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- Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:00 pm
#40678
Setup and Rule Diagram Explanation
This is an Advanced Linear: Balanced game.
The game scenario establishes that service targets will be set for three companies—I, S, and T—for voicemail and website response times. Although the service targets are numbered (and thus might appear to have an inherent order), they can be different for each company and aren’t set based on a predicated numerical order. Thus, while they can be used as the base for this game, a better base to use is the three companies, with rows for the website and voicemail stacked above the companies. The service targets (1, 2, and 3 days) are then a repeating variable set that fills in the six spaces. Accordingly, the basic structure of the game appears as follows:
This game is very reminiscent of the Computer/Printers game from the June 1991 LSAT (game #2). In that game, a set of three years (1987, 1988, and 1989) filled in dates for computers and printers in four offices. And the rules in the two games have some similarity as well, with dates/times being connected between rows and base variables. If you want to see how a tricky idea from a past LSAT can be reworked on a later LSAT, check out that earlier game.
That said, let’s examine the three rules in this game.
The first rule establishes that the website targets for each company are not longer than the voicemail targets. Thus, the voicemail targets are as long or longer than the website targets. This can be displayed as:
The second rule establishes that I’s voicemail target is shorter than S’s or T’s voicemail targets:
This is a welcome set of limitations, and, due to the action of the first rule, these limitations also affect the website targets for I. Because the voicemail target must be equal to or longer than the website target, and we know I’s voicemail target can only be 1 or 2 days, we can infer that I’s website target can only be 1 or 2 days:
The website targets for S and T remain unchanged (for the time being) at 1, 2 , or 3 days, because each could have a voicemail target of 3 days.
Note that this rule could be diagrammed internally, but you would have to remember that the relationship is between all three voicemail targets:
Because this could be confusing for some students, we will not use this notation.
The third rule indicates that S’s website target must be shorter than T’s website target:
Aside from a few Global questions that reflect the limitations in the game, one would expect several Local questions that will initiate chain reactions through the connections between each space. At this point, the difficulty in the game is simply keeping track of the greater than, and greater than or equal to relationships as they can sometimes get a bit confusing.
This is an Advanced Linear: Balanced game.
The game scenario establishes that service targets will be set for three companies—I, S, and T—for voicemail and website response times. Although the service targets are numbered (and thus might appear to have an inherent order), they can be different for each company and aren’t set based on a predicated numerical order. Thus, while they can be used as the base for this game, a better base to use is the three companies, with rows for the website and voicemail stacked above the companies. The service targets (1, 2, and 3 days) are then a repeating variable set that fills in the six spaces. Accordingly, the basic structure of the game appears as follows:
This game is very reminiscent of the Computer/Printers game from the June 1991 LSAT (game #2). In that game, a set of three years (1987, 1988, and 1989) filled in dates for computers and printers in four offices. And the rules in the two games have some similarity as well, with dates/times being connected between rows and base variables. If you want to see how a tricky idea from a past LSAT can be reworked on a later LSAT, check out that earlier game.
That said, let’s examine the three rules in this game.
The first rule establishes that the website targets for each company are not longer than the voicemail targets. Thus, the voicemail targets are as long or longer than the website targets. This can be displayed as:
V ≥ W
The second rule establishes that I’s voicemail target is shorter than S’s or T’s voicemail targets:
- SV + TV > IV
This is a welcome set of limitations, and, due to the action of the first rule, these limitations also affect the website targets for I. Because the voicemail target must be equal to or longer than the website target, and we know I’s voicemail target can only be 1 or 2 days, we can infer that I’s website target can only be 1 or 2 days:
The website targets for S and T remain unchanged (for the time being) at 1, 2 , or 3 days, because each could have a voicemail target of 3 days.
Note that this rule could be diagrammed internally, but you would have to remember that the relationship is between all three voicemail targets:
Because this could be confusing for some students, we will not use this notation.
The third rule indicates that S’s website target must be shorter than T’s website target:
- TW > SW
Aside from a few Global questions that reflect the limitations in the game, one would expect several Local questions that will initiate chain reactions through the connections between each space. At this point, the difficulty in the game is simply keeping track of the greater than, and greater than or equal to relationships as they can sometimes get a bit confusing.
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