Setup and Rule Diagrams

[Amitjohn]

When it says "Velez must visit Ghana once and India twice, with Ghana visited at some time between the visits to India." -- Does that mean he can only visit Ghana exactly once and India exactly twice? -- Or should it be interpreted in a way that would potentially allow him to to visit Ghana more than once and India more than twice?

[Amitjohn]

Also, does "Yamamoto must visit Ghana in a month immediately preceding a month in which Watts visits Ghana." mean that Yg must precede Wg once? Or every time W visits Ghana?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Amit,

Ordinarily a rule like "Velez must visit Ghana once and India twice" would be ambiguous and would allow for the possibility that Velez might visit Ghana (or India) more times than once (or twice). However, in this game there's no ambiguity because, from our initial scenario, each representative "will make exactly three visits." So, since V must make those three visits (one to Ghana; two to India), V cannot make any other visits.

The second rule you're asking about means that Y (in Ghana) must immediately precede W (in Ghana) at least one time. But if there were more than one W visit to Ghana, Y wouldn't necessarily have to immediately precede every visit of W. To get that result, the rule would be worded something like: "Any month in which Watts visits Ghana must be immediately preceded by a month in which Yamamoto visits Ghana."

I hope this helps!

[Azimat]

I'm curious how this set up can possibly done timely? Or where to shorten time bc it looks extremely complex and difficult to accomplish with questions in 8 min.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Azimat,

First, remember that it's a rolling average of 8 min 45 seconds per game. Some will take longer. Some will be faster. Some set ups will take more time than others.

This set up has a lot going on, but much of it is straightforward. The overall structure, using months as a base, and the locations as the stacks (since we know each location will be visited each month, while we don't know which of the four people will be used each month).

From there it's about combining the rules to make inferences. The first combination that jumped out at me was the combination of the YW Ghana rule and the V rule (I-G-I). Because both of those rules involved G, I made that line first. Once I looked at the two options for Ghana, I could fill in the V's in India. Then I went ahead and put W/Z in the forth month in France, since V is already in India, and Y doesn't visit anywhere in month 4.

There's still a lot of the set up that's open after diagramming. You could note that one of W/Y/Z has to visit India, while the other two will visit France. But otherwise, this set up is pretty much all about making connections between rules just like most games. Start with the rules, and then move to where they share a common variable.

And remember, it's ok if it takes you longer during practice. You can't get fast at the games until you are solid on the accuracy. Speed builds with practice. The more you see patterns in games, the more the inferences will jump out at you. The more game set ups you do, the easier it will be to see that the stacks are the countries, not the people.

Hope that helps!

[crispycrispr]

Yeah, it's super easy to miss. The whole game is hard—I think it's harder than any game on the September 2019 LSAT.

They really could have just said that each rep only visits one site a month (which is much more self-evident) ... The grammar of this sentence is just convoluted--"no more than one a month" refers to the visits made by the people, not just the people. And the "exactly one rep ... in each month" just means quarantining one person in one place, like a standard sequencing rule. But I think this detail only really affects question 22, where you'll come down to A vs. C, and then at that point, you'll probably re-read the game set-up to see what you've missed and you can figure it out.

[clbrogesr]

Hi - I struggled a little bit with this game and would like to practice similar games. Some of the elements that got me were the overall numerical limitation of how many times people could be placed and the F not in I rule. Any suggestions for similar games to practice?

[Adam Tyson]

There are many Advanced Linear games (games with a linear base and more than one row in which the variables will be placed on top of that order) out there, clbrogesr, but after a lot of searching I haven't been able to identify any that are quite like this one, with one set of variables appearing in multiple rows in quite the same way. The best you can do to prepare for a game like this is to work on your advanced linear games generally, which you can find mainly in Lesson 4 in our course or in Chapter Four in the Logic Games Bible, among other places.

[dmadhu]

Hello,

How is it possible that "each site must have exactly two representatives make all four site visits" when Ghana has to have at least three representatives (V,Y,W)?

Thank you!

[Chandler H]

Hello,

How is it possible that "each site must have exactly two representatives make all four site visits" when Ghana has to have at least three representatives (V,Y,W)?

Thank you!

Hi dmadhu,

I think you may just be misreading Dave's original post! He is saying that the sites in France and India must have exactly two representatives make their four site visits, because of the fifth rule.

Does this help?