- Mon Apr 18, 2022 7:17 pm
#94859
Hi jailenea, happy to start that conversation! First, the diagram that Jon posted IS the complete setup of this "Pure Sequencing" game. That label means that every rule in the game is just about what is before or after what. It's all about relative relationships. For example, the first rule just means that S is somewhere before O, but that could mean they are right next to each other, or it could mean that S is first and O is last, or anything in between. It's like saying I am older than my cousin - that covers a side range of age differences.
As you go through the rules and draw out these relative relationships, using dashes to represent that order (think of each dash as meaning "before," so in Jon's diagram you can say "S is before O, which is before , V, and Z," etc.), you can start to make inferences by connecting the rules. One inference here is that S is somewhere before L, since S is before O, which is before Z, which is before L. Another inference is that M cannot be first, since it must be after T (but M could be as early as second, since the only rule about it is that it must be after T. Maybe T is first and M is second?)
By connecting all of those relative rules, you create the main diagram that we have in this thread. Everything else follows from that diagram, and a lot of the work will be done by counting how many variables must be before or after something. O, for example, must have at least 4 things after it (R, V, Z, and L), so it cannot go any later than 4th out of 8. It also has to have S before it, so the earliest it can be is 2nd. That means O will always be 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, but it's flexible within that range because we cannot be sure where T and M go in relation to O.
If you have specific questions about the individual questions, please post them in the appropriate thread and we'll help you through them there! Meanwhile, I hope this explanation helps you see how we got from the rules to the diagram we provided, and allows you to get there for yourself in this and similar games.
Good luck!
Adam M. Tyson
PowerScore LSAT, GRE, ACT and SAT Instructor
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https://twitter.com/LSATadam