Unfortunately, typing in this environment doesn't give us great options for diagramming games.
This is an Open Grouping game:
6 people have to all go exactly one time, into 3 groups, but they didn't tell us how many ppl per group (although they said it's between 1-3).
First things first is to just jot down how 6 people can be arranged into 3 quantities, with each of those quantities being between 1-3.
There are only two ways to distribute these 6:
2 / 2 / 2
3 / 2 / 1
I'm going to just write scenarios like this
_______ <> _________ <> __________
area 1
.........area 2
.............area 3
A possible scenario might look like this:
L K J <> O P <> M
I would never use those random double arrows; it just seems like the most readable option here. On my page, it would just be L K J | O P | M
For a question like #9, I would never do it until I had already done all my IF questions.
IF questions (Conditional questions) force us to write out scenarios, and we can use that previous work to make eliminations on questions like this.
I would start Q9 by just looking at all the people who HAD been in area 3 so far. Anyone who had already gone in group 3 certainly CAN be in group 3, so we'd eliminate those answers.
If we don't have any previous work to look at, then we're approaching this question by either trying to solve for the inference they're testing or by just doing plug and chug with the answers.
Naturally, IF we can figure out the inference they're testing by just looking at each answer and considering it mentally, then that's going to be faster. But many/most of us can't figure that stuff out in a pressured, timed setting.
If nothing is obviously wrong to me on a first pass, then I'll quickly go to plug and chug.
We'll do plug-n-chug first, because it's actually the more valuable skill to learn (it
always works).
(A) Can P be in 3? Could I just switch P over from that scenario I wrote earlier?
L K J <> O <> M P
Looks good. eliminate.
(B) Can O be in 3? Could I just switch P and O? Not necessarily. O is also in the 4th rule. So if I switch O out of area 2, then I need to separate J and K. No problem.
L K <> P J <> M O
Looks good. eliminate
(C) Can L be 3rd? Based on rule 3 and rule 1, it seems like whenever L and M are together, it'll be in area 3. Let's try it.
____ <> O P <> L M
I put O and P in area 2 since, rule 2 says I can't put them in 1. Based on rule 4, I need J and K to be together. Okay,
J K <> O P <> L M
Looks good. eliminate
(D) Could K be in area 3?
_____ <> ______ <> M K
That kind of messes up rule 3, since L needs to be with ONE of them but not BOTH of them.
Here's our answer! Pick it.
====== Being smarter from the start method =======
They're asking for something impossible about area 3 ... are there any rules for area 3?
There's a rule about M.
M is in area 3.
Are there any other rules about M?
Yes, rule 3 is also about M.
Is there any way those rules could interact?
Well, I guess L and M will sometimes be together in 3, which will send K somewhere else.
But could K be in area 3 when L
isn't there?
Hmm, if K and M are both in area 3, then how are we going to buddy up L with one, but not both, of them?
K really
can't go in area 3!
Pick (D).
Open Grouping is the name of a chapter in the Games book. I don't have it handy, but it's chapter 7 or 8 I believe. Similarly, it is session 8 of Interact.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/stud ... ngrouping/Question 10 needs its own thread, so I'm going to go create that one.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/foru ... 18493.html