A strategy to speed up time on Logic Games? Forum

[billyez]

There was a time - when I took my first LSAT - when my Logic Game performance was truly atrocious. I shouldn't have taken that December Test in the first place; I should have saved up my chances so I could take it this December instead. But anyway, I digress.

Speed. Time. Those are the only problems I have now. The LGB just made me feel more comfortable - I don't obsess over putting it's methods into practice, but either way, if I do a game, I might miss one question, maybe, just maybe two, but quite often LG has morphed into a less worrisome secton - except for the time. I only missed one question on the Dinos - and had I been able to acutally do the last game, I might be sitting happy with a 160.

I need tips for how you guys deal with the Logic section quickly. Diagrams and inferences and all that? I know those. I just need to fix this time issue before September.

[FromRussiaWithLove]

This might be an obvious strategy, but I'll throw in my .02 anyway.

Give yourself only eight minutes to do a game. Instead of doing an entire section under timed conditions, single out the game types that have taken up most of your time in the past and try to do those games in under 8 minutes. This might help you figure out the pattern of reasoning that will crack those game types much faster in the future.

[notoriousscrat]

Honestly, I would simply suggest educated guessing. LG was my worst section when I started but in the June LSAT I only missed four questions (Dino game questions that I randomly guessed on), making it my second best section in the whole thing. That's not spectacular but it's great when you consider I started out only getting 12 right per LG section on my diagnostic. My problem was speed, as well. I could do all the questions, just not in the time allotted. If you feel secure and if you know that you can get every question when given extra time, then it's time to simply start doing some educated guesses on hard questions just to get through. Educated guesses especially. I found I'd gotten into a sort of mental block about making absolutely sure I had every question correct before I moved on. It turned out I was actually right so much of the time that giving myself that certainly was killing my LG scores. Your first thought on the correct answer is probably right as long as there's a good reason that you came up with the answer. Choose an answer, circle the question and move on. Recheck the question if you have time at the end.

Good luck!

[LawandOrder]

If you find a way to speed up time please let me know. I will invest heavily in your compnay.

[acharyainc]

I posted a similar question a while ago and a few people told me to continue taking as many LG game sections as possible. After taking their advice, I can now quickly read a game, diagram it and make a majority of the inferences in less than half the time. Also, see where your time is getting eaten up. For me, it was figuring out the diagram. For you it might be that you have a tough time answering the questions or going through the POE etc. Attack your own strategy and make it better. I did exactly that and on my last PT i got 22/24 questions right on the LG section.

[mikcou]

This might be an obvious strategy, but I'll throw in my .02 anyway.

Give yourself only eight minutes to do a game. Instead of doing an entire section under timed conditions, single out the game types that have taken up most of your time in the past and try to do those games in under 8 minutes. This might help you figure out the pattern of reasoning that will crack those game types much faster in the future.

Im going to try this. I've become really accurate but still need around 38-40 minutes to finish the section. Thanks.

[hv1]

If you find a way to speed up time please let me know. I will invest heavily in your compnay.

This might sound like BS, but it's not: Learn to "slow town" the clock in your head, like a basketball player who can "feel" the shot clock tick down by the millisecond without looking at the time.

Section after section, you can start to feel the time.

[Foozle]

If you find a way to speed up time please let me know. I will invest heavily in your compnay.

This might sound like BS, but it's not: Learn to "slow town" the clock in your head, like a basketball player who can "feel" the shot clock tick down by the millisecond without looking at the time.

Section after section, you can start to feel the time.

Can't believe you're still posting this garbage of an analogy.

It's not really "learning" to slow down time as much as being aware of what the time is. This comes with constant practice and knowing exactly where you are at/should be. It's helpful, but it's not like LBJ can put another 24 seconds on the clock.

[uknowme]

My key to speed on LG is quit trying to reason through the questions and just fill the answer choices into your diagram and see how they work out. If you spend 2 minutes trying to infer things, you'll never get done quickly. Especially if you didn't make any important inferences. Stop thinking and start doing.

[custom_concern]

If you find a way to speed up time please let me know. I will invest heavily in your compnay.

This might sound like BS, but it's not: Learn to "slow town" the clock in your head, like a basketball player who can "feel" the shot clock tick down by the millisecond without looking at the time.

Section after section, you can start to feel the time.

Can't believe you're still posting this garbage of an analogy.

It's not really "learning" to slow down time as much as being aware of what the time is. This comes with constant practice and knowing exactly where you are at/should be. It's helpful, but it's not like LBJ can put another 24 seconds on the clock.

+1.

[rookiefosho]

I've just finished the LGB, which was my first dive into studying for the LSAT. I usually miss less than 1 or 2 questions per game, but it took me at least nine minutes and usually more like 12-14 to finish each game. Besides what's been noted above, any suggestions as to my next step in studying/getting faster?

thaaanks

[keg411]

My key to speed on LG is quit trying to reason through the questions and just fill the answer choices into your diagram and see how they work out. If you spend 2 minutes trying to infer things, you'll never get done quickly. Especially if you didn't make any important inferences. Stop thinking and start doing.

I've done that and it takes up more time than just making inferences.

I'm already there in terms of accuracy (and have been for a while), but I too am having trouble with timing; I just get way too bogged down when I do a section, whereas doing one game at a time doesn't stress me (and yes, I've done the 8 minute timing on single games). My plan is to just keep drilling sections until I can finally get them down in the allotted amount of time. (I had 2 in a row on my last PT and though I was going to pass out, so I really need to practice doing 2 SECTIONS in a row and not just 4 games in a row; the funny thing is that I did well on the "experimental" and horribly on the actual section because I was just so tired).

So while LG's are super fun to do individually, doing a bunch in a row is a killer, even though I rarely get more than 1 wrong on a game.

[lordvader]

My key to speed on LG is quit trying to reason through the questions and just fill the answer choices into your diagram and see how they work out. If you spend 2 minutes trying to infer things, you'll never get done quickly. Especially if you didn't make any important inferences. Stop thinking and start doing.

That's pretty much what i do.
I diagram, make quick general inferences. Try to pick up if there are big key game changers and just get a good picture of it in my head. Then I attack the questions.

My scores still vary tremendously though
I can go from a perfect to a -8 depending on the types of games

[Norwood]

What I found very helpful was simply just drilling and drilling logic games. It may sound mad, but I just made photocopies of nearly every logic game ever published and kept it as a master key. From this I made copies and went through the entire stack. My goal was to go through each game within 9 minutes and missing zero. I rated each game after completing them according to difficulty (easy, medium, hard, impossible). If I finished the game within 5-8mins, missed zero or one, and felt it was easy I'd remove it from the "re-do" stack. Games that I didn't do well on I would recopy them and re-do them once again.

I found myself getting use to the game types and certain rules that the LSAT tends to use over and over. This helped me diagram them faster and understand how it fits in the game. After awhile you get use to the game type and then have an idea of what types of questions are used. Each game is different but repetitive practice allowed me to be comfortable with most games out there and to attack them with confidence.