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.
Calling all test-takers having Logic Games nightmares! Do you wish the games section would get banished into an “Out” group and disappear from the LSAT? Are you drawing pictures of three boats on your scratch paper, rather than creating an organized set-up? This post is for you.
While the Logic Games section will eventually go away, you still have time to make huge gains on it in time for test day. Stop drawing pictures of voyage ships; instead, let’s get to diagraming rules and creating scenarios!
Here are some tips to ease your worries and perform your best on test day:
1. Stop fretting over the potential of the LSAT having challenging, will-ruin-your-lawyer-dreams games!
Rare and uncommon games have become increasingly uncommon on recent tests. Instead, focus on brushing up your ordering, grouping, and combo game skills! You are nearly guaranteed to see these types of games on every LSAT. The LSAT isn’t out to get you, at least not always.
2. Develop a consistent strategy to represent the rules.
Make sure that you are able to diagram the rules, and create diagrams based off of the rules. A key to developing speed on the games section is by having a go-to diagramming strategy. Stay organized, save time!
3. The most difficult game in the section is usually the last game.
If you have any worries about getting stuck on a difficult game and not being able to finish the section, we have great news — or at least reassuring — for you. If there happens to be an extra difficult game on a section, it is generally the fourth game. So make sure to get your points on the less difficult games earlier in the section; if you have to skip one, make it super challenging one.
4. Get comfortable with creating scenarios!
Most games on the LSAT — especially recent exams — are made a bajillion times easier by knowing how to create scenarios. Scenarios are a fancy and condensed way of saying “breaking down the game by creating multiple set-ups, based one where a particular variable is placed.” For example, if you have a grouping game where the rules tell you one of two movies, H and G, but not both, are shown on Saturday, you can create two separate scenarios: one where movie H is shown on Saturday, and one where movie G is shown on Saturday.
A common concern of LSAT takers is confusion over HOW to create scenarios. Just admit it, you were just about to ask, “Which rules should I even base my scenarios off of?!”
Worry not, we anticipated your question! A general rule of thumb is to create scenarios based off of the most constrained variable — the thing in your game that could be placed in the fewest different places in your set-up. Maybe a pair of players must be ordered in adjacent positions, and there’s only three places on your set-up where they could fit. In that case, that would be a very constrained variable in your set-up. You could make three scenarios by placing those players in the three places they could go. Maybe a pair of players must join the same group in a grouping game, and they can only join two different groups? Also a very constrained set of variables — which will lead to two scenarios.
Pay special attention to situations where one variable is constrained to two possibilities. These situations can be extremely helpful and they provide one of the most common ways to make scenarios on recent games.
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However ridiculous it may seem, getting into law school still does partially depend on your ability to order eight circus performers in a line at a grocery store. As always, we are here to help you get one step closer to becoming a lawyer by learning how to do just that.
Finally, here’s our most important tip for conquering the games: Confidence. As an incredibly intelligent blonde once said, “You must always have faith in yourself.” This holds true for logic games on the LSAT. Believe it or not, the games are learnable. The first, and arguably most important, step is believing in yourself. We believe in you; now, it’s your turn to believe in yourself.
