General Question Re: Linear Games

[lsatstudier]

Hi,

I have a question regarding the linear games. I find that every time I do one, I am always missing at least two questions. I've started making a list of which questions I am missing. I am usually missing Local Must Be True Questions, but I still can't figure out why. The most recent one I missed was in L4 HW, Game #3 (p. 4-46), #21. When I review the question, it makes sense, but I can't seem to get it correct on the first try.

Would you have any advice for finding ways to get all of the questions correct in a game section the first time around? Thank you very much in advance!

[Clay Cooper]

Hi lsatstudier,

Thanks for your question!

I can suggest a way to get all of the questions correct in LG the first time around - but you should understand that this approach is a practice tool and is not necessarily realistic on the timed test.

Every answer to a logic games question can be checked for accuracy. If you had a week to complete a logic games section, you would check every answer that you chose to make sure you got a perfect score. Practicing how to do so might help shed some light on what you are doing wrong in your timed approach to these questions.

Here's how you would check an answer on a local must be true question like the ones you mention: try to prove that it could be false. In other words, if the question adds a local rule and then asks to you to determine which answer choice must be true under that rule, take the answer choice that you have chosen, and try to solve the game without that answer choice's being true.

For instance, let's say you picked answer choice A, which says that Greg must be left-handed. You could check this answer by trying to solve the game with Greg being right-handed under all of the rules and the added rule. If you find that after trying to solve it with Greg right-handed, you can't, it's safe to conclude that under these rules and the added rule, Greg must be left-handed, and therefore that answer choice A must be true.

You can do this with every LG question, though the practical approach looks different depending on what specifically you have been asked to find. Again, I would encourage you to practice it at a slow pace - it might illuminate what you are doing wrong in local must be true questions.

Keep working hard!