Initially, test takers consider logic games often the most intimidating section of the LSAT, primarily because of their unfamiliarity.  For the majority of students, the time element of 4 games in 35 minutes is the biggest problem.  That is why it is important to become very skilled and confident in diagramming (sketching) the games.  Once a test taker has learned a systematic approach to setting up logic games, LG’s can be a great opportunity to pick up points on the LSAT and to raise your score.

In order to understand how to set up a logic game, first we need to understand exactly what LG’s are and what they are not.  While thinking how to define exactly what a LG is, I find myself thinking of a book I recently read called What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell.  By the way, if you are reading this and are not familiar with his books, they are very interesting and have my endorsement.  In this book, Gladwell references national security expert Gregory Treverton. Treverton made a very interesting distinction in Smithsonian magazine June 2007 between puzzles and mysteries.  According to Treverton, puzzles have enough evidence or information given to make deductions and reach the answers.  “They can be solved.”  Mysteries however offer no such comfort.  Treverton’s interpretation on mysteries is that they have no answers.  There is simply just not enough information necessary to reach a definite conclusion.

Ok, so at this juncture, you may be asking yourself how this relates at all to any of the three points in the title.  Here it is.  As an LSAT instructor, I see many students initially perceive LG’s as mysteries, and at some point in diagramming them, they simply give up and try to limit the answer choices to two or three possibilities and chose the best one hoping for luck.  Then, as students learn to diagram and interpret the rules and develop reasoning and deduction skills, they begin to see the LG’s as puzzles.  Each game having absolute answers can be conclusively proven.  At this point is when a student begins to see their LG scores go up consistently and progressively.  And that’s the point; LG’s are puzzles, not mysteries.  Check out our newest course, Logic Games on Demand, to learn how to demystify them.

So why are the LG’s tested and how do they relate to law school.  These games tell you absolutes, but not always blatantly.  Often times, they want to see if you have the deduction and reasoning skills that are necessary to see what is not directly in front of you.  For example  if 1, then 2; and if 2, then 3; so if 1, then 3; and if not 3, then not 1.  The skills tested in that basic example are elementary versions of the skills that are necessary to think through legal issues and complex situations.

To give you every advantage possible as you prep for the October LSAT, enroll in a comprehensive LSAT course by September 30^th and receive our three section-specific supplemental On Demand courses for free: Logic Games On Demand, Logical Reasoning On Demand & Reading Comprehension On Demand – a $897 value.

Logic Games are a formidable foe for sure; they take time and practice to master. But, you may be able to seize more points right away if you’re willing to follow some important rules. (There’s some formal logic for ya.) Here are some guidelines I share with my LSAT students that help in getting through the logic games section quickly.

1. Be willing to work on the games out of order. That is, don’t necessarily take the games in order. The makers of the LSAT are testing more than your ability to understand and apply rules and make logical deductions in the logic games section. They’re also testing whether you can make good decisions about how to best allocate your time. So, they may make the first game the hardest game in the section and/or make the easiest game the last game in the section. You want to prioritize the easiest games first, and Kaplan students are taught how to distinguish easier from harder games. The easy game usually takes less time than more difficult games, so doing the easy game first means that you’ll build up your score quickly and that you’ll be able to use the time saved on this game for the harder games at the end.
2. Be willing to work on the questions out of order. Again, don’t necessarily take the questions in order. The first question of each game is usually the easiest, and you want to do it first. This question typically asks you which of the answer choices doesn’t violate any of the game’s rules. As long as you understand the rules (even if you didn’t make any deductions), you can get this question right. Maybe the next question in the set, though, is a lot more difficult. It may be beneficial to skip it and keep going. Often easier questions will follow. But if you spend all your time on that one difficult/time-consuming question, then you’ll miss the opportunity to get to the easier questions.
3. Use the questions to help you figure out if you misunderstood rules or missed key deductions. If the first question that asks you to find out which answer doesn’t violate any of the rules proves difficult to answer, this may mean that you misunderstood a rule and is a sign to go read them again. If there are a lot of questions that ask about things that must be true, and it’s taking you a long time to figure out the right answer, this is a sign that you missed a key deduction. In this case, if time permits, go back and re-read and re-think the rules, or if you’re running out of time allotted for this game, move on in search of easier games. In our Kaplan courses (including our new Logic Games on Demand), students learn both how to interpret the rules and how to identify deductions in this section of the LSAT.
4. Be willing to move on. You may be thinking, “I’ve invested so much time already, I just need to finish this game.” Understandable thought given that we’ve all been told to never give up. But there are good reasons for moving on in the logic games section. First, you only have 35 minutes, and you need to get as many questions right in those 35 minutes as possible. No one is going to know or care if you got all the easy or hard questions right on the LSAT. Law schools only care about how many you got right period. So be willing to skip difficult/time-consuming questions to have the opportunity to get more questions right. And second, if you do skip questions and have time to come back to them before the section ends, you may be surprised to find out that with fresh eyes, the question is easier to do the second time around. And if the question isn’t easier, then at least you didn’t waste time on it.

