LSAT GAMES - Bad Habits Flashcards
To be fast, try to FEEL the game and move clumps of info, do a rhythm, say letters in head assertively, feel what is driving, what they are doing/asking, get a rhythm, act like you see their patterns E.g. if you have 5 entities and each go at least once, 3 placements in 2 locations, adding to 6, instantly realize there is one entity going twice, the rest once
Don’t leave little standalone non-if placement rules behind as you play out games! Write all your rules out! You keep leaving ~O, ~R behind, whether it is on group (afternoon vs morning per PT 32 g1 or s single placement. Playing out scenarios with chain/branch rules only (i.e. not placement based scenarios? Don’t leave behind any standalone ~S1 type placement rules! Don’t forget to put that ~S1 in your scenarios!! killed you on PT 78
Picking halves of Power-Or: Lean toward filling up narrowing categories over rules that have letters also in other rules (e.g. PT 70, don’t get enamored with W…H and HM rule, they don’t fill up cats. Much better to use R13 and S12 rule
Picking halves of Power-Or: Lean toward if and only if rules & their contras, because the “not” version will push stuff, as opposed to normal “not” versions which push nothing! Lean toward Not-Sequencing rules! See PT 67 Store Shelves: The SH rule was better than F placement
We love blocks for sequencing games! If not clear on how to play out a sequencing game, lean towards using the blocks! And if not clear which blocks to use, lean toward playing fixed LL or L_L blocks rather than blocks with elipses (e.g. G_…G) b/c less flexibility (e.g. PT 76 g3 art gallery)
Playout Questions - check if resolving placeholder triggers other rules- write out new diagram(s) with “if” stuff from question, copy fixed stuff down from eligible existing scenarios. If you have placeholders coming down and “if” stuff resolves a placeholder, SEE IF OTHER RULES snowball, e.g. if the question says “if T and Z” are in, and you had an existing W/T placeholder, the W is now placed so you must check SNOWBALL rules
Double check entities, don’t miswrite similar sounding letters! Esp V vs Z You keep doing that. Same with K and G, P and T. Do one thing at a time!
Count your entities frequently! Know how many you have remaining in EACH scenario. Be in control at all times!
Try to see BUSTS EARLY: Sequencing games – does it seem like an entity from a chain can go in 3 or 4 places? Check to see if OTHER rules or chains, when combined with that chain, quietly would “bust” and therefore reduce to 2 aka half a power or. Could bust before, or after where you think the entity can go. Look for chunky rules. E..g Pt 60 g4, the H/M_ _ … H/M rule is too large for the 3 spots before an L4 placement!
Don’t be lazy with adjacency rules, build it out! write out WITH spaces to have sequencing rules to get as many entities as possible in that written rule and represent all the spaces!, and make it look like master diagram, e.g. if none of the G,H,J can be next to each other, write - G/H/J_…G/H/J_…G/H/J, to represent all 5 spaces instead of ~GHJ etc or something lazy
Sequencing games - after placing fixed rules in your scenarios, do assembly line work ***branch by branch*** (even if the branch is tiny, like 2 entities) of sequencing rules! ONE BRANCH AT A TIME per SCENARIO, DON’T GRAB TOO MUCH, and cross out branches as you go! (e.g. in attached you forget H…G branch easily)…not whole chain – too complicated! One branch at a time! See PT 75 game 3
Sequencing games – when adding stuff to a bracket, make sure it’s the appropriate sized bracket for that stuff! If not, create NEW bracket or add some ~ underneath slots
In sequence games, with ellipses only if NO rules place anything specifically (not even a ~G6 type rule), don’t be afriad rule-based power or, but remembere to place fixed rule first before doing 12AB (PT 60 g1 arts and crafts)
Have an obvious half a power or, but can’t find second half? Look for a slot that is narrowed to 2 spots. Note that a random rule like ~G6 like in PT 60 g2 Opening Credits could be VERY significant bc it narrows down spot 6 to 2 entities, allowing a power-or!!
In game questions, STOP at “if”, but if it takes you to only one scenario, before you do a playout on that lone scenario, do quick check to see if Answer Choice is already covered by scenario, save time
In a selection, grid, or grouping game that has - to + rules, or + to - rules, remember to make deep placeholder deductions. E.g in PT 62 stained glass, Y–>~G means at least one of Y and G are OUT. More importantly, ~O–>P means at least one of O and P are IN. Easy to overlook with long chains of if-then rules.
After you put “what’s left” entities on brackets, point at spaces and ask WHO CAN GO HERE, and if you can narrow to placeholder, try to find ANALOGOUS slots in other scenarios
When you have a bunch of rules-based sequencing scenarios that are complicated chains, don’t be afraid to CLEAN THE ELLIPSES CHAINS UP up by asking who can go last, or by examining an odd rule – e..g in PT 63 g2 vehicles, the ~H6 rule should make you ask who CAN go last in each scenario, and this can help you clean up/connect chains.
Don’t be afraid of RULE-BASED power-ors – the FIXED RULES you place first in each of the 4 scenarios will help a lot!
