LSAT PrepTest 44 Section 3 Question 15 Explanation | Logic Games

I didn't write the following blog post. It was already on the blog when I took over the URL. The following blog post may contain mistakes. -Steve

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This Logic Games question is from the October 2004 LSAT.

Let's eliminate some answer choices simply by thinking about the clear implications of the rules. The question asks us which site could be from the 8th century.

A rule tells us that if the site's from the 8th century, Olliphant (O) discovered it. Another rule tells us that O didn't visit the fourth or fifth site, so with these two rules, we can eliminate choices D and E (the fourth and fifth sites).

A rule tells us that the site discovered second was from the 9th century, so we can eliminate B (if it was discovered in the 9th, it obviously wasn't discovered in the 8th).

The last rule says that the third site is from a more recent century than the first or fourth sites. 8th is the oldest century, it's not more recent than anything here. So, the third site can't be from the 8th century, and we can eliminate C. So, A is correct.

Remember:

Sometimes just thinking about the rules before doing any diagramming can save a ton of time and effort and get the right answer. This is great on a very tightly-timed test like the LSAT. However, if the implications of the rules aren't very obvious to you, go ahead and diagram! It won't take all that long and is worth it if that's the only way you can figure out the answer. If you are looking at the rules for more than a few seconds and don't see anything obvious stemming from them, go ahead and start diagramming. Remember that diagramming is still needed on most questions on most games.