do these in their heads without a diagram of some kind.

And write smaller.

[Micdiddy]

I heard there is quite the controversy whether those brain games work or not. Do you have any personal experience?
Obviously, if given enough space, you would definitely use the bottom. But what about games that have minimum space at the bottom? how do you guys deal with those games?

Find space.

I have never done a game without diagramming, and I have never had a space problem I couldn't overcome. Write smaller, use the margins and the top (as said before) and obv the room next to questions for local diagrams, and it doesn't become a big deal.

ETA: Wow, I was beat to multiple of my points by multiple people. Kudos.

[lawschool2014hopeful]

okay, thanks alot guys. I will definitely try to clean up my sloppy/huge writing, is been bad habit i been building since ever....... this gonna be quite difficult.

How about games where the Q supplies you with a diagram? do you guys redraw the diagram? my problem with those is that they are often cramped into the top and I dont have room to write my rules next to it. What do you guys do? Is the answer to this Q simply to write the rules smaller to the provided diagram?

[Br3v]

okay, thanks alot guys. I will definitely try to clean up my sloppy/huge writing, is been bad habit i been building since ever....... this gonna be quite difficult.

How about games where the Q supplies you with a diagram? do you guys redraw the diagram? my problem with those is that they are often cramped into the top and I dont have room to write my rules next to it. What do you guys do? Is the answer to this Q simply to write the rules smaller to the provided diagram?

I doubt you'll get a given diagram I believe those were just old games, but who knows. In the event you do, USE what's given