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Generically speaking, there are four types of analytical reasoning problems. Having said this, it is important for the examinee to understand that some analytical reasoning problems are combine problem types.
The problem types are as follows:
Examinees will be expected to provide information on some variation of the following requests in a given analytical reasoning (games) problem:
Now that the basics have been fleshed out, consider the following example:
State Q has eight prominent towns within its borders. These towns are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. There are five routes, A, B, C, D, and E, available in state Q that connect towns 1 through 8. The following is a description of the five routes:
Route A connects 1 and 4 and passes only through 3.
Route E connects 6 and 7.
Where two towns are connected by a route, no other town is on that route.
Examinees will quickly notice that there is a great deal of information provided in analytical reasoning (games) problems. The above problem is a typical type of question that appears on the LSAT. Most experts advise that the best approach to tackling these problems is to transform the information provided in the set of conditions into a picture format so that the picture(s) can be revisited when answering the various questions based on the set of conditions. This strategy would greatly increase an examinee's odds of answering many of the types of questions that are likely to arise. Consider the following question based on the above set of conditions
1. Which two towns can be reached directly from more than one other town?
Trying to answer this question having only read the set of conditions might seem impossible. With all of the routes drawn out, it is easy to see that towns 3, 4, 2, 5, and 7 can all be reached directly from more than one other town.