LG explanations for people who don't make many inferences? Forum

[M.M.]

7sage is great, but upon reviewing PT 69 I went to use their site and for game 3 and 4, their only explanations come in the form of frames (which I am convinced I will never be able to recognize as appropriate on test day). Are there any other explanations out there that are nearly as good but don't assume we'll make 100 deductions before starting a game? Game 3 seemed utterly hopeless if you didn't make them, but that can't be true and I'd like to work it out without doing frames - like I would have to do on test day.

[hopeboaltberkeley]

A more general, but related observation: The handful of 7Sage videos I've watched have often used framing (multiple templates) as a technique to tackle games. The videos definitely shed light on games I have trouble with but I find this technique to be quite time consuming in most cases, and I already greatly struggle with game timing as is!

[Ron (PowerScore)]

Are there any other explanations out there that are nearly as good but don't assume we'll make 100 deductions before starting a game?

There are certain games for which templates will be required for an efficient attack on the game. However, the process you would use to determine whether templates are appropriate will also provide you with lesser inferences that are easier to see. The important thing to remember is that templates don't come fully formed like Athena from Zeus' head.

The way you recognize templates is that you see that rules are reducing at least a few spaces on your diagram to very limited options, and often to dualities. That recognition can help you answer the questions even if you do not actually write out the templates. But if you go back after a game and consider the scenarios that you work out to answer the questions, you'll typically find that you wound up doing the templates after all. It's just that you did them throughout the game, rather than up front.

There's a lesson to be learned from this. If you go back through the game and consider the restrictions that caused you to work out templates in order to answer the questions, you can gain some insight into the kinds of questions you could ask yourself up front to determine if it is a good templating situation. Now, I don't find templates to be necessary for the third game of PT 69, although there certainly is some basis for them. But consider the restrictions in questions 13, 14, and 15. Those restrictions cause you to learn much of what templates would show you.

By reverse engineering the game in that way, you can learn more about how LSAC constructs the test, and what they find to be useful inferences to discriminate among test takers. If you get a good handle on what they choose to ask about in each game, you'll get much better at anticipating the useful inferences and the situations in which templates are not only helpful but necessary.

Hope that helps,

Ron