Lsat Preptest 02, Logic Game 03: October 1991

In this LSAT logic game Hanna spends fourteen days in a total of six cities. She must visit a city in at least one of three countries. The challenge of the test taker is to determine the cities that Hanna visited.

As a preliminary matter the test taker must determine what type of LSAT logic game she is asked to solve. Logic games fall under four broad categories: 1) sequential; 2) grouping; 3) sequential game with grouping aspects; and 4) grouping game with sequential aspects. When the test taker is faced with a grouping game the test taker must quickly ascertain whether the grouping game has any sequential aspects or additional grouping aspects.

When neither sequential aspects nor additional grouping aspects occur, the test taker should understand that she is faced with a grouping game. When a test taker is faced with a grouping game the order of the groups and the variables within their respective groups is wholly irrelevant. The test taker that assigns a sequential quality to this type of LSAT logic game makes an error of complexity.

Once the test taker has determined the type of LSAT logic game that she is asked to solve, the test taker must then decide which solution strategy to employ. Four basic solution strategies are listed as follows in order of solution preference: 1) wholly solved scenarios; 2) intuitively solved scenarios; 3) scenario templates; and 4) nuts and bolts. A nuts and bolts solution strategy is employed when the rules of the logic game allow for neither the creation of scenarios nor the creation of scenario templates. Put another way, the rules of the logic game do not allow any type of meaningful distribution. Thus, the test taker should turn directly to the questions. In a nuts and bolts game it is the confining characteristics of the questions, rather than of the rules, that enables the test taker to answer the questions.

As always the test taker should consider the hierarchy of rules to solve the scenarios. At issue, however, in this logic game is that the test taker has no idea what cities are to be visited. The test taker has no idea how many cities there are in each country. The test taker is given neither first nor second order rules in this logic game. The test taker is given rules, and a number of them, regarding how many cities she must visit, the minimum number of days she is to visit each city and that the increments fall into days rather than half days.

The test taker should realize that a minimum of twelve days are taken up due to the fact that she must visit six cities at a two day minimum. This leaves her with two distributions: 1) one city visited for four days, while the other five cities are visited at two days apiece and 2) two cities visited for three days apiece, while the other four cities are visited at two days apiece.

At this point the test taker should realize that up to four cities can be viewed in one country, with each of the other countries requiring merely one city to be visited. Thus, there are merely three numerical distributions per country, which are outlined as follows: 4-1-1; 3-2-1; 2-2-2. The test taker that understands the numerical distribution in this analytical game can easily answer all of the questions.

This game is of moderate difficulty. An experienced test taker should expect to spend approximately nine minutes towards the solution of this logic game.