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Hi all --

I didn't feel like doing the work I was supposed to be doing, and I miss making up logic games, so I put together this fake game -- thought some of you prepping for feb, and some of you who are done with the lsat but can't quite shake your games addiction, might enjoy it --

Obviously certain aspects (such as names not being in alphabetical order and such) are not meant to be exactly LSAT-like, and of course you should not use fake games as a substitute for real games, but do know that all rules, inferences, questions, and reasoning structures are very consistent with what you would see in a real game.

Hope you enjoy it -- I have put the answers and some study suggestions on the immediately following post, so if you don't want to know the answers, don't look ahead -- if there is enough interest in this, I'll post more games from time to time --

Mike


The Test Prep Game

Ned is going to utilize 6 different LSAT learning products over the course of 4 weeks. Three of them—Blueprint, Kaplan, and 7Sage—are recorded courses, and three of them—Manhattan, Powerscore, and The Trainer—are study guides. At the beginning of each week, he will choose a course or study guide, and he will use each product for exactly one of the four weeks. He will utilize the learning tools in accordance with the following conditions:

He uses only one learning product during the first week.
He uses Powerscore in an earlier week than either Manhattan or Kaplan, but not both.
He does not use Blueprint in Week two.
He does not use a course during the third week.
He does not use more than one study guide in any one week, and does not use more than one course in any one week.

1. Which of the following could represent the schedule for when he utilizes the learning products?
A. Week one: Kaplan; Week two: Blueprint and The Trainer; Week three: Powerscore; Week four: 7Sage and Manhattan.
B. Week one: Blueprint; Week two: Kaplan and The Trainer; Week three: 7Sage and Powerscore; Week four: Manhattan.
C. Week one: Blueprint and The Trainer; Week two: Kaplan; Week three: Powerscore; Week four: 7Sage and Manhattan.
D. Week one: 7Sage; Week two: Kaplan and The Trainer; Week three: Powerscore; Week four: Blueprint and Manhattan.
E. Week one: Blueprint; Week two: 7Sage and Powerscore; Week three: The Trainer; Week four: Kaplan and Manhattan.

2. Each of the following could be true EXCEPT:
A. he uses Blueprint and Powerscore in the same week
B. he uses 7Sage and Manhattan in the same week
C. he uses 7Sage and Powerscore in the same week
D. he uses Kaplan and Powerscore in the same week
E. he uses Kaplan and The Trainer in the same week

3. Which of the following, if true, determines which week he will use Kaplan?
A. He uses Powerscore in Week two.
B. He uses Powerscore in Week three.
C. He uses Manhattan in Week two.
D. He uses Manhattan in Week three.
E. He uses Manhattan in Week four.

4. If he uses 7Sage in Week one, it must be true that
A. he uses Powerscore in a week before the week he uses The Trainer
B. he uses Kaplan in a week before the week he uses The Trainer
C. he uses Kaplan in a week before the week he uses Powerscore
D. he uses Manhattan in a week before the week he uses Blueprint
E. he uses Powerscore in a week before the week he uses Blueprint

5. Which of the following, if true, determines when he will use each of the products?
A. He uses Kaplan in the second week.
B. He uses Kaplan in the fourth week.
C. He uses 7Sage in the second week.
D. He uses 7Sage in the fourth week.
E. He uses Powerscore in the third week.

I'm going to post the answers in the middle of this paragraph so that they are not so easy to see accidentally. By the way, I apologize for some of the clunky wording (like on #4) -- as I said, I'm a little rusty. The answers are d, a, c, e, b. If you are prepping for Feb, and you've just tried playing this game, two thoughts:
1) I think a big challenge of the game is in the fact that there are a variety of issues to deal with -- none of them are that hard, but you have to be comfortable bringing them together. If you found it difficult to diagram or conceptualize this game, think about whether it had to do with you not being comfortable bringing issues together.
2) This game lends itself to framing and allows for a ton of upfront inferences -- if you struggled with the game, try playing it again knowing that and see if you have any more success.

Thanks for this! I'm about to set it up in a word doc and print it out. Does anyone know what size and font the actual games are in? I remeber someone on here mentioning it before.

fnma2jd wrote:Thanks for this! I'm about to set it up in a word doc and print it out. Does anyone know what size and font the actual games are in? I remeber someone on here mentioning it before.