Always remember to mark answers on your grid when you skip questions. You want to make sure that you have an answer marked for every question because there is no penalty for guessing.

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Everyone does it differently, but at the end of the day, everyone still has to take it. That it is the LSAT. Seeing as it’s still relatively fresh in my mind, I thought it’d be something fun to discuss, especially for the prospective monkeys out there looking to go to Law School. The test itself has a total of 5 sections of Scantron Style answers to be filled in and a writing section.

The Scantron portion of the LSAT breaks down into three distinct areas:

1. 2 Sections of Logical Reasoning

2. 1 Section of Reading Comprehension

3. 1 Section of Logic Games

The final section, the experimental section, will be one of those three topics and will usually occur in the first, second or third section of the exam. Everyone has a section they personally find to be easy as all hell and one that they find to be the devil incarnate. Me, I loved the games and hated reading comprehension. I know others that took the test and were absolutely miserable with the games yet loved the logical reasoning. That said, lets deconstruct the LSAT.

Logic Games: Why Playing Tetris Actually Pays Off

I love playing Tetris. In fact, I still do play a lot of Tetris. That game is also the reason why I found Logic Games to be the easiest section on the LSAT. Logic Games are not quite what they sound like. They are not brainteasers or trivia, but sequencing games, much like Tetris. Some games are pretty straight forward and have only one variable and others are a little more interesting with up to 3 variables in a non-linear sequence using multiple groupings. The reason why I find the games to be like Tetris comes down to how you can manage the relationship between the falling pieces and the constantly changing board, much like how you can sort the variables of the game into much more manageable and organizable groups.

For Logic Games, the rules are simple. Take a given set of data and constraints and answer the questions about that set of data and constraints. There are three things to note here. The first is that your explicit data serves as your guidelines for what pairs work and don’t work. The second is that the questions will either ask you to solve for factual data (everything is defined by the constraints) or theoretical data (Say constraint X is in position Y). The final thing is that you can always find a way to group or order your data.

Logical Reasoning: Test Logic Trumps All

Logical Reasoning, while I disliked this area, was an immense challenge for me. LSAT logic is not like normal logic, and being a finance guy, it was definitely foreign to me. LSAT logic isn’t a matter of a basic Yes or No. For the LSAT, Yes or No becomes either Yes and Not Yes or No and Not No. Confusing right? While I don’t know why the LSAT logic is like this, once you understand the construct of logic, it becomes easier to understand how the questions are asked. Like the games, Logical Reasoning focuses on Facts, Theories, and Opinions. Facts are sets of data solely present. Theories are arguments from one person. Opinions are the two person conversation pieces.

