LSAT Logic Games Tips
We’re here with LSAT logic games tips to help you improve your study methods and your score. This is the section where many students see the most dramatic improvement, and it’s because the strategies for logic games are powerful.
If you’re totally new to logic games and got destroyed on your practice test like me, don’t feel bad. Once you know how to diagram, you’ll be able to solve those problems that once stymied you.
Most logic games fall into one of three categories: ordering or grouping, or a mix of both. An ordering question may give you seven names and ask who ate their ice cream cone 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. A grouping question will ask who had chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.
Diagrams are the key to working through these logic games. To learn how to write out diagrams for ordering, grouping, or mixed logic games, you can use Khan Academy’s free videos or the PowerScore Logic Games Bible.
These resources will also teach you how to make inferences. For example, if the rules tell us that Bob eats his ice cream cone before Chloe, you can infer that:
- Bob isn’t the last person to eat his ice cream cone
- Chloe isn’t the 1st person to eat her ice cream cone
Lastly, you’ll want to understand contrapositives. Let’s look at an example. If it rains, I will get wet.
We can write this statement down like this: if R → W.
To find the contrapositive, we reverse the order (flip R and W) and negate each statement, like this:
If not W → not R. If I’m not wet, then it didn’t rain.
Notice how we switched the order (R ↔ W) and then added the word not to each side.
Based on our initial conditional statement, we know that if it rains, you will get wet. We also know the contrapositive, that if you’re not wet, then it didn’t rain.
Note here that we can’t prove anything if all we know is that you are wet. Wetness does not prove that it rained. Maybe someone shot you with a squirt gun. Maybe you just took a bath. From our conditional statement (if R → W), we cannot infer that wetness is always caused by rain (if W → R).
This is the most important rule of formal logic that you’ll need to grasp for the LSAT. You will use it on every grouping-type logic game.
By diagramming, making inferences, and understanding contrapositives, I began to understand the logic games and could consistently work through the questions. There was just one problem: it still took me an hour to finish four logic games, and the LSAT only gives 35 minutes!
In my experience, the best way to improve speed is to do logic games… lots and lots of official logic games from past LSATs. A resource like 7Sage can help you here, by explaining how to diagram the games and attack the individual questions.
If you found these LSAT logic games tips helpful, check out our articles on reading comprehension, logical reasoning, and more!
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