LSAT Logic Games : Determining sequence in linear games
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for LSAT Logic Games
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Example Questions
Example Question #201 : Determining Sequence In Linear Games
A library is holding a special five-day event honoring successful local writers. One writer will be invited to be a guest speaker for each night from Monday through Friday, and no writer will be asked to participate twice. The writers have each written books in only one of four different genres—science fiction, mystery, historical fiction, and non-fiction. A, J, and X are all science fiction writers. B and Y are both mystery writers. C and Z are both historical fiction writers. L is a non-fiction writer. The following conditions apply without exception:
At least one writer from each of genre will be invited to speak on at least one night.
No two authors from the same genre will be invited to speak on the following night.
If C is invited to speak, then X is invited to speak on the following night.
If Y is invited to speak, then neither C nor A are invited to speak.
If X and J are both invited to speak, then neither will speak on either the first or last night.
If L and B are both invited to speak, then neither will speak on either the first or last night.
Which two writers cannot BOTH be invited to speak?
C and J
A and X
C and B
B and C
J and Z
C and J
Since X always follows C and J is participating, we have the pair of X and J. X and J are both science fiction, so there must be at least one space between them. Neither can speak in either the first or last slot. C must come directly before X. Thus, we have either CX_J_ or _JCX_.
We know that L must be part of any correct diagram, and we still need a mystery writer, either B or Y. Y cannot fit because Y and C can't both be part of the diagram. B cannot fit because There is no way to fit L and B without either one or both speaking first or last.
Example Question #202 : Sequencing
A gym teacher wants his 6 students to line up in height order, from shortest to tallest. Corrin and Theresa are girls. Ben, Jonathan, Will, and Dan are the boys.
- Will is not the tallest or the shortest.
- No girl is taller than Jonathan
- Dan is shorter than Corrin, but taller than Theresa.
- Ben is the tallest
Which of the following is an acceptable ranking?
Will, Theresa, Corrin, Dan, Jonathan, Ben
Theresa, Dan, Corrin, Jonathan, Will, Ben
Corrin, Theresa, Ben, Dan, Will, Jonathan
Theresa, Jonathan, Corrin, Dan, Will, Ben
Dan, Corrin, Theresa, Will, Jonathan, Ben
Theresa, Dan, Corrin, Jonathan, Will, Ben
Using the question's rules, you can figure out each student's general positions. Ben always has to be #6, as the tallest. Theresa must always be before Dan, and Dan must always precede Corrin. Thus, Corrin can never come before Theresa. Jonathan must be either 4th or 5th, because the girls have to precede him, and Dan has to come in the middle of that, taking up 3 spots. Will cannot be the shortest, or the tallest (as Ben is), so he can go anywhere that isn't the 1 or 6 spot.
Example Question #203 : Sequencing
A consultant has agreed to see nine of his clients-- L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T-- once in the next six days, from Monday through Saturday. He arranges his schedule so that he can see at least one of his clients each day, while maintaining the following conditions:
O is always scheduled on a day before R and M.
P is not scheduled for Saturday.
If T is scheduled on a day after O, then S is scheduled on a day after N.
If T is scheduled on a day before O, then R is scheduled on a day before L.
The consultant always sees fewer clients on Friday and Saturday combined than he sees on any other two days of the week combined.
Which of the following schedules is possible given the restrictions on the consultant's schedule?
Mon: N, O
Tues: R
Wed: Q, M
Thur: S, L
Fri: T
Sat: P
Mon: N, P
Tues: T
Wed: Q, O
Thur: S, R
Fri: M
Sat: L
Mon: S
Tues: L, O
Wed: R, M
Thur: Q, T
Fri: P
Sat: N
Mon: T
Tues: L, P
Wed: O, N
Thur: R, M
Fri: Q
Sat: S
Mon: O, Q, P
Tues: N
Wed: S, M
Thur: L
Fri: R
Sat: T
Mon: N, P
Tues: T
Wed: Q, O
Thur: S, R
Fri: M
Sat: L
Mon: T
Tues: L, P
Wed: O, N
Thur: R, M
Fri: Q
Sat: S
This is incorrect, because T comes before O, but L comes before R.
Mon: O, Q, P
Tues: N
Wed: S, M
Thur: L
Fri: R
Sat: T
This is incorrect, because Friday and Saturday combined have two clients. Every other combination of two days must have more than two clients. Tuesday and Thursday combined have exactly two clients. This wrong answer test the key insight that no day will, in fact, have more than two clients, and Friday and Saturday will never have more than one client a piece.
Mon: S
Tues: L, O
Wed: R, M
Thur: Q, T
Fri: P
Sat: N
This is incorrect because O comes before T, but S comes before N.
Mon: N, O
Tues: R
Wed: Q, M
Thur: S, L
Fri: T
Sat: P
This is incorrect because P cannot be scheduled for Saturday.
