December 29, 2006
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Who wants to have a little LSAT fun?
I’m sure you don’t, but this is the topic of the day so deal with it.
I took the October 2003 LSAT and had a pretty difficult time despite the $1200′s worth of prep classes I took. It must have been the shock of opening my test booklet and seeing, to my absolute horror and disgust, that the Logical Reasoning section (known as the “Games” section—I don’t understand where that nickname came from because there is nothing fun about these games) was the first section of my exam.
Bad enough that I was weak in the Games department, but it also just so happened that one of the fact patterns in my test was a type that had not appeared in any LSAT since 1991. I mean, it was such an outdated type of Game that most of the test prep courses and books didn’t feature any lessons on how to tackle it. So, for those of you who were sitting in a classroom on October 3, 2003, staring at this problem and wishing you were never born–I feel your anguish.
…But I don’t feel it enough to spare you from reliving it again! Here is part of the question (too lazy to type the rest). It’s a “Circular Linearity” problem–but you can just call it the “People Sitting Around a Round Table” game.
Eight people–Fiona, George, Harriet, Ingrid, Karl, Manuel, Olivia, and Peter–are sitting, evenly spaced, around a circular picnic table. Any two of them are said to be sitting directly across from one another if any only if there are exactly three other people sitting between them, counting in either direction around the table. The following conditions apply:
Fiona sits directly across from George.
Harriet sits immediately next to neither Fiona nor Karl.
Ingrid sits immediately next to, and immediately clockwise from, Olivia.
Which one of the following could be the order in which four of the people are seated, with no one else seated between them, counting clockwise around the table?
(A) George, Peter, Karl, Fiona
(B) Harriet, Olivia, Ingrid, Karl
(C) Ingrid, Fiona, Peter, Manuel
(D) Olivia, Manuel, Karl, George
(E) Peter, Harriet, Karl, Fiona
Comments (4)
Hmmm…It’s not (A) because George and Fiona would not be directly across from each other in this scenario. It’s not (B) because either Fiona or George must be included; one of them should actually be the 3rd name on the list, given Harriet’s placement, and since Ingrid must be ”immediately next to, and immediately clockwise from” Olivia, this can’t work out. It’s not (C), because both Olivia and Manuel would be occupying the only two possible places where Harriet could be seated. It’s not (D), because Ingrid, not Manuel, should be the 2nd name on the list, since she is supposed to be next to and clockwise from Olivia.
Is the answer (E)?? This is fun, though I’d still hate to see this question on a test.
I do believe I love your writing, otherwise I would not have read this far back into your archives.
I’m only stopping now because, thanks to your addictive writing, I only have an hour left to submit my online homework.
By the way, that is indeed a craptastic question. Did you end up getting it right?
Due to the symmetry of the sitting, sitting condition 1) and the way the answer is presented … I know immediately that any answer that have both George and Fiona is wrong since George must be separated from Fiona by three people in order for them to be directly across. Thus A) answer is eliminated
Condition 2) eliminates E) answer since Harriet can’t sit next to Fiona or Karl
Condition 3) specifies Olivia then Ingrid sitting and ONLY that particular combination of sitting thus D) is eliminated.
Now we are down to B) and C) … both appears to not violate the conditions. Now we know BOTH can’t be correct so we must logically interpret what the COMPLETE sitting could be.
C) is fairly simple since Olivia must be next to Ingrid … therefore the final complete sitting must be
F
I P
O M
H K
G
The H and K can switch but doesn’t violate the conditions …. G must be opposite F so that is fixed.
Now we look at B)
O
H I
K ?
? ?
?
It should be obvious by now that G can never be opposite F based on the given sitting arrangement … Thus B) is eliminated.
The answer is C)
Crosses eyes and shudders in horror