The difficulty I had with this section came down to understanding the minutia within each question. I could be asked a question to strengthen the argument but it might fall under one type of subcategory of that question. This would have been the hardest section for me if not for reading comp, but it was difficult and required the most work for me. To prep for this, I was grateful I took a class. I spent hours going over the materials covered after class in order to understand the nuances of Logical Reasoning questions and did as many practice questions as I could get my hands on. I did 3-4 hours a night of Logical Reasoning Homework during the week and 7-8 hours on the weekends. As it reached the end of the course and closer to the LSAT, I did full logical reasoning sections in order to improve my time and ability. It definitely helped me out majorly.

Reading Comprehension

Ralph Wiggum wrote: Me fail English? That’s unpossible.

I don’t know how to describe Reading Comprehension better than this. Ralph Wiggum, the 8-year old classmate to Lisa Simpson, could not speak finer words when he uttered that quote. That’s how Reading Comprehension made me feel. It wasn’t overly difficult, per se, as the logical reasoning questions were the basis for reading comprehension questions. It was just a very time consuming section with materials that I honestly had no clue about. This is the same Reading comprehension that’s on the SAT. This is the same paragraph followed by questions structure we all know. Basically, it’s 4 passages and questions. One of the passages will be 2 different speakers on the same topic and the rest will all be 1 long passage.

Personally, I hated it. To quote Jay Sherman, “It Stinks!”

The LSAT presents a myriad of challenges for test-takers. Some find reading comprehension difficult to slug through; others find logic games particularly challenging; while other still are stymied by the complexities and variances of logical reasoning questions. But almost universally, what all test-takers agree on, the single biggest challenge of the LSAT: TIME. This month, our team of LSAT experts give you time saving tips for each section of the test in a series we call, “Beat the Clock”. For information on all our LSAT prep programs, please visit kaplanlsat.com.

Imagine being given a list of the 50 states in alphabetical order. Now imagine being told that you have one week, and for each of the 50 states that you set foot in, you will receive $10,000. Where would you start? Where would you go next?

I doubt very seriously that any of you decided to tackle the states in alphabetical order. That opening stretch of Alabama to Alaska to Arizona to Arkansas would chew up most of the week you were given and only get you four states. If you’d started on the East Coast you might have been able to do four states within a couple hours of driving. Even better, you could have started at Four Corners and checked off four states simultaneously. With a start like that you’d be able to pay off the first year… mmm… semester… mmm… you’d definitely be able to pay for the first round of law school books.

Given that so many better options are available, tackling that list alphabetically just because that’s the way it was given to you seems downright dumb. Taking the questions in order on the LSAT just because that’s the way they presented to you may not be taking tens of thousands of dollars out of your pocket, but then again if it means the difference between your dream school and your safety school, it just might be.

Last week Lindsey took a look at how section management pays off with logic games, and next week Justin will get into how section management can help in reading comprehension. That probably makes sense to you. The logic games all look fairly different from each other, and the different subjects of the reading comp passages make them ripe for strategy. But logical reasoning? All the questions about a paragraph long and basically the same, right?

Wrong.

With about twelve different question types there are many different challenges being presented on the logical reasoning section. Beyond that, there are many different levels of challenge within a section, and those levels don’t necessarily correspond with the numbers of the questions. Even veteran LSAT teachers will tell you that some questions are just plain hard. And that super-tough question may show up as #9 or #16 or #22. In fact, questions 15-22 (roughly) are what we call the “danger zone” – where the toughest questions in the section often lie. Almost assuredly, there are easier points to be had at the end of the section. If you’re just going straight through the questions, you may be taking a long flight from New York City to Hawaii rather than hoping on the commuter rail into Connecticut. Hawaii will still be there if you get through all the easier states first.

Now I’m not saying you should read the entire section in order to figure out the optimal order—time is too limited for that to make sense—but I do hope that you’ll recognize that the LSAT rewards test-takers who approach tasks strategically.

Take a good look at how you’re approaching logical reasoning sections, and be more willing to skip tough questions. It’s all about how many you get, not how challenging they were. That’s a strategy that may not give you $10,000 per point, but it will pay off.

