LSAT Podcast Episode 21: Logic Games – Recognizing Templates and Limited Solution Sets

Episode 21 tackles one of the most powerful—but frequently misunderstood—techniques for attacking Logic Games: utilizing Templates to represent limited outcomes and solutions. In this discussion, Dave and Jon outline exactly how and why Templates work, the wide range of clues to help you recognize their presence, and safety measures to prevent you from pursuing them when you shouldn’t. Anyone struggling to reach perfection in games needs to hear this!

0:00 to 8:54: Intro

8:55 to 16:01: New admissions scandal

16:02 to 22:48: This week in the LSAT world

22:49 to 30:59: Limited Solution Set Games

31:00 to 41:33: Numerical Limitations

• Numerical Distributions of all types.
• Either a small number of variables or a small number of available spaces.
• A scenario that creates multiple groups with only one or two spaces available in one or more of the groups.
• A game that fixes a significant number of variables and leaves only a few free to move.

41:34 to 59:09: Duality

• A scenario that creates a two-value system, especially when followed by conditional rules.
• PT25, June ’98 – Two Sports: Golf and Tennis
• PT34, June ’01 – Doctors at Two Clinics
• A rule that creates duality for any variable, such as, “R must be third or fifth.”
• A rule that creates duality for a space, such as, “Either P or Q must be first.”
• Games where the linear base is divided in “half,” creating a limited number of spaces on each side.
• PT34, June ’01 – Trains at a Station

59:10 to 1:05:50: Overlap Between Rules or Variables

• A variable that appears in three or more rules.
• Multiple rules addressing just a limited number of variables.
• A large number of rules.

1:05:51 to 1:21:02: Power Blocks

• One or more sizable or unwieldy blocks.
• PT7, Feb. ’93 – Runners to Parallel Lanes
• Multiple not-blocks.
• A combination of three or more blocks and not-blocks.
• PT27, Dec. ’98 – Film Buffs at Classic Films

1:21:03 to 1:32:50: Limited Randoms

• No randoms in the game, or a single random in a game with six or few total variables.

1:32:51: Outro