On To The LSAT!

For those of you who just walked across the stage – particularly those who managed to do so without face planting – we salute you.  Graduation ceremonies are the important culmination of 4+ years of careful study, even if it may have been in the art of carousals, the opposite sex, and parental money laundering.  In honor of all the new graduates out there, we have themed our latest Logic Games Challenge around the pomp and circumstance of the season.

Try out the easy or hard version of our new logic game, submit your best answer explanation to our forum, and you could potentially win a fabulous prize (either $200 off a course, or some books) from us.  Prizes are given to the best answer explanation for both versions of the game, as well as to one randomly selected participant.  So far, only 33% of respondents to the hard version of the challenge have been able to answer all of the questions correctly.  Do you have what it takes?

Rule Equivalency Questions are Meant to be Broken

The LSAT is a funny beast. On the one hand it stays very consistent – it’s still paper and pencil, still given simply four times per year, and still requires a number two pencil. But, on the other hand, it keeps throwing us small curve balls, small changes in what it asks of us. And these changes happen in every section: Logical Reasoning no longer has multiple questions about one stimulus, Reading Comprehension now has comparative passages, and Logic Games, around the year 2000, entered the Modern Era (read the intro to our Logic Game Strategy Guide to learn what that is). Excitingly, there’s a new Logic Games curve. It’s the introduction of a new question type – Rule Equivalency questions.

If you’ve taken one of the more recent LSATs, you might remember a question that asks something like “Which of the following, if substituted for the rule that . . . would have the same effect . . .” Some of these were quite easy, some were rather tricky, and they were all novel.

If you have already learned the basics of each of the games, take a look at our White Paper on this new question type.

We were saddened to realize that one of our Logic Challenges was looking suspiciously similar to a real LSAT game. While we try to make our games LSAT-like, we don’t like to have them feel like copies of real ones. So, we’ve replaced #25 with the following. Enjoy!

Pat the Planner is planning her perfect party. The party will go from 8 pm to midnight. During this time, 8 different musical bands—K, L, M, N, O, P, R, and Q—each of which has at least one member in one of the other bands, will perform, each for thirty minutes.

The following conditions apply

At least one person in band M is in both bands K and O.
At least one person in band R is in both bands N and L.
O performs before K but after M.
P performs before L but after N.
No musician can perform in consecutive time slots.

1. Which of the following could be the order of bands that perform, from first to last?

(A) M, N, O, P, Q, L, K, R
(B) M, N, O, P, L, R, K, Q
(C) N, M, P, K, R, O, L, Q
(D) Q, N, M, L, P, O, K, R
(E) K, N, P, R, O, M, L, Q

Read more

This game is no joke! It’s a tricky, tricky set-up.  You can post your answers on our site and read or post explanations on our forums. Have fun!

Six young children – K, L, M, N, O, P – gather in a circle and play a game in which they toss a ball to one another. One child starts the game by tossing the ball to one of the other five children, who then tosses it to another child, who tosses it to another child, who is declared the “winner.” A child may handle the ball more than once during the course of any one game, but cannot toss the ball to himself/herself. The following conditions apply:

* K can only toss it to P.
* P can only toss it to O.
* N can only receive a toss from M.
* L can only toss to P or M, and M can only receive a toss from L.
* N can only toss to K, and K can only receive a toss from N.

1. Which of the following could be the order of tosses, from the child who starts to the child who wins?

(A) M to L to P to K
(B) M to P to O to N
(C) M to N to K to L
(D) L to N to K to P
(E) L to M to L to P

Read more

Can You Make The Cut?

A screenwriter has pitch meetings with six producers – F, G, H, I, J, and K – over the course of a day. He will meet with each producer once, and one at a time. The following conditions apply:

* The screenwriter will meet with K before G if he meets with F before J.
* The screenwriter will meet with G before H only if he meets with I before J.
* The screenwriter will meet with F before I if, and only if, he meets with F after J.
* The screenwriter cannot meet with G last.

1. Which of the following could be the order of meetings?

(A) H, J, G, F, I, K
(B) I, H, F, J, K, G
(C) G, H, J, F, I, K
(D) H, G, J, I, K, F
(E) I, G, F, K, J, H

Read more

The Pampered Pets Grooming Salon has a very busy day ahead.  There are three groomers – Lisa, Mario, and Nancy – scheduled to work, and the salon has 1-hour appointment slots available for each groomer at 8, 9 and 10 am.  Seven animals have appointments – four poodles, two terriers, and one westie.  No more than one animal is assigned to any particular appointment slot. Animals are assigned to grooming appointments according to the following restrictions:

• Lisa grooms more animals than any other groomer.
• At least one poodle is groomed before any terrier is groomed.
• Each groomer grooms at least two different types of animals.
• Nancy grooms a poodle at 10 am.
• No terrier can be groomed during the same hour that a poodle is groomed.
• Mario does not groom a poodle first.

