Setup and Rule Diagrams

[Dave Killoran]

Setup and Rule Diagram Explanation

This is an Advanced Linear: Balanced game.

In this game, the ranking of the towns is the base, with a stack for each criterion: climate, location, and friendliness. Then, the towns are placed in each stack, and the set of five towns is repeated for each criterion:

J92_Game_#4_setup_diagram 1.png

The second, third, and fourth rules assign exact rankings to specific towns:

J92_Game_#4_setup_diagram 2.png

Thus, in the location rankings, S and T rotate between first and fifth:

J92_Game_#4_setup_diagram 3.png

The fourth, fifth, and sixth rules allow for a number of inferences:

• The fourth and fifth rules reveal that neither P nor R can be ranked first in friendliness. Thus, T must be ranked first in friendliness.
  
  The fifth rule involving the relationship between Riverdale’s climate and friendliness rankings leads to the following inferences:
  
  If R is ranked second in climate, then R is ranked third in friendliness.
  
  If R is ranked second in friendliness, then R is ranked first in climate.
  
  Because Q must have three different rankings per the sixth rule, and Q is second in location, Q cannot be ranked second in climate.
  
  In climate, R must be ranked first or second, and Q must be ranked first or fifth, but P could be ranked first, second, or fifth.

This information can be combined to form the final diagram for the game:

J92_Game_#4_setup_diagram 4.png

[bk1111]

Hello - I am having trouble understanding the first rule of the game:

"For each of the three criteria, none of the five towns receives the same ranking as any other town does."

I thought this meant that the no city can rank the same for any of the three criteria. It turns out that is not the case, and the last rule specifies such a rule for town Q specifically. Can someone clarify what this first rule really means?

Thank you

[Adam Tyson]

Your setup for this game should be an advanced linear setup, bk111, with 1 through 5 as the base, and above it three rows, one for each criterion (Climate, Location, and Friendliness), something like this:

C _ _ _ _ _

L _ _ _ _ _

F _ _ _ _ _

1 2 3 4 5

The variables going into these 15 spaces will be the 5 towns, PQRST, with each one appearing once in each row.

That first rule is about "for each of the three criteria" - that means "within each row" (because the rows are the criteria).It tells us that within each row, each town (PQRST) gets a different ranking (meaning they are each in different spots in the order). In other words, there are no ties allowed! No two variables can occupy the same space. P and Q cannot be tied for first place in climate, for example. A pretty straightforward rule, common to most games, but an important one, because if they didn't say it one way or another then you would be wrong to assume it, and doing so could lead to incorrect inferences and a game that goes down the tubes fast and hard.

In short, that rule means every space has exactly one variable in it.

I hope that clears it up!

[KhaliaCWilliams]

I made PQRST my base initially, would either/or work? or would it make more sense to make the base the numbers?


Thanks!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Khalia,

The ideal base for any game with a linear element (note the linear element here is with the rankings, which are aligned from best to worst) will be the variable set that has the most inherent sense of order. In other words, the variable set where the ordering will never change. The rankings will always be ordered from first (best) to fifth (worst), therefore the rankings are inherently ordered. It would not be ideal to choose the towns as the base, because, depending on the criterion we're discussing and depending on the application of the rules, the towns may end up being ordered differently. Thus, there is not already that inherent sense of order in the "towns" variable set.

Choosing the inherently ordered set as a base makes most sense, because it "solidifies" that component in the diagram and makes it one less thing to have to determine in any given solution. Basically, it means you have less work to do across the board (and thereby makes you more efficient).

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[Mariam]

I feel like this game is taking me too long. I am not really sure what the best way to approach this game is. I did templates based on where R can be in friendliness (2nd or 3rd) there were still some uncertainties, not all the variables are fixed but I found it helpful. I tried to also do it without the templates and it took me slightly longer to get the questions and with less certainty. I felt better about the questions with the templates but it took me a while to diagram. I feel like I need to shave off a few minutes from this game and I am not clear on how to best approach a game like this. I hope that makes sense. Please help! thanks

[Paul Marsh]

Hey Mariam! First off, I think it's natural for this game to take a bit longer than average. For one thing, there's 7 questions here whereas the average game only has 6. In addition, this is an advanced linear game with a number of rules and inferences - it will naturally take us a couple minutes to have a final diagram ready to go.

Personally, I find that doing this game without templates is the fastest way to go as drawing templates here is both time consuming and allows us to see very little new information. The final diagram from the original post in this thread is all you need to attack the questions in a timely manner.

Two things help us get through this game quickly:

1) Setting up that final diagram quickly and accurately. This comes down to making every inference and drawing all our Not Laws out. As always, the easiest way to make inferences is to look at which rules share a variable. Then, we quickly look at every remaining open spot. Are those spots limited in which variables can go there?

2) Recognize which variables are going to "make things happen" in our local questions. Specifically, R. In all of our local questions, as soon as I recognize where R goes (in either climate or friendliness), I can figure out basically everything about the game (except for S/T in location). Hone in on figuring out R's location and all of our local questions can be done very quickly. (Personal preference for all Logic Games - after the initial List question, I like to do my local questions first as they allow me to better familiarize myself with the game. Plus my additional Local diagrams often help me answer my Global questions. Try that out and see if it helps you speed up at all.)

One additional point that might help with speed that's very specific to this game - it might be possible in this game to do your Local questions without actually drawing out any new diagrams. Since our final diagram is so complete and contains so much information, replicating it for every Local question MAY be more trouble than it's worth. This comes down to your ability to juggle variables in your head, and your comfort with Logic Games overall. Again note that this is specific to this game - no matter how good at Logic Games you are, for 99% of games we want to draw out a new diagram for our local questions. But for this game, an expert Logic Game taker might be able to get away with not drawing new diagrams. Feel free to try it out for this one and see how it goes.

Hope that helps!

[bfromang]

Hello I need help understanding Rule #1 which is not covered in the homework explanations. From my understanding none of the Criteria (C,L,F) can have towns that have the same rankings (1-5). So that would make under L (S,Q,R,P,T) but you guys say it is L (S/T, Q,R,P, T/S) but if that is the case then wouldn't that violate rule one bc under F is (T in the first spot)?

A committee ranks five towns–Palmdale, Quietville, Riverdale, Seaside, Tidetown–from first (best) to fifth (worst) on each of three criteria: climate, location, friendliness.


For each of the three criteria, none of the five towns receives the same ranking as any other town does.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi bfromang!

That first rule is not telling us that the each town has a different ranking on each criteria. Rather, it simply tells us that for each criteria, all of the towns receive a different rank. Basically all that is telling us is that we can't have P and Q both ranked first in climate and we can't have S and T tied for third in friendliness. The LSAT has to be really specific with their logic game rules. If they don't explicitly tell us something, then we cannot assume it. So if they did not explicitly tell us that the towns have to have different ranks than each other in each criteria, we'd be able to have ties and this wouldn't be a more straightforward balanced game. But, luckily, that first rule makes things simipler for us by saying that there will be five different ranks for each criteria and each town is going to have a different rank so we won't have to deal with any ties.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[Mmjd12]

Hi!

I was very frustrated with this game because it wasn't hard at all but so time consuming. I finished it in 13 min which would be far too long on the real exam.

Instead of redrawing the diagram for each local question I just erased variables to move them around. Will I be able to do this on the real exam? Are pens or pencils provided? I don't want to get in habit of erasing and rewriting if I cannot do that on the actual day.

Thanks so much all for your help