When to move on to the questions

[ScholesFan]

Hi PowerScore,

During logic games, I feel like I'm getting bogged down by not knowing when to move onto the questions. During the diagramming process, I keep feeling like there are more inferences I should've found, so I keep re-reading the rules.

I'm not sure if there's an answer to this issue since it seems more subjective, rather than objective (more art than science), but I'd love any tips or suggestions.

Also, you've probably addressed this before. Feel free to just post a link to that discussion, if it's easier.

Thanks!
ScholesFan

[Robert Carroll]

Scholes,

Some of the discussion here (including what's linked there) may help: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=8480&p=21825

A key to the games is realizing that inferences are really unstated rules. You're looking for a thing that's true that wasn't directly stated by the actual rules, but is implied by them, either singly or in combination. Any inference you can ever find could have been stated as an explicit rule instead. So if I'm dealing with a Basic Linear Game, I can have a rule that says "J does not perform last." Or that can be an inference, because a rule says "J performs before M performs." The best inferences are the ones that are really simple. An inference like "If J is 6th and Q is 4th and M is next to Q but P isn't 2nd, then K is last" might be true in a game, but it's so dependent on so many conditions that it's pretty worthless. And, of course, you'd almost never see a rule this complicated. So it wouldn't make sense to look for an inference like that. Your inferences are things that are always true.

Inferences are unique to each game, but they'll have common basic structures from game to game. This is why it's important to review the games after you do them. Do a game again. You'll get more used to which inferences you initially missed when you do a game over again. And those inferences for that game will be the kinds of general patterns to look for in future games that are similar. There aren't that many game types out there, and the inferences possible in each type tend to fall into a few categories.

No one is going to find every possible inference, and it's not even necessary to do so to answer all the questions correctly. It's mostly about finding key inferences. So don't worry if some inferences elude you, as long as you've found some key ones. If the questions are baffling, you might have missed some key inferences.

Robert Carroll