X-ray of a Typical Logic Game
So what does one of these things actually look like? Glad you asked. Take a
brief look through the following, but don’t worry about working through the setup or
answering the question just yet—we’ll get to that later on, promise. For right now,
just take a minute to get the lay of the land.
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Seven works of art—P, Q, R, S, T, V, and W—will be
exhibited at a local gallery opening. A short lecture will be
delivered by the creator of each work during the gallery opening. No
two lectures will be delivered at the same time. The sequence of
lectures must satisfy the following requirements:
The lecture on artwork R is delivered second or
sixth.
The lecture on artwork T is delivered fourth.
The lecture on artwork S is delivered at some
point after the lecture on artwork V.
The lecture on artwork P is delivered either
immediately before or immediately after the lecture on artwork W.
|
|
| 1. |
Which one of the following could
be an accurate list of artwork lectures delivered in order from
first to last? |
| (A) |
Q, V, P, T, W, R, S |
| (B) |
Q, V, W, P, T, R, S |
| (C) |
S, R, Q, T, P, W, V |
| (D) |
V, R, S, T, W, P, Q |
| (E) |
W, P, R, T, V, Q, S |
|
The first paragraph lays out the basic parameters of the game: what’s being
done, who or what it’s being done to, and who’s doing it. This, cleverly enough, we
call the “introduction,” and in this case it tells us that lectures on specific
works of art will be delivered in some order. The indented statements following the
introduction are the “rules,” which further define how the action outlined in the
introduction will play out. The introduction and the rules taken together we call
the “setup.” The setup is followed by five to seven multiple-choice questions, an
example of which is provided in question 1 above. (In a real game, there would be
four to six more questions to round out the question set.) The setup applies to
every question in the question set unless otherwise noted—occasionally, an
individual question will add, subtract, or change a rule, but for the most part the
questions will be solved according to the information provided in the setup.
You’ll learn much more about these components when we discuss game types and
demonstrate the Essential Strategy later on. But before we get to that, let’s round
out our X-ray with a quick scan through the directions.
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Directions: Each group of questions
in this section is based on a set of conditions. In answering some
of the questions, it may be useful to draw a rough diagram. Choose
the response that most accurately and completely answers each
question and blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.
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Pretty cut-and-dried: The “set of conditions” you’ll soon recognize as the
“setup” described just above. The “rough diagram” refers to scratchwork you may jot
down next to individual questions, and the final sentence is just test-prep
boilerplate: Don’t forget to blacken in your answer on the answer sheet.
Notice what’s conspicuously absent here—the statement found in both the
Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension directions that says there is more than
one choice that could conceivably answer the question, but only the
best answer will be credited. That disclaimer is missing in
these directions because credited Logic Games answers are objectively correct; that
is, there’s no two ways about it. When you do a Sudoku (Japanese number game), for
example, you can’t enter a wrong number and still solve the puzzle. Similarly, every
wrong choice in a logic game can be proven wrong, and the correct choice can be
proven right. As in any logic puzzle, there’s absolutely no wiggle room
corresponding to the tiny bit of leeway inherent in the other sections.
Okay, that completes our X-ray, so let’s talk a bit about what kinds of games
you’re likely to see.
