Trouble with Inference Organization

[nmaugust]

Hi Powerscore,

I'm having a hard time staying organized (and not getting overwhelmed) with the double not arrows and connecting the rules, and I have started just creating chains of logic which make sense to me and using a dash to indicate "not" rather than using the that we're advised to in the book. For example I write -S J H -G -W rather than the multiple inferences using the that would come from this. I'm on page 371 in the LGB. The LSAT is in 1 month for me, and this being said, is this a habit I need to break or is it fine as long as it makes sense to me? I don't want to continue with this if there's some reason I'll find out later on in the book that would contraindicate this with so little time left until the test. Thank you in advance!

[Brook Miscoski]

August,

The symbol " " is extremely useful in certain logic games when conditional diagrams may serve better than not-blocks. The symbol can also be important when you are doing logical reasoning, but I feel moreso in games.

What you want to be careful of is when to use it. For instance, let's look at the example you gave us:

-S J H -G -W

This is a perfect example to show you how you need to be careful.

-S J

This CANNOT be written as "S J"

Instead, this rule requires you to select at least one of S or J, and possibly both. You could write "-S -J," because you are not allowed to have both of them unselected.

The pattern "- +" can be written as "- -"

H -G

This CAN be written as "H G"

the pattern "+ -" can be written as "+ +," because the rule means that you cannot select both of them.

-G -W

This CANNOT be written as "G W"

This statement is simply the contrapositive of "W G"

Because the " " can help you symbolize conditional rules more simply, it is something that most students should work towards using. At the same time, students should be careful with it. One month from the LSAT, if your notation is getting you correct answers in a timely fashion (i.e. you can meet your pacing goals for the test), I would not change a correct method that is already working for you. I did not know about the " " and was still able to get all conditional questions correct. The " " is more efficient, and people should try to use it, but doing it the long way is more of a time issue than anything else.