The LSAT presents a myriad of challenges for test-takers. Some find reading comprehension difficult to slug through; others find logic games particularly challenging; while other still are stymied by the complexities and variances of logical reasoning questions. But almost universally, what all test-takers agree on, the single biggest challenge of the LSAT: TIME. This month, our team of LSAT experts give you time saving tips for each section of the test in a series we call, “Beat the Clock”. For information on all our LSAT prep programs, please visit kaplanlsat.com.

No rest for the weary: here it is three weeks later, and I still haven’t adjusted to Daylight Savings Time. Never having been the morning person, losing that extra precious hour of sleep, rising in the pre-dawn dark, and watching the sun sink into the horizon merely a couple of hours before bedtime really messes with my internal clock. Not that this clock is some kind of precision machine (in my life, “on time” gives or takes… OK, OK, takes ten minutes), but it does help keep my daily rhythm rolling automatically, and setting the alarm for an hour early throws that cadence right off.

Kaplan LSAT students, too, are keenly aware of the spinning hands of the clock, as they are a constant reminder of the limited minutes- thirty-five to be exact- that each test taker has to maximize his points in each section of the test. But Kaplan students also know that, while each question on the test is worth one point (no more, no less), the questions vary significantly in difficulty. This diversity is even more challenging in the Logic Games section of the LSAT, where the analytical reasoning questions are grouped into four games, also of varying difficulty. The successful test taker must approach section management strategically in order to tackle the games and questions in the order most efficient to build points and conserve precious minutes.

Section management on the LSAT is at once a science and an art: some factors are more objective, while others lean toward intuition. The Kaplan key is to develop a balance between these two approaches- to think like the test maker to identify those challenge factors built right into the games and questions, while also giving consideration to personal strengths and preferences.

Rather than jumping into the questions first presented, in the first thirty seconds to a minute of the Logic Games section, test takers should skim the section to perform a triage of game order. One of the top factors to consider may be game type: for example, sequencing games show up on the LSAT to a greater extent than other question types- consequently, Kaplan students will have learned about sequencing games early in their prep and will have completed the most practice in this type. By contrast, hybrid games may be more time-consuming (if not more inherently difficult) to address. Another consideration may be the rule set of each game: a long list of rules does not necessarily indicate a tougher game. The savvy test taker will also weigh the concrete nature of the rules, considering the definition that more direct rules may add to a wide-open game.

Test takers may also analyze a number of additional objective factors (number of possible points per game, specificity of each game’s set-up, etc.), but the art emerges in having confidence in one’s sense of the section. One minute may not be long enough to develop a comprehensive knowledge of all four games (just as it isn’t long enough for me to shower, brush my teeth, and dash out the door when I sleep straight through the aforementioned alarm… I digress), but the minute is enough time to take a broad survey, weigh a handful of critical elements, and develop an informed strategy that feels right to the individual test taker. Kaplan affirms the wisdom of our students who have prepped extensively: by Test Day, their intuition isn’t blind but instead a subtle manifestation of the Kaplan method in action. Trust yourself, and be confident- this is your Test Day!

That first minute of section management may seem to speed by (not unlike my dwindling minutes of snooze-button time these days), but the task a strategic test taker accomplishes in that minute is well worth it if the test taker sticks to the plan. It is critical to keep a steady pace throughout the section, limiting oneself to approximately eight minutes per game- if you can bank some time on one early, lower-difficulty game, invest those precious seconds in the highest difficulty (and, hopefully, last) game in the section. Also, carefully consider the question order within each game- is the question answerable at first look, or does it include an “If” that requires additional figuring? This could make the question more time-consuming, but it might also add concreteness and certainty.

The Kaplan test taker knows that strategy will add strength to all elements of the LSAT experience, from speed to energy. And if you have a little of either to spare, send it my way: I need all of the help I can get to get in gear this morning!