Complete and Accurate List

[apimlott]

Hello Powerscore world! I'm writing to ask what is the best approach to "complete and accurate list" questions on Logic Games. I find myself intimidated by these because I am always skeptical that I am missing some deep inference that would exclude a variable. I usually approach these by knocking out wrong answers through my set-up, skipping the question if an answer does not immediately show itself, and then trying to use my work to answer the question at the end. However, as I said, even when I get to the end I always feel tempted to blow a lot of time making hypotheticals to prove out an answer. Is there something I could add to my approach to give me more certainty? Am I just worrying too much?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi apimlott,

There are several strategies that can be used to tackle a "complete and accurate list" question. The first, which you mentioned, is to use your inferences from your setup (such as not laws) to knock out answers that contain variables that you know cannot work. At this point you may be left with several remaining answers. How you proceed next depends on how confident that you feel in your setup and the complexity of the game.

In theory, assuming that you feel confident in your setup and your ability to make inferences, any variable that isn't excluded from that particular space based on the rules (for example, if the question asks about a complete and accurate list of variables that could go first in a linear game) should be able to go there.

Of course, there is a risk that you may have missed a tricky inference, which is a valid concern.

Holding off answering the question to finish the other questions and create more hypothetical solutions can also be helpful in saving time.

If you must create one or more hypotheticals to confirm the answer be strategic about it. For example, if the only difference between the two remaining answers is that one answer contains the variable "H" and the other does not, just test "H" to see if it works. There is no point in testing all of the other variables listed as they show up in both of the remaining answers.