Example Question #202 : Determining Sequence In Linear Games
A group of seven friends-- F, G, H, I, J, K, L-- are going skydiving. For safety reasons, only one person can jump from the plane at a time, unless they are doing a tandem jump with an instructor. In that case, exactly one friend and one instructor jumps from the plane together. The friends jump in an order that conforms to the following conditions:
Exactly one friend jumps from the plane between the times when H and L jump from the plane.
F jumps from the plane at some point before K.
J jumps from the plane at some point before L.
G jumps from the plane either second or fifth.
If I jumps from the plane after G, then L jumps from the plane after F.
If a friend does a tandem jump with an instructor, that friend must jump from the plane after any and all of the friends who are not jumping with an instructor.
Which of the following lists of three friends cannnot be the complete list of friends that are doing tandem jumps with instructors?
G, H, L
F, L, K
H, K, L
G, F, K
G, H, L
[G, H, L] cannot be the only three friends that do a tandem jump. All of the friends that do a tandem jump are required to jump last, so these three friends must do the 5th, 6th, and 7th jumps. G is required to jump either 2nd or 5th, so G jumps 5th. That means that H and L would be required to, in some permutation, do the 6th and 7th jumps, but there MUST be at least one friend that jumps between their jumps. Thus, it is impossible that these three are the only tandem jumpers. If there was a fourth tandem jumper, this might be entirely possible.
Example Question #205 : Sequencing
A group of seven friends-- F, G, H, I, J, K, L-- are going skydiving. For safety reasons, only one person can jump from the plane at a time, unless they are doing a tandem jump with an instructor. In that case, exactly one friend and one instructor jumps from the plane together. The friends jump in an order that conforms to the following conditions:
Exactly one friend jumps from the plane between the times when H and L and jump from the plane.
F jumps from the plane at some point before K.
J jumps from the plane at some point before L.
G jumps from the plane either second or fifth.
If I jumps from the plane after G, then L jumps from the plane after F.
If a friend does a tandem jump with an instructor, that friend must jump from the plane after any and all of the friends who are not jumping with an instructor.
If G and I are the only friends NOT doing tandem jumps with instructors, then what is a complete list of friends that could jump between the times when H and L jump?
F, G, I
J, K
F, I
F, I, J, K
F, J, K
F, J, K
The correct answer is F, J, K.
If G and I are the only two friends NOT doing tandem jumps, then that means they must do the first two jumps. G must thus jump 2nd, and I must jump first.
I G _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This diagram is about as wide open as can be. I comes before G, so the F before L rule is not going to be in effect. Thus, you could pretty much stop here and grab the most inclusive answer that doesn't include I or G, which you've already placed.
The fastest way to make sure, however, is to look at the placement of the H/L _ H/L block. If you look at the rules, you can see that L causes a restriction on placement (J before L) while H doesn't. Thus, since we're looking for the most inclusive answer, we don't even need to bother with writing H/L _ H/L, but can instead do H _ L. That is because any L _ H block will automatically be more restrictive.
I G H _ L _ _
I G _ H _ L _
I G _ _ H _ L
Our remaining letters are F, J, and K. You can see pretty easily that J will slot into the first diagram's H _ L block, F will slot into the second diagram's H _ L block, and K will slot into the last diagram's H _ L block.
Example Question #206 : Sequencing
During a period of six consecutive days (day 1 - day 6) each of exactly six restaurants will be inspected by the department of health. During this period, each of the restaurants will be inspected exactly once, one restaurant per day. The schedule for the inspections must follow these conditions:
A is inspected on either day 1 or day 6.
D is inspected on an earlier day than E is inspected.
E is inspected on the day immediately before F is inspected.
If B is inspected on day 3, then E is inspected on day 5.
Which one of the following could be a list of the restaurants in order of their scheduled inspections, from day 1 through day 6?
B, D, E, F, A, C
A, E, F, C, D, B
B, D, E, C, F, A
D, C, B, E, F, A
B, C, D, E, F, A
B, C, D, E, F, A
The order of B, C, D, E, F, A satisfies all of the conditions and does not violate any of them.
A, E, F, C, D, B is incorrect because D must be inspected before E is, as stated in the conditions.
B, D, E, C, F, A is incorrect because E must be inspected immediately before F is, as stated in the conditions.
B, D, E, F, A, C is incorrect because A must be inspected either 1st or 6th, as stated in the conditions.
D, C, B, E, F, A is incorrect because if B is inspected 3rd, then E must be inspected 5th, as stated in the conditions.
Example Question #207 : Sequencing
A library is holding a special five-day event honoring successful local writers. One writer will be invited to be a guest speaker for each night from Monday through Friday, and no writer will be asked to participate twice. The writers have each written books in only one of four different genres—science fiction, mystery, historical fiction, and non-fiction. A, J, and X are all science fiction writers. B and Y are both mystery writers. C and Z are both historical fiction writers. L is a non-fiction writer. The following conditions apply without exception:
At least one writer from each genre will be invited to speak on at least one night.
No two authors from the same genre will be invited to speak on the following night.
If C is invited to speak, then X is invited to speak on the following night.
If Y is invited to speak, then neither C nor A are invited to speak.
