Re: Setup and Rule Diagrams

[Dave Killoran]

Setup and Rule Diagram Explanation

This is a Pattern game.

This game is unusual, to say the least. The “words” described in the scenario are just strings of letters, and there are no pre-existing words described in any of the rules. The rules themselves are odd, and do not describe any specific variables, just global applications of the rules. This lack of specificity about the variables is a classic signature of Pattern games, and one you must recognize when you see it.

The first rule establishes that each solution has five words, and the words are in alphabetical order:

PT10-Feb1994_LGE-G3_srd1.png

The second rule indicates that one of three operations is applied to a each word, either delete a letter, add a letter, or replace a letter. Thus, for example, if the first word was “armor,” the second word could be:

If a letter was deleted, a possible word would be: “rmor”

If a letter was added, a possible word would be: “armors”

If a letter was replaced, a possible word would be: “artor”

There are, of course, a huge number of other possible words that would fit each scenario above, but the above examples should give you an idea of what the test makers mean by the language in this rule. Note that in each instance above, the first and second words would be correctly alphabetically ordered.

The third rule affects the range of words, and limits the first letter in the words. At most three of the words can have the same first letter.

The final rule is crucial because it establishes that the same operation cannot be applied twice in a row. This means that, for example, if a letter is added to the first word to form the second word, when the third word is formed a letter cannot be added; a letter would have to be deleted or replaced.

[alee]

Hi,

What would you suggest is the 'optimal strategy' for game 3 on the Feb 1994 Lsat?

This is what I did:

From the rules, I couldn't see any way to helpfully diagram the game aside from noting that a sentence consists of 5 words, and that a word consists of 4 or more letters.

The strategy that I adopted was to move on quickly to the questions (making shorthand summary of the rules). For the Q13 list question, I just applied each rule (alphabetical order, no consecutive operations, no more than 3 words beginning with same letter, 1 operation at a time). For 14, I 'started at the extreme' with z, and applied the rule that there can be no more than 3 words beginning with the same letter to arrive at option (d). For questions 16 and 18, I applied the same logic- utilising the 'no consecutive operations' rule to arrive at minimum and maximum number of letters in a word, respectively. For 15 and 17, I just used hypotheticals.

Overall, the game surprised me a bit and took me 11 minutes to complete (haven't really seen anything similar + it doesn't fit into the 2 big groups of grouping and linear- at least from what i see )

Is there an *optimal* strategy for this game?

Cheers

[Jon Denning]

Hey alee - thanks for the question. This is certainly an unusual game, as it is a rare type known as a pattern game: the rules do not describe specific variables, but instead suggest global application, creating patterns that apply to all of the variables. The best way to approach this type of game is to identify closely with the rules (since they control everything on a macro level), and then see if there are any patterns that you can identify (many pattern games contain distribution patterns that control how the variables can be placed; unfortunately no such patterns exist here). If you're still struggling, it's often useful to sketch out a hypothetical or two and put the rules into play with the scenarios you create.

Sounds like you approached the questions correctly, in that you transitioned to them quickly (no real inferences here, so this is optimal), and let the rules control your analysis. With 16 and 18, using remove/swap and add/swap, respectively, should quickly get you to the correct answers. For 15 the rules quickly eliminate the wrong answers (A and E not alphabetical; B and D require more than one operation from word to word). And for 17 I'd try to make "learn" second and third, and as soon as you see it can't be second but can be third it's pretty clear the answer is E.

If you struggled here I suppose the good news is that Pattern Games are EXTREMELY rare on the LSAT and you'll likely not see one on test day. But if you do the first paragraph above should give you a good idea of how to approach it. Finally, if you're in one of our courses, your Online Student Center contains virtual modules specific to Pattern Games and those will definitely help you out.

Thanks!

[deck1134]

I apologize if I am being an idiot on this one, but I'm not sure how to eliminate (A) from 13 and end with B. Isn't it just doing change, removal, change, removal? What violates the rules there?

[deck1134]

Aaaaaand it needs more than four letters. I'm an idiot. Sorry.

[rcourtney3396]

I was able to do this one pretty quickly, < 7 minutes, but I missed #14. Reading the explanation above, I totally get that 3 could start with z so the last letter in the alphabet the others could use is y, but I don't read that as what the question is asking. What am I missing? I'm read it as, there's no reason why the first word can't begin with z vs any other word. Does this fall into the "I'm and idiot" category?

[Brook Miscoski]

rcourtney,

The question is asking what letter the first word can begin with ("...the first word of the sentence can begin with")--more specifically, choose the "highest" or "last" letter ("the last letter of the alphabet...") that the first word can begin with.

You're told that only three words can start with the same letter and that the five-word sentence is in alphabetical order.

If "z" started the first word, all five of the words would have to start with "z" for the sentence to be in alphabetical order.

Whereas if "y" started the first word, you can switch to "z" for later words to avoid breaking the relevant rule.

Thus, (D) rather than (E) is the answer.