1. Which one of the following must be true?

(A) Mario is assigned exactly one animal.
(B) Nancy is assigned exactly one animal.
(C) Lisa is assigned exactly two animals.
(D) Mario is assigned exactly two animals.
(E) Nancy is assigned exactly three animals.

Read more

Looking for a challenge?

Old Blue Eyes

Seven singers—Hiroshi, Jordan, Kirkwood, Lewin, Marin, Olin, and Pan—will audition for the lead singer role in a Frank Sinatra cover band. The auditions will take place one at a time, and no other singers will audition for the role. The order of the auditions must conform to the following rules:

• Exactly two auditions will take place between Jordan’s audition and Olin’s audition.
• Exactly one audition will take place between Marin’s audition and Pan’s audition.
• Hiroshi’s audition will take place immediately before or immediately after Lewin’s audition.
• Jordan’s audition will take place before Hiroshi’s audition.

1. Which one of the following could be the order of auditions, listed from first to last?

(A) Jordan, Lewin, Hiroshi, Olin, Marin, Kirkwood, Pan
(B) Jordan, Hiroshi, Lewin, Olin, Marin, Pan, Kirkwood
(C) Olin, Hiroshi, Lewin, Jordan, Pan, Kirkwood, Marin
(D) Pan, Olin, Marin, Jordan, Kirkwood, Hiroshi, Lewin
(E) Marin, Jordan, Pan, Lewin, Olin, Hiroshi, Kirkwood

2. If Olin auditions first, which one of the following must be true?

(A) Marin auditions third.
(B) Pan auditions third.
(C) Kirkwood auditions second.
(D) Jordan auditions third.
(E) Hiroshi auditions seventh.

3. If Lewin auditions immediately before Olin, each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

(A) Kirkwood auditions second.
(B) Marin auditions seventh.
(C) Pan auditions third.
(D) Jordan auditions first.
(E) Hiroshi auditions third.

4. If Kirkwood auditions sometime between Jordan and Olin, which one of the following must be true?

(A) Kirkwood auditions second.
(B) Either Marin or Pan auditions fifth.
(C) Either Marin or Pan auditions first.
(D) Either Hiroshi or Lewin auditions last.
(E) Jordan auditions either first or fourth.

5. There are exactly two possible orders of auditions if which one of the following is true?

(A) Hiroshi auditions immediately after Jordan.
(B) Kirkwood auditions immediately after Olin.
(C) Lewin auditions immediately after Olin.
(D) Marin auditions immediately after Jordan.
(E) Pan auditions immediately before Olin.

6. If Marin auditions first, which one of the following must be true?

(A) Kirkwood auditions before Pan.
(B) Olin auditions after Pan.
(C) Hiroshi auditions after Kirkwood.
(D) Lewin auditions before Olin.
(E) Jordan auditions after Kirkwood.

7. If the condition that Hiroshi’s audition will take place immediately before or immediately after Lewin’s audition is replaced with the condition that exactly one audition takes place between Hiroshi and Lewin, and if all other conditions remain in effect, each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

(A) Olin auditions fourth.
(B) Jordan auditions third.
(C) Kirkwood auditions first.
(D) Lewin auditions sixth.
(E) Hiroshi auditions fourth.

Think you can solve this Logic Game Challenge?

Win $200 off any LSAT Course or any Atlas LSAT Strategy Guide (your choice!)

Post your answer and/or explanation on our LSAT Forum. 

If you took the June 2009 LSAT, or if you’re reading the blogs, you have no doubt be thinking about one particular feisty logic game. Since it’s bad form to talk about LSAT question specifics, let’s keep this extremely general.

From what my sources tell me about the especially tricky game, what made it particularly difficult was the number of issues at play. Basically, the LSAT took elements of various game types and threw them together. The diagram, therefore, provided few people the big break-through inferences they hoped for. This is common of more complex 3-D ordered numbering games. The takeaway is to prepare to be unprepared. Strict executors, as usual, are punished. LSAT logic games mastery is all about flexibility.

The other big issue that people reported was that there was not enough room on one game to write out all the diagrams.  That’s a tough one!  It goes to show you that you must practice with real LSAT questions — and without scratch paper.   Practice writing small!

In a class I taught last night, I was very impressed with how the students showed how a generally “clunkier” strategy (spelling out scenarios to eliminate on a “must be true” question) actually worked extremely well for a certain question – it actually worked faster than a more “elegant” solution of following the inference chain. This sort of refusal to accept orthodoxy is ideal. The key to working on this is to re-play games in different ways. See if you can do it faster a different way. Don’t become a logic game dinosaur.

Try out this game to flex your muscles: //www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/lsat-logic-game-9.cfm and take a look at our LSAT Logic Game Strategy Guide to see some other tips: www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/lsat-books.cfm