See a solid Trig True/Trig False but not another Or for a power-or? Look at all your rules (esp ~ rules) to see if any single spot is narrowed quietly down to 2 possibilities (e.g. PT 60 g2)
Watch and think for hidden rules within prompt e.g. PT 59 Alicia’s Courses bit you hard b/c you overlooked S3–>~S9
Sequencing: it’s ok if you have zero specific placements in one or more scenarios, i.e. RULE BASED like PT 59 g 4 – just be sure to point and see who goes where
Once you get the qty of entities on the bracket EQUAL to the quantity of open slots under the bracket, THAT IS WHEN stuff starts falling into place. Until then just worry about drawing brackets clean/accurate and getting all the stuff on the bracket. Trust the process. Ask where stuff can go. And clean up as you go (erasing ~ rules etc) see PT 79 38:00 Park Ranger Game https://bit.ly/3sVoDRa
Don’t mix up similar sounding entities! I.e. V vs Z, in PT 67 g2 bad habit!
Write out the contrapositives for your if-then rules!
When a category is “filling up” and getting more limited… start to look for placeholders VIA relationships in rules that will go into that more limited category. For example, if the IN category only has one open spot, look for neg-to-pos relationships to fill up the IN category
Numeric Distrib – get all the numeric distribs out – start w/ fixing the smallest number and vary others
Use vert and horiz, big and small brackets to hold unplaced entities, and keep those brackets updated – ok to a big bracket on top of a smaller bracket. And in a multiple group game, use vertical brackets to hold stuff that goes in a group but not sure which slot, and horizontal brackets to hold stuff that goes in a slot but not sure which group. Lots of erasing - update brackets as stuff gets placed.
Sequencing – be systematic using “Who Can’t Go There?” process to make deductions about each slot…mentally do this:
GRAB each BLOCK OR BRANCH
POINT at EACH SLOT with that BLOCK OR BRANCH
RUN THRU EACH ENTITY ON THAT BLOCK OR BRANCH, FOR THAT SLOT, ask who CAN’T go there, write not rules underneath
RUN THRU EACH RULE for that SLOT: See if other rules related to that entity you are running through may yield deeper deductions about that slot you are pointing at, WRITE MORE NOT RULES underneath
Finally, if it is narrowed down write entity or entities that CAN go there
For example if you are grabbing a (G…R) rule slot 4 has a ~G, ask yourself, can G go there? can R go there? (answer: neither can go there, so write ~R underneath) then move to slot 5, ask yourself, can G go there, can R go there? (answer: R cannot go there, bc of ~G in slot 4, but G can, so write ~R under slot 5) etc. Try PT 68 finance https://bit.ly/3s4j56l
Look out for TMs picking on rules not yet in your diagram! When an “if” question addresses an entity or part of a placeholder that is currently sitting on a bracket (i.e. yet to be placed by the current rules) in your diagram(s), look out for rules that your diagram may not yet reflect! i.e. don’t just look at your scenarios to answer the question, glance back to the rules to see if anything else results. E.g. on PT 70 Employees game #10 - MBF question, E) Myers apppears on the Neither Scenario (when Y is out) as though Myers could be in the “in” side but if you look back at the rules, Myers in would triggers ~O and ~P, killing the numeric distribution. Your diagram did not reflect that rule yet because Myers was part of a placeholder on the bracket still.
Big bracket-small bracket deductions: Leave the SMALL FISH with someplace to go! Smaller bracket or brackets (say 2-4 spots) with one or two entities under BIG bracket with more entities, maybe including a block on big bracket - key step to simplify: first think, where can stuff on BIG bracket go without BUSTING the smaller bracket or brackets? In other words, don’t let the big bracket stuff TAKE UP the whole small bracket ranges, you have to leave room for all the small fish to go! Let the smaller bracket or brackets inform the big bracket! Yes there might even be TWO smaller brackets under a BIG bracket (PT 70, cars game) Very often stuff on big bracket will be left with only one place to go without busting small bracket, which is very helpful
Keep range sums updated, vertically and horizontally! Sometimes the ranges (or exact numbers) at ends of rows/colums can help you deduce a lot!
Selection, Grouping game: you know number in a category, draw out the number of slots in Selection and Grouping Games, every time! This helps you see when things fill up!
Draw a null to differentiate between a bubble rule and exact rule where two things go together vs EXACTLY two things go together (see attached: T and N go together, but maybe with more! But B and E/F go together WITH NO MORE)
Keep your notation consistent on multiword entities(i.e. don’t call World History W and then H later), e.g. PT 59 Alicia’s courses
When doing “gimme my shit back” test for substitution questions, don’t forget that placement of the entities in the original rule must be “given back” by the correct AC as well as the downstream stuff (see PT 72 #12 – B is correct, not C, because C would allow R in position 4 or 5!)
If you have a middle questions where it would be much better to write direct on master diagram, save that Q for last! E.g. PT 75 game 1 #4 QR block best for last
