Episode 30 brings breaking news about the future of the LSAT’s most notorious feature, Logic Games! Specifically, Dave and Jon decrypt a just-published press release co-signed by LSAC that raises speculation (to put it mildly) that within the next four years the test will no longer contain a Logic Games section. They cover possible interpretations of the article’s wording, potential confirmation of the change from an inside source, and content that could theoretically replace Games if they are in fact removed. … [Read more...]
Killer LG: The Hardest LSAT Logic Games of All Time
Why Review the Hardest Games? The Logic Games section is inevitable. For many, it’s the toughest section of the test. If Logic Games are generally difficult, why then would we choose to write about the hardest games ever to appear? The short answer is that there are tremendous benefits to be gained by reviewing these games. If you understand how to recognize them and deal with them, you’ll perform better in this section. In our In Person, Live Online, and Advanced Logic Games courses, we devote lesson segments to discussing killer games. In the Advanced Course in particular, we dedicate a … [Read more...]
What’s the Most You’ve Ever Lost on a Coin Toss? Tracking 50/50 Elements in Logic Games
For some students, the mere thought of a logic game is as terrifying as the anthropomorphic creeping death presented by Anton Chigurh in the Coen Brothers’ classic film, No Country For Old Men. Javier Bardem brings Cormac McCarthy’s world-class literary villain to life. In my mind, the best scene of the whole movie involves a coin toss.Despite how it can sometimes feel, a logic game is never quite as scary as that particular coin toss. The LSAT is of course a massively important element in achieving your law school dreams. But, even the most nightmarish logic game is not literally life or … [Read more...]
Logic Games Frequency of Appearance 2007-2018
Anyone preparing for the LSAT is well aware of the unique difficulty presented by the Logic Games section, but what is occasionally overlooked is the fact that certain concepts are far more critical to success than others! That is, specific game types and ideas routinely appear and regularly serve as the basis for the entire section, while other outlier notions are tested so infrequently that they deserve far less attention.In order to help you best prioritize your studies, what follows is a classification count* for all 136 released logic games from June 2007 through the June 2018 LSAT, … [Read more...]
LSAT Test Archives: The June 2017 Logic Games… What Really Happened Part II
In my post yesterday I provided complete explanations of Games 1 and 2 from the recently-released June 2017 LSAT, and today I'll complete the section by deconstructing Games 3 and 4. If you missed the first article in this set however I encourage you to give it a read before proceeding here, as I also provided an overview of the section and, in particular, what it meant for the test's scoring scale.As before, I'll outline exactly how to attack each game below, and then provide a direct link to the interactive question explanations on our LSAT Discussion Forum.Let's take a look at these … [Read more...]
LSAT Test Archives: The June 2017 Logic Games… What Really Happened Part I
With the release of the June 2017 LSAT on Wednesday, July 5th, test takers everywhere have been in performance review mode, analyzing what went right and wrong and trying to make as much sense as possible of their results.To assist in that, we've released detailed discussions of the Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension sections, and even the Scoring Scale, so you can compare your analysis to ours.Of course, if you're anything like me then the Logic Games section is top priority for examination, so while these take a little longer to deconstruct I've made it through the first two … [Read more...]
A Comprehensive List of Rarely Tested Logic Games (Outliers and Oddballs)
A tutoring student of mine prepping for June asked me recently if I could put together a list of Circular, Mapping, and Pattern games that have appeared over the years, hoping to ensure that if the next test continues recent trends of LG weirdness he'll be ready.So while it's always a reasonably safe bet that you won't see any games like the ones noted below, savvy test takers are ready for any eventuality. To that end you'd be wise to review a few games from each of the categories here, particularly those from any tests in the 2000s or later.Here's the list:Circular: • PT 1, June … [Read more...]
Computer Virus Logic Game: Video Explanations (September 2016 LSAT Game 4)
We've put together comprehensive video explanations for the hardest game on the September 2016 LSAT, the dreaded Computer Virus game. Over on our LSAT Forum you'll find three detailed videos: one for the setup outlining how to approach the rules and the key inferences, a second explaining each of the six questions and analyzing each answer choice, and a third that provides every single arrangement possible for the test's toughtest game (you'll be surprised how few there are).Check them out here: https://forum.powerscore.com/lsat/viewforum.php?f=1199 Feel free to post … [Read more...]
Last Minute Logic Games Tips
Today's Forum Post of the Day stems from a student still struggling with Logic Games about a week away from the test. While we certainly recommend a more thorough conceptual understanding of the Logic Games section as a whole, Senior Instructor Nikki Siclunov helps this student by providing some rapid-fire last minute tips in order to get the most out of the Logic Games section on test day. Here's a quick preview. Make sure to check out the full thread to read the entire explanation Nikki provided to this student:The Forum posts selected for this series are chosen because they have … [Read more...]
Certainty vs Uncertainty in Logic Games
We focus a tremendous amount of time and attention in our courses and books emphasizing the importance of inference making in Games: determining the truths of the relationships between variable sets. In making inferences, what we’re really focused on is establishing notions of what I’ll refer to here as positive and negative certainty. That is, determining what must occur in an absolute (consistent) sense, and what cannot occur in an absolute sense. So we focus on establishing truths like “X must be selected 4th,” or “X cannot be in Group 3,” and we concern ourselves less with uncertainties … [Read more...]
How to Approach a Nested Conditionals Statement
If you come across a Nested Conditional statement, you cannot completely ignore it unless, of course, you don't care about that one extra point. Oh, and by the way, you just came across a Nested Conditional statement. See how easy that was? In today's LSAT Forum Post of the Day, LSAT expert Nikki Siclunov offers some tips to a student on handling such complex conditionals.Here's a quick preview. But be sure to check out the full thread to read the entire explanation our team provided:The Forum posts selected for this series are chosen because they have a universal quality to … [Read more...]
Logic Game Types and Frequency of Appearance
When you prepare for the Logic Games section of the LSAT, you should be aware of the game types that appear most frequently on the exam. In our LSAT preparation courses and Logic Games publications we delineate the advanced and comprehensive game classification system used by PowerScore to attack the Logic Games section of the LSAT*. Below, we use some of the most basic classification levels of that system to provide an informative analysis of the game types that have appeared on all released LSATs since June 1991 (a total of 260 games). Basic Game Types and Frequency of … [Read more...]
LSAT Test Archives: The December 2010 Logic Games… What Really Happened Part II
This game caused problems for many test takers last December, but upon review it turns out that if you caught a couple of powerful (and common!) inferences the game itself really wasn’t all that difficult. Let’s take a look at those inferences and hopefully you’ll see that this game—like EVERY game—can be destroyed if you’ve got the right strategies.To me, the rule that immediately stands out as significant is the last rule. What this rule essentially tells you is that the absence of either O or P forces the other one to be used. So if O is out then P must be in, and vice versa. This exact … [Read more...]
How to Recognize Limited Solution Set Games
In last night's Live Online LSAT class, I asked my (awesome!) group for some input about what they would like to see in my post today. The strongest response I got was to write about how to know when to diagram, as part of your initial setup, the limited solutions possible in a logic game with a highly restrictive rule set. Diagramming the limited solutions at the start of a game can empower you, enabling you to dominate the game with increased speed and accuracy. But only if the possible solutions are, in fact, atypically limited. Knowing when this investment in time is appropriate is the … [Read more...]