Logic Games Strategy (LSAT)

For some, the Logic Games section of the LSAT comes naturally; for others, not as much, and for some, not at all. I probably fall in that middle category; I was not a natural like some others, but I did have a bit of innate ability which motivated me to want to get better at them. 

I've wondered what might make someone a natural at this skill. I don't have the answer, but one thing I noticed as I improved at these games is that I stopped seeing the rules as independent of each other and started seeing them as more of a system. Maybe this is a bit like a chess player seeing patterns on the board that aren't seen when just beginning to learn the game. Whatever the reason, I believe that people should work at this specific skill to improve their ability. I'll try to explain.

You'll be given a list of rules and most likely you'll notate each rule as you read each of them. Work on not viewing these rules as independent but instead trying to deduce how each rule plays itself into the larger system created by the rules as a whole. Sometimes this will be obvious. You might have a rule that says x is before y and then a second rule that says y is before z. Most people know that the following:

x...y 

y...z 

is not as helpful as 

x...y....z

But those are the easy ones. Where you start to get better at these games is when you're always considering how the rules play off each other, even when it's not nearly as obvious as my example above. And this won't only be true for sequencing games; it'll be true for grouping games, hybrid games, etc. 

This will take practice but with practice it'll take less practice. Your brain will begin to group the rules into smaller systems, and even group those smaller systems into a larger all encompassing system. I suppose that some just do this naturally, and that might account for why some are naturals at all this. But if you're not a natural, this is a skill that can be learned; work at it and you might even begin to enjoy the process!