December 2004 LSAT
Section 4
Question 9
If Tyrone plays in the fourth game, then which one of the following could be true?
Reply
Ravi on June 3, 2019
@Lizzie-Annerino,Happy to help.
Before we look at the question, let's make sure our game setup is good.
We have 4 chess games and 6 players, so we know there will be some
repeats. The pieces are L, N, O, P, S, and T.
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
We know T isn't in 1 or 3, so T has to be in 2 or 4. The two slots in
both 2 and 4 are interchangeable because the slots represent the
players in the game.
L plays in 4
_ _ _ L
_ _ _ _
We know that N is only in one game and it isn't with P
NP not together and N doesn't repeat
S plays in 2 games, 1 just before and just after O plays
SOS
We can split the game into two boards, putting the SOS next to L and
then another where SOS overlaps with L
SOSL
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ L
_ S O S
In the second board, T must go in 2 because 4 is totally occupied
_ T _ L
_ S O S
We know N and P can't be together, so they have to split 1 and 3
N T P L
_S O S
or
P T N L
_ S O S
The other position has to be L since it's the only player available to
fill in the spot in 1
P T N L
L S O S
Since we know N and O don't repeat, we know that either L, P, or T
must repeat so that we fill out all 8 slots.
In looking at the top board, it's still very open, so we just need to
keep in mind the rules for it.
SOSL
_ _ _ _
The question tells us that T is in 4. This means we're looking at the
first game board since T is in 2 in our second one.
SOSL
_ _ _T
With (A), N could definitely be in 2. We could put P in 3 and L in 1.
(B) is wrong because there's only 1 O allowed, and it's already occupying 2.
(C) is wrong because there are 2 S pieces on our board already and
they're in 1 and 3.
(D) is wrong because T is with L, so N can't be with L
(E) is wrong because T is with L, so P can't be with L
SOSL
_ _ _T
Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any more questions!