October 2010 LSAT
Section 2
Question 1
Which one of the following could be the order, from first to last, of the student's activities?
Reply
SamA on February 17, 2020
Hello @meganw,For this type of request, please contact our support staff by tapping "support" from the left menu or by calling 855.483.7862 ext. 2. We try to limit the message board to LSAT questions. The instructors can't upload videos, but they might take your request if you send a message.
Meanwhile, I'll see if I can help you with this game. It is always helpful to pay attention to the variables that are tied together. They take up a lot of space. In this case, HG or MJ/JM. I am going to use HG to make diagrams, because its order is defined unlike J and M. Where can the HG block be placed? There are only 4 possibilities. (I've placed more variables, but just notice the placement of HG for now. This is what I started with.)
_ _ _ _ H G
_ _ _ H G L
_ _ H G _ _
K H G _ _ L
After placing HG, I've made 4 distinct diagrams. I'm going to try to fill them in as much as I can based on our rules.
K - HG
MJ - L or JM - L
Notice that there are a lot of possibilities for M, J, K and L within diagram one. That's ok, I'm going to leave it how it is. I generally prefer to limit myself to 4 or fewer diagrams.
In diagram 2, do you see why L has to be 6th? If M, J and L all go before HG, there would be no room for K.
When I get to diagram 3, I realize that it is not possible. There are only two remaining spots for the MJ block, and neither of them work. I cross out this entire diagram.
In diagram 4, I can definitively place K and L. M and J will be 4th and 5th in either order.
It may seem like this is taken a long time, but now I can breeze through the questions.
Question 1: I'm following my standard process of elimination. Pretty simple.
Question 2: Who can't be third? Based on our third diagram, we already know that H cannot be third.
Question 3:
A. Could be true in diagram 2.
B. Could be true in diagram 4.
C. Let's check diagrams 1 and 2. In either case, it leaves no room for M/J - L. This is the correct answer.
D. Could be true in diagram 1.
E. Could be true in 1 or 2.
Question 4: In no diagram can laundry be 5th.
Question 5: Try this strategy for rule replacement. Ask yourself:
Does this allow something that previously wasn't allowed?
Does this restrict something that previously wasn't restricted?
Fortunately, this one was pretty easy. J - L has the exact same effect as M - L, because of the JM/MJ block.