Should the approach to Logic Games change with the switch to a digital LSAT? Forum

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Blueprint LSAT
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Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:43 pm

Should the approach to Logic Games change with the switch to a digital LSAT?

Post by Blueprint LSAT » Wed Feb 20, 2019 8:34 pm

Two major factors complicate Logic Games: space and time. The 35-minute time limit isn't changing with the switch to digital. However, LSAC IS giving test takers something new. Scratch paper. To those of us who have been teaching students to prepare for years, this feels almost decadent and luxurious. Anyone who has tried to fit all their notes for a complex logic game in the two inches of white at the bottom of a single page will tell you it can be a pain and soon it seems those days will be over.

Much of the advice I've given in the past has been based on that restriction and it is worth asking, should some of that change.

I don't think much of it actually should.

Even with unlimited space, it is still messy and confusing to list three or four options for a spot in a game or to draw arrows from a letter to three or four blanks. It still makes sense to restrict hypothetical situations done before diving into the questions to the permutations of a single rule to avoid going down rabbit-holes and doing a bunch of work that will end up being wasted time and confusing later.

It will be nice to have a little extra room to work things out, but keeping a neat, orderly diagram with strict rules that you follow every time is still ideal to avoid wasted time and confusion when you refer back to your own notes later. The great thing about a solid setup for a logic game is that you avoid having to make the same deductions over and over. A sprawling or messy diagram that requires flipping between multiple pages can turn that advantage into a liability just as quickly as a tiny and illegible one.

So basically, if you end up taking the test once it has fully converted to digital, enjoy the extra space but use it to make a neater and cleaner diagram not a bigger and messier one.

Andrew McDonald, Blueprint Instructor

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