We’re finally at the point of answering those darned questions! Whew! The purpose of all the preliminary analysis in Steps 1 through 3 is, of course, to cash in—to rack up points by answering the questions accurately and efficiently. The better you handle the rules, and the more Game Breakers you discover, the easier the questions will be. But first we have a few things to cover regarding the basics of dealing with Logic Games questions.

You’ll find that many questions provide new information, which you are expected to add to what you already know about the game. Most often, these questions begin with the word if. Here are some examples based on the games discussed above:

New information provided in a question stem applies to that question only. Do not carry it over to other questions. Only the rules and any Game Breakers you derive from those rules apply throughout the entire game. When you see a question that includes new info, make a copy of your sketch for use in that one question only. You don’t want to mark up your blueprint with info that only applies to one question. It only takes a few seconds to recopy your sketch. Put the new information into your new copy and see where it takes you.

Some questions do not contain new information. Questions that ask what must, could, or cannot be true, without providing the kind of information in the examples above, test your basic understanding of the scenario and the rules. If you’ve discovered Game Breakers or plotted out a Restricted Possibility scenario, you should be able to knock off these questions quickly because you’ve already done the work!

Nearly all logic games contain a question that asks you to pick out the one acceptable ordering or arrangement of characters from among the five choices. In these, only one of the choices will satisfy every rule and thus form a suitable scenario. The fastest way to approach such “Suitability” questions is to work backward from the rules. That is, begin with the first rule and test that against all the choices, crossing off the ones that don’t conform. When you’ve finished checking all the rules, only one choice will be left standing.

Try out the method above to answer the following question.

Take the rules one at a time, scanning the choices for orderings that do not conform. Here’s what you should have found:

Choice E violates Rule 1 by placing R third.

Choice B violates Rule 2 by placing T fifth.

Choice C violates Rule 3 by placing S before V.

Choice A violates Rule 4 by splitting up P and W.

D remains and is therefore the correct answer to this common Suitability question.

There is no need to double-check the right answer. If you’ve applied the rules properly to eliminate the other four choices, the one that remains must contain a suitable ordering. Developing confidence in your work will help you save time. You’ll be surprised how a few seconds gained here and there really add up.