Numerical Distributions (LSAT)

There’s no math on the LSAT. 

Well, not exactly.

As you become more comfortable with the games and the foundations become more intuitive, you'll want to dig a little deeper and think about numerical distributions whenever they apply. 

For example, imagine a game with 3 tennis matches. 2 players per match, and we're given four players, W, X, Y, Z.

We’re further told that each player must play in at least one match but in no more than 2 matches.

Immediately, even before moving on to the rules of the game, you should consider that in this game, 2 of the players will appear once and 2 of the players will appear twice. Since with that distribution that will fill 6 slots which is exactly what you would want to fill with 3 games consisting of 2 players per game. 

The reason why all this is so important is that this idea will play in the background of the game throughout each of the questions. For example, imagine a question in which through the directive of the other rules if you try out a certain scenario you'll be forced into 3 of the players appearing twice. You'll know that that scenario doesn't work even though none of the rules tell you that that's not allowed. It's an inference you realized early on. 

As another example, imagine a game with 7 slots and 4 variables. We're told that each variable must appear at least once and at most twice. In this game only one variable will appear once and the remaining 3 variables will appear twice. That'll get you to the 7 slots: (3x2)+1 = 7. It does get a little trickier if the variables are not limited to appearing twice at most. Then, for example, maybe 3 variables appear once and one variable appears 4 times. But the point remains: consider the possible distributions, especially when there are a limited number of them.

Practice this and note these numerical distributions early on in a game. It'll make difficult games a lot easier!