The Law School Admission Test, or LSAT, is a required standardized test for admission to law schools in the United States. The test consists of three types of multiple-choice sections: reading comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical reasoning. The analytical-reasoning section, nicknamed the "logic games" section, is the most difficult section for many test takers; consider these tips to help you improve your logic games scores.
Read Thoroughly
The logic games section consists of several logical puzzles with a set of rules and conditions that you must use to answer questions. Thoroughly reading and understanding the setup and rules to each logic game is imperative in efficiently answering the questions. You have only 35 minutes to answer all 24 to 26 logic games questions, so a firm grasp of each game will help you go through the questions faster. Pay extra-close attention to all of the rules listed in the setup. Oftentimes the first part of the setup paragraph is fluff that doesn't impact the game directly -- the rules are what's most important.
Create a Diagram
The logic games section often involves scenarios where you must determine the physical position or order of different people or objects based on the rules. Thinking about special and linear ordering games purely in your head can make games much more confusing and harder to keep track of. Instead, draw a diagram for every logic game to help you work your way through the questions. Each page of the logic games section consists of a different game with its own set of questions. Use the blank space at the bottom of the page to draw your diagram and work through the questions. There should be plenty of room of fit everything you need to draw. Even for games that you might be able to work though in your head, it is a good idea to draw it out, to form good habits for solving harder games.
Create a Shorthand System
Another important strategy for succeeding at the logic games section is to create a system of shorthand notation that you can use to quickly summarize the rules of the game before you start to solve questions. It wastes a lot of time to have to constantly look at the rules. Instead, use the first letter of the names of all the people or objects in the game to write out rules and logical conjectures. For instance, if your game involves ordering people in a line and one of the rules is "Bob must be either second or fifth in line," you might write down, "B=2, 5." It can also be useful to write rules into your diagram if possible. For example, if in the same ordering game there are 7 total positions on the line, you might write the numbers 1 to 7 as your diagram, and then put a B with a line through it under all the numbers other than 2 and 5, to indicate that Bob cannot be in any of those spots.
Use Time Wisely
If you happen to run into a particularly hard game that you cannot easily understand or summarize as a diagram, skip it and move on to the next one. In the LSAT, time constraints are hugely important: Wasting too much time on a hard game will leave less time to finish easier games that have easier answers. All the questions on the test are worth the same amount, so it is best to get as many easy questions right as possible before trying harder ones. If you happen to run to run out of time, make sure to fill in an answer for every question, even if it is just a guess. You are not penalized for wrong answers, so guessing at least gives you around a 20% chance of a correct answer.
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