Setup and Rule Diagrams

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi Ramon,

This game is not testing you on the order of the four employees. For that reason, it does not matter if you write

J
____ ____ ____ ____
K
____ ____ ____ ____
L
____ ____ ____ ____
M
____ ____ ____ ____
Mon Tue Wed Thu


or


M
____ ____ ____ ____
L
____ ____ ____ ____
K
____ ____ ____ ____
J
____ ____ ____ ____
Mon Tue Wed Thu


This game is really testing you on the transfer of pieces from one employee to another; that is, the connections between them. The rules will tell us in the end that there are an extremely limited number of transfers possible. Start with J. If K can't pass a workpiece to J, and L can't pass to J, then who can ever pass to him? He has to get a workpiece from someone else, and two of the three options are forbidden. So only one person is allowed to ever transfer a workpiece to him.

After you see this inference, take a look at how many options J has to pass his workpiece to. He has to give it to someone every new day, and he can't give it to M. That only leaves two possibilities (from J to K or from J to L). Halfway through figuring out every possible transfer and there are only two options so far: M will transfer her old piece to J, and J will transfer his old piece to K or L.

If you still think that there are more possibilities on this game than on an average game, try this one again after a break from it. Don't get too bogged down trying to diagram this game like every other game you have seen so far. Really try to imagine four people showing up passing a workpiece to someone else. Take it one day at a time; don't worry about adding up the possibilities over multiple days.

[Elena]

Hello,

I am confused about one of the Killing Games in the Lesson 11 and I don't know how to make the best set up for it. To be more precise, it's the Game #4 on the page 11-22, (June 2014, Questions 19-23). It's about employees working on different workpieces during a workweek. I looked on the Lesson explanation page, but instead of this game, there is another game about CDs is explained, which is not even in the book.

Where can I find explanation for this game?

Thank you,

Elena.

[Stephanie Oswalt]

Hi Elena,

I moved your post to the forum thread that discusses the game you referenced. The complete setup is listed on page one of this thread. Please let us know if you have any questions after reviewing the setup! Thanks!

[sarahk]

I'm having trouble with timing of the logic games on the LSAT - is it expected that each of these diagrams be completed before attempting questions for the games? Obviously it's a balance between saving time by doing less diagramming versus more diagramming to answer questions faster, but I am wondering if someone can offer me some guidance as to how much time one should spend diagramming logic games!

Thanks!

Sarah

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Sarah,

I have good news and bad news. Let's start with the bad news. There's no magic answer of how long to diagram on the games. There's no perfect amount of time. It can vary from game and person to person. Some games it's appropriate to spend very little time diagramming up front. For example, a game with few rules and inferences up front would be under a minute or so. I'm thinking of the cassette tapes game in test 46 as an example. The set-up/diagramming itself was incredibly fast. The questions were incredibly slow. There were several that had conditional local possibilities in every answer choices. Really. really. slow.

There are others that take a long time to diagram. Games with a lot of rules or inferences can take longer to diagram upfront, but the questions can be quicker. This is particularly true in games that are so limited that you can use templates to diagram, showing you exactly the templates or possibilities for the solutions to the game. These games can take 4, even 5 minutes to diagram correctly, but once you do, the questions go much much faster.

The key is to spend the right amount of time diagramming for the game you have. Learn how to spot inferences quickly, connect rules efficiently and when you are ready to move on to the questions. All this comes with time, experience, and practice.

Hope that helps!
Rachael

[emilyjmyer]

Hi!

How did you know to start with J,K,L,M in that order?

Thanks!

Emily

[Adam Tyson]

Other than the days of the week there is no order in this game, Emily, so it doesn't matter how you start. All four of these people are all working together on Monday, and again on Tuesday, and so on. The game is about the possible exchanges between them on the days after Monday, and you could analyze them in any order. For example:

J always has to get something from someone, but neither K nor L will give their workpiece to J, so M has to. Every solution will have to include this exchange:

M-J

Hmmm, what can L do? L cannot give to J, so L has to give to either K or M. What if it's M? Okay, that means K cannot give to M, and K never gives to J, so K has to give to L. So far I have this possible partial solution:

M-J
L-M
K-L

That just leaves J to give something away, and K still has to get something, so to complete the pattern I have to do a J-K exchange. Thus, one possible pattern is:

M-J
L-M
K-L
J-K

It's exactly the same pattern as

J-K
K-L
L-M
M-J

but I got there by thinking about the employees in a different order. My next attempt would be based on L transferring to K instead of the M, and the other pattern would emerge.

Order doesn't matter! It's about a series of simultaneous exchanges among four people who are all working at the same time. What combination of simultaneous transfers can occur on any given day?