Note: As of August 2024, the LSAT will no longer have a Logic Games Section. The June 2024 exam will be the final LSAT with Logic Games. Learn more about the change here.
“What was that!?”
…was the very first thing I said after completing my first LSAT Analytical Reasoning, or “logic games,” section. No joke—I spun around in my seat and begged the question of the similarly stunned practice-test-takers seated behind me. So today, as I write this, it pleases me to think that I may be able to help someone else and save them from that same whiplash effect. Going blindly into the Logic Games section is not a good idea.
What Are Logic Games on the LSAT?
If you are reading this before ever attempting an LSAT, you should know that the test’s idea of fun and “games” is testing your powers of deduction using rules. Inside its logic games section, the test introduces four “games,” each consisting of a set of rules that govern a given situation (think cruise ship schedules or dinner party seating charts). This LSAT prep test wants to see if you can understand all of the implications the rules have on the situations.
Why Do Logic Games Matter?
[Note: The Logic Games Section will be removed from the LSAT starting in August 2024 and will be replaced by an additional Logical Reasoning Section.]
The real-life application of the skills tested in the logic games section, outside of planning your balling post-law school vacation and networking party-filled future, is being able to deal with statutory law. Statutes are always the same; people’s behavior rarely is. As an attorney, you’ll need to be able to understand how statutes apply in any number of situations.
The Skinny on LSAT Logic Games
Luckily, for the most part, there are only two types of situations you encounter in the logic games section—ordering situations and grouping situations (think scheduling the order of cruise ship stops or grouping dinner party guests by table number). There have been on rare occasions game situations that do not fall into one of these categories, but the great news is that if you were ever to encounter one of these rare situation types (which could instead be something like drawing a map or finding and utilizing a pattern), the skills you will hone learning to work with ordering and grouping games will see you through.
Each of the logic games section’s four games can be broken down into three parts: the introduction, the rules, and the questions. The introduction is a brief paragraph that describes the situation. The rules can be as few as one or as many as LSAC feels like (usually not more than six).
How many questions are in the LSAT logic games section? The questions that follow the introduction and rules usually number between five and seven. Each question asks what must be or could be true or false based on the rules, what is an acceptable scenario given the rules, or what might happen in the situation were you to replace or ignore a rule.
“Elimination” questions, or questions that ask you what an acceptable scenario might be, are my favorite. There is almost always an elimination question, and my very favorite of all elimination questions is that which comes first in any given question set.
Ode to Elimination Questions
These questions will ask what “could be a complete and accurate list” or “complete and accurate matching.” To get to the answer, simply go one by one through the rules and eliminate any answer choices that violate those rules until you have only one (complete and accurate) answer choice left standing. I love these questions for three reasons.
First: it’s a free point. These questions are EASY. They are easier than an Easy Bake Oven (™). They are easier than Sunday morning. They are even easier than being a breezy, beautiful CoverGirl (™).
Second: they give you an opportunity to work with the rules. Through examining possible formations of the scenario and holding the rules up to each of them, you can see exactly what violating (and following) each rule looks like. This is invaluable to solidifying your understanding of the rules.
Lastly: it shows you how the game is set up. You will see that the answer choices are either listed in an ordered manner or somehow grouped together. So, if you were wondering if you were dealing with ordering or grouping, after answering the elimination question, you won’t be. If there was some twist to the game that made the ordering seem complicated or the grouping a little weird, the way these answer choices are shown can help you figure out how to incorporate that same twist into your diagramming of the situation. So helpful!
I LOVE elimination questions.
Blueprint Prep Makes LSAT Logic Games As Easy as Parcheesi
Really, I love everything that helps students crush the LSAT. This includes certain question types and every last Blueprint Prep method. The LSAT will never look more simple than after you learn to see it through Blueprint Prep-colored glasses. While studying with Blueprint, you will learn that you can break everything on the test down into simple-to-follow steps. For example, there are only four steps to crushing a logic game. Now that I know the Blueprint Prep Logic Games methods, I can’t believe I almost ended up in a cervical collar with whiplash over the easiest LSAT section to master.
On my first practice LSAT, I encountered a word soup of terror. After Blueprint Prep, I only ever encountered two game types, each of which is easily conquered using just four steps.
Do not, I repeat, do not miss out on Blueprint Prep logic games instruction. BPP makes it more simple than anyone out there, period. Getting started is easy, free, and just a few clicks away.
By signing up for a free BPP sample account you can access all kinds of great things – not the least of which is a whole LSAT Logic Games eBook. A. WHOLE. eBOOK. It will answer every question you have about logic games. It will show you each game type and explain how to attack and answer each logic games question type.
In addition to a free Logic Games eBook, you will also get a free practice test (one that you get to take without risk of soft tissue damage, thanks to me); and, if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also get a free logic games lesson!
Run, don’t walk, toward creating your free account and downloading the logic games ebook!