If X and J are both invited to speak, then neither will speak on either the first or last night.
If L and B are both invited to speak, then neither will speak on either the first or last night.
Which of the following groups of three writers is NEVER invited together?
Z, Y, L
X, Y, Z
X, J, B
C, X, B
C, Z, B
X, J, B
It is impossible for there to be a valid schedule of guests that includes all of X, J, and B. This is because a week that includes X, J, and B also includes L, since L is always included. The pairs of X and J and L and B can never be invited in the same week, because none of the four are allowed to speak on Monday or Friday when paired that way. This means there are four writers who must fit into three days. Impossible.
Example Question #208 : Sequencing
A library is holding a special five-day event honoring successful local writers. One writer will be invited to be a guest speaker for each night from Monday through Friday, and no writer will be asked to participate twice. The writers have each written books in only one of four different genres—science fiction, mystery, historical fiction, and non-fiction. A, J, and X are all science fiction writers. B and Y are both mystery writers. C and Z are both historical fiction writers. L is a non-fiction writer. The following conditions apply without exception:
At least one writer from each genre will be invited to speak on at least one night.
No two authors from the same genre will be invited to speak on the following night.
If C is invited to speak, then X is invited to speak on the following night.
If Y is invited to speak, then neither C nor A are invited to speak.
If X and J are both invited to speak, then neither will speak on either the first or last night.
If L and B are both invited to speak, then neither will speak on either the first or last night.
If L is invited to speak on Friday, then on what days MUST a science fiction writer be invited?
Tuesday and Thursday
Only Wednesday
Monday and Tuesday
Monday and Wednesday
Monday and Thursday
Tuesday and Thursday
If L is the speaker on Friday, then B cannot be a guest speaker at all, since if L and B are both guest speakers then neither can speak on Monday or Friday. If B is not a speaker, then Y must be a speaker, in order for there to be a mystery writer guest speaker. If Y is a guest speaker, then C must not be a guest speaker. Thus, Z must be a guest speaker in order to have a historical fiction writer.
We thus know so far that Y and Z and L are three out of five possible guest speakers (from Monday through Friday). That means the remaining two MUST be science fiction writers. Furthermore, because Y is a guest speaker, A cannot be a guest speaker. Thus, the two science fiction guests are X and J and they both are invited. They must be invited for Tuesday and Thursday, because any other day would force one of them to speak on Monday, which is not possible if both X and J are invited.
Y/Z, X/J, Y/Z, X/J, L
Example Question #209 : Determining Sequence In Linear Games
Six baseball players -- Billings, Carter, Dalton, Freeman, Garcia, and Hallstrom -- are to be placed in a batting order. Each player will bat once, and players will bat one at a time. The players' coach will decide the batting order according to the following conditions:
Both Carter and Dalton will bat earlier than Garcia.
Hallstrom will not bat fifth.
Freeman will bat at some time between Hallstrom's and Garcia's batting times.
If Dalton bats earlier than Carter, then Hallstrom will bat earlier than Freeman.
Which one of the following could be a complete and accurate list of the players' batting order, from first to last?
Dalton, Billings, Carter, Garcia, Freeman, Hallstrom
Carter, Dalton, Billings, Garcia, Freeman, Hallstrom
Carter, Dalton, Garcia, Freeman, Hallstrom, Billings
Carter, Billings, Freeman, Dalton, Garcia, Hallstrom
Carter, Freeman, Garcia, Hallstrom, Dalton, Billings
Carter, Dalton, Billings, Garcia, Freeman, Hallstrom
The correct answer choice is the only answer choice that meets the given conditions. The remaining choices break one or more conditions by: placing Garcia earlier in the batting order than either Dalton or Carter, placing Hallstrom fifth in the batting order, failing to place freeman between Hallstrom and Garcia in the batting order, and/or failing to place Hallstrom before Freeman in the batting order when Dalton bats earlier than Carter.
Example Question #209 : Sequencing
Six baseball players -- Billings, Carter, Dalton, Freeman, Garcia, and Hallstrom -- are to be placed in a batting order. Each player will bat once, and players will bat one at a time. The players' coach will decide the batting order according to the following conditions:
Both Carter and Dalton will bat earlier than Garcia.
Hallstrom will not bat fifth.
Freeman will bat at some time between Hallstrom's and Garcia's batting times.
If Dalton bats earlier than Carter, then Hallstrom will bat earlier than Freeman.
If Dalton bats first, then which one of the following could be true?
Freeman bats last.
Freeman bats second.
Freeman bats fifth.
Garcia bats third.
Garcia bats fourth.
Freeman bats fifth.
In this scenario, because Dalton bats earlier than Carter, Hallstrom must bat earlier than Freeman. Thus Freeman cannot bat second. Because Freeman must always bat between Hallstrom and Garcia, Freeman here must bat before Garcia -- he therefore cannot bat last. Since Hallstrom, Carter, and Freeman must all bat before Garcia, Garcia cannot bat any earlier than fifth. However, Freeman may bat fifth, so long as Garcia bats last.
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