9-point Tiimes New Roman is probably close enough. While it may not be the exact font (I'm not a font guru, so I don't know for sure), it definitely appears to be 9-point.

.

My interpretation of "He uses Powerscore in an earlier week than either Manhattan or Kaplan, but not both." is that exactly one (Kaplan or Manhattan) is used some week after Powerscore. That does not preclude Kaplan and Powerscore from being together on week 2 and Manhattan on week 3 or 4. Correct?

he uses Powerscore in a week before the week he uses Blueprint = he uses Powerscore in some week before the week he uses Blueprint

Also, that ^ is equivalent, correct?

All in all, good game. Thanks for making it.

SecondWind wrote:My interpretation of "He uses Powerscore in an earlier week than either Manhattan or Kaplan, but not both." is that exactly one (Kaplan or Manhattan) is used some week after Powerscore. That does not preclude Kaplan and Powerscore from being together on week 2 and Manhattan on week 3 or 4. Correct?

he uses Powerscore in a week before the week he uses Blueprint = he uses Powerscore in some week before the week he uses Blueprint

Also, that ^ is equivalent, correct?

All in all, good game. Thanks for making it.

You got it -- good reading -- mk

Great game, Mike! Thank you for writing it. I especially enjoyed Question 3, where we were forced to make the inference that P and K could be in the same week (to distinguish between answer choices C. and D.). I didn't see that possibility during my setup, so I'm glad you tested it.

I'd really look forward to playing more of these, if you're up for writing them!

-SM

Straw_Mandible wrote:Great game, Mike! Thank you for writing it. I especially enjoyed Question 3, where we were forced to make the inference that P and K could be in the same week (to distinguish between answer choices C. and D.). I didn't see that possibility during my setup, so I'm glad you tested it.

I'd really look forward to playing more of these, if you're up for writing them!

-SM

That's a really specific thing to notice -- I think you may be stronger at LG than you give yourself credit for --

I'll be happy to put up more of these from time to time -- let me know if any of you have a preference for games being
1) a bit silly (such as this first one)
2) meant to be more exactly like real LSAT games
3) challenge games (a bit above and beyond in terms of difficulty)

-- happy to come up with whatever people find most useful -- mk

The LSAT Trainer wrote:

Straw_Mandible wrote:Great game, Mike! Thank you for writing it. I especially enjoyed Question 3, where we were forced to make the inference that P and K could be in the same week (to distinguish between answer choices C. and D.). I didn't see that possibility during my setup, so I'm glad you tested it.

I'd really look forward to playing more of these, if you're up for writing them!

-SM

That's a really specific thing to notice -- I think you may be stronger at LG than you give yourself credit for --

I'll be happy to put up more of these from time to time -- let me know if any of you have a preference for games being
1) a bit silly (such as this first one)
2) meant to be more exactly like real LSAT games
3) challenge games (a bit above and beyond in terms of difficulty)

-- happy to come up with whatever people find most useful -- mk

I'd prefer ones that "throw you off" and have a twist to them because they foster versatility. For example, this game Steve made up: http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/fr ... icult.html

So I guess I'm leaning towards choice 3. Definitely not choice 2 as there are already 284 real games.

The LSAT Trainer wrote:I'm going to post the answers in the middle of this paragraph so that they are not so easy to see accidentally. By the way, I apologize for some of the clunky wording (like on #4) -- as I said, I'm a little rusty. The answers are d, a, c, e, b. If you are prepping for Feb, and you've just tried playing this game, two thoughts:
1) I think a big challenge of the game is in the fact that there are a variety of issues to deal with -- none of them are that hard, but you have to be comfortable bringing them together. If you found it difficult to diagram or conceptualize this game, think about whether it had to do with you not being comfortable bringing issues together.
2) This game lends itself to framing and allows for a ton of upfront inferences -- if you struggled with the game, try playing it again knowing that and see if you have any more success.

With answer choice d on number four I was able to place all the tests as easily as I could with b. Did I do something wrong here? Do you have an explanation to go with that one?