[myverdict]

Hi Mike,

I am nearing the finish of the first part of the logic games section (Lesson 15: Diagramming Review). I am unable to understand the Set 4, part 1, Q1 answer (A) She visited N third.

I felt that either one of (A) or (E) could be the answer. But I am not able to rule out (E) totally. Considering P to be last, the answer could go something like this in my view:

M/N  Os  Ms/Ns  Rs  P

I feel in this case as well, either M/N in the 3rd place with suggestions forces M/N in the 1st place to be with suggestions. This also could be false. So why can’t this be an option. Is it because the situation is that either M/N is an option to take the place. And in answer (A) there is no such option and the places become defined.

Sandhya

[Mike Kim]

Hi Sandhya —

Good q and I think I understand the reasoning process you went through (you can correct me if I’m misinterpreting your process) —

If I’m reading you correctly, I think your biggest issue had to do with the q stem itself, and perhaps less so with your general understanding of the game.

For a Must Be False Q, you will have
4 answers that could be true or false based on the given information and
1 answer that cannot work per the given information —

In general, the most efficient way to solve a “must be false” q is to try and see why one of the answers cannot work — if you find that an answer could be valid per the given rules, that answer is not one that “must be false” (and thus can be eliminated). If you find that an answer that could be false per the given rules — again, this is not the same as an answer that absolutely violates the given rules and thus must be false.

So, in this case, with answer choice (E) —

Even before we get there, when we add the information from the q stem to that which we already knew from setting up the game, we can infer that —

O must go in 2, and R in 4. We know that if O is in 2, slot 1 must be a no-suggestion slot.

We also know that, per the Q stem,  P must follow O, so we know that P can’t go in 1. Thus, P can go in 3 or 5.

If we place P in 5, we can place N in 1 and M in 3 without violating the given rules.

So, per what we know of the game, putting P in 5 is not a violation of the given information, and so (E) is not an answer that must be false.

In comparison, when we try putting N into the third position, we cannot place the remaining elements without violating the rules. This is because putting N in 3 makes it so P must go into 5 and then M must go into 1, which we know is a no-suggestion slot, and this would be a clear violation of the last given rule.Thus, we know that N in third is something that cannot happen and thus (A) is an answer that has to be false.

Again, to summarize and finish off the discussion, per what we should know about the given situation, we can figure out that N cannot go in the third position, and we can figure out that P can go in either the third or fifth position. Thus (A) is an answer that must be false, whereas (E) is not.

Half the battle with these LG q’s is putting yourself in the right mindset to think about the answers (knowing when to consider what could be true vs must be false, not getting turned around, and so on) — and developing the right habits for all that — please know that I’ll be discussing strategies for these challenges in the next batch of Logic Games lessons (specifically lesson 26) — I hope you find the information useful —

And please let me know if you have any follow-up q’s about this problem — hth — Mike

[myverdict]

Hi Mike,

Yay!! I got it. i understood where I took a different track.

Thanks,

Sandhya