LSAT and Law School Admissions Forum

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 Administrator
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#59926
Please post your questions below!
 kch0522
  • Posts: 9
  • Joined: Jun 19, 2019
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#70988
Hi -

Would appreciate a full setup.

Many thanks!
K
 Claire Horan
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#71005
Hi kch0522,

What aspects of the setup or rules are you having trouble with? Feel free to post what you've done so far to set up the game! You'll learn more if you think through and explain your own thought process, and we'll also be able to tailor our guidance.

Happy studies!
 dripgal
  • Posts: 7
  • Joined: Aug 02, 2019
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#73637
Hello!


I just wanted to ask about the setup since I'm not sure if mine is effective:

If j -> j
G R

If s -> s
R W

If m -> s

I'm not sure if I need to diagram according to the subjects and then write students under each subject or if I need a linear template? These grouping questions are definitely where I need lots of practice (and all the help I can get). Thank you!
 Robert Carroll
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#73647
dr,

I think I would make the students the base, as shown in my diagram. Let me know if anything about that is unclear!

Robert Carroll
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 menkenj
  • Posts: 116
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#82592
I really struggled to make any diagrams for this one beyond the rules. It didn't hurt me but I'm wondering if I need to get better at grouping game diagrams. The attachment above adds more confusion to my brain. I just notated the rules and internalized them and moved to the questions.
 Adam Tyson
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#82765
You should always try to build some diagram, menkenj, even if you aren't entirely clear on what makes the best base. Internalizing the rules with no diagram and diving in will usually result in a lot of wasted time as you keep mulling them over, drawing out new diagrams, etc.

This is an unusual game in that it seems like either variable set could make a good base. Robert's setup has the students as the base, an you could use that to set up some templates based on who presents on Shakespeare's villains (either R does and W does not, or W does and R does not, or neither of them does and G must). You could do the same with the presentations as the base, and I would again look at doing those same templates (I am a template junkie!) But to go forward with nothing but the rules, and no base into which to place them, will, for most students, mean a lot more time ultimately spent on the questions than if you had some sort of starting point.

When you aren't sure what to use for the base, think about the numbers. Here, every student has to do one or more presentations, so students could be a good base. Every presentation has to be done by at least one students, so that gives you essentially the same numeric information and indicates that presentations could be a good base, too. At that point, pick one and run with it! Almost without exception you will be better off than with no base at all.
 lowdog
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#83671
hello! I used JMS as the base and the students as the moving variables.
J:G :arrow: R
M:R :dblline: W
S:R :dblline: W
Then just kept in mind that each could appear in all three alone (minding the condition of G(J) :arrow: R(J) of course) or with G, as long as R and W are kept apart except for in J. I then tackled the "local" questions first, which I find usually helps to avoid wasting time on "global" questions, and sometimes reveals something of value about the game. With this bare bones setup, I found this game to be moderately easy, although it took me close to 11 minutes to complete.
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 KelseyWoods
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#83702
Hi lowdog!

I would also use the presentations as the base and the students as the moving variables in this game (although, as discussed above, either way works!). I drew an arrow from M to S to indicate the 3rd rule directly on my base. The setup should go fairly quickly because there aren't too many inferences to be made (beyond the R and W cannot both be in M inference which you found). There are several local questions and even the global questions probably require some mini diagramming. This is typical--usually if there isn't much you can do in terms of diagramming the setup, you'll end up spending more time diagramming in the questions.

Eleven minutes is a bit long for a 5 question game, though. When you're working on speed with games, it can help to redo games multiple times to build up your confidence with them and help you make inferences more quickly. So I would revisit this game again in a few days and see if you can shave some time off of that 11 minutes!

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey
 lowdog
  • Posts: 3
  • Joined: Sep 20, 2020
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#83836
thanks for the tip Kelsey!

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