Grouping games and Stacking

[HappySaban_RTR]

I took a full length course last summer. I was not able to do all the work over the summer because I had other things going on but I now have been taking studying very seriously. I have been working hard on grouping games recently. I was just wondering why Powerscore suggests in the explanations to the games that I stack the variables while doing the games. Sometimes when I do a game I simply put the variable next to each other instead of stack them. Is this a general thing powerscore does or is there a purpose to it?
A good example of this would be on page 5-103 in the lesson 5 homework in book #2 for the full length course. I am not sure if stacking the variables gives me an advantage in the game. Any explanation would be helpful. And btw I plan on taking the September 2015 LSAT. Thanks

[Dave Killoran]

Hi HappySaban,

There's pretty much a reason for everything we do, so I'm glad you asked about this

The basic explanation is efficiency. Stacking the variables requires your eye to travel less distance when analyzing the groups collectively than when the variables are set about horizontally.

This Forum isn't built to display graphics all that well, but think about the difference between these two grouping setups:


Horizontal Representation of Groups

• 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
  
  Group A Group B

Versus


Vertical Representation of Groups

• 4
  3
  2
  1
  
  A B

I didn't draw the actual spaces out, but try comparing space 1 in each group in the top diagram with space 1 in each group in the bottom diagram (especially if variables were present). The bottom diagram requires slightly less work and is a bit faster. Sure, it's a small difference, but high performance on the LSAT is built upon an accumulation of small advantages.

The second efficiency advantage comes in how rules can be displayed in each setup. In the top diagram, an XY block could mean two variables in the same group, or it could be confused that the two variables are in different groups (because horizontality doesn't clearly mean in the same group or in different groups). In the bottom diagram, a horizontal block clearly implies the two variables are in different groups, whereas a vertical block can be used to indicate they are in the same group. That clarity of meaning is more powerful and is thus faster to use.

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!