logic games speed

[salsaden]

I have been having trouble with my speed in logic games. When I do a timed section or practice test I can usually finish 3 logic games and I get almost every single question right. My problem is getting past reading/diagramming the fourth game. I know that if I have extra time I can get all the questions right but I am having trouble getting through the questions faster. Do you have any suggestions on improving speed for logic games?

[Adam Tyson]

The best advice I have for improving speed is also the simplest advice - practice, practice, practice. The more familiar you are with the games, and the often-confusing language used by the authors to create the rules, the more likely you will be in any given game to recognize the correct base, the correct diagram of a rule, and the ever-so-important inferences to be made. As you get better, and faster, at recognizing those patterns, you will get faster and more confident with your diagrams, picking up speed overall.

I do have one another piece of advice, which may sound counter-intuitive, and that's this: don't rush. Specifically, take your time with the diagram before moving on to the questions. Are there inferences to be made? Rules that you can link together? Does this game call for the use of templates? Often I find that students who move too quickly to the questions end up missing some of these key points, and they end up losing time because the questions are that much harder. Taking your time on the diagram and finding those inferences, links, and templates (when called for) can pay off big time when you get to the questions and are able to move through them much faster than otherwise.

Adam M. Tyson
PowerScore LSAT Instructor

[moshei24]

I just want to re-inforce Adam's advice about taking it slow with a nice analogy.

When I started learning guitar, one of the best pieces of advice I was given was to take it slow at first. By taking it slow, you get to learn things better, you see more things, you pick up more things. And as you increase everything you know, you naturally speed up. Natural speed is much better than forced speed. Forced speed leads to making mistakes, and as Adam said, missed inferences. Missed inferences is the quickest way to get slowed down. In most games, the not-obvious inferences are the ones that speed up the games A LOT. That's the best way to speed up. Find the shortcuts that aren't spoon-fed.

Good luck!