Wanna try? Go ahead. You have 8 min 45 seconds to read and complete the questions.
*Taken from the actual February 1993 LSAT
Doctor Yamata works only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. She performs four different activities–lecturing, operating, treating patients, and conducting research. Each working day she performs exactly one activity in the morning and exactly one activity in the afternoon. During each week her work schedule must satisfy the following restrictions:
1) She performs operations on exactly three mornings.
2) If she operates on Monday, she does not operate on Tuesday.
3) She lectures in the afternoon on exactly two consecutive calendar days.
4) She treats patients on exactly one morning and exactly three afternoons.
5) She conducts research on exactly one morning.
6) On Saturday she neither lectures nor performs operations.
Questions:
1) Which of the following must be a day on which Doctor Tamata lectures?
(A) Monday
(B) Tuesday
(C) Wednesday
(D) Friday
(E) Saturday
2) On Wednesday Doctor Yamata could be scheduled to:
(A) conduct research in the morning and operate in the afternoon
(B) lecture in the morning and treat patients in the afternoon
(C) operate in the morning and lecture in the afternoon
(D) operate in the morning and conduct research in the afternoon
(E) treat patients in the morning and treat patients in the afternoon
3) Which one of the following statements must be true?
(A) There is one day on which the doctor treats patients both in the morning and in the afternoon.
(B) The doctor conducts research on one of the days on which she lectures.
(C) The doctor conducts research on one of the days on which she treats patients.
(D) The doctor lectures on one of the days on which she treats patients.
(E) The doctor lectures on one of the days on which she operates.
4) If Doctor Yamata operates on Tuesday, then her schedule for treating patients could be
(A) Monday morning, Monday afternoon, Friday morning, Friday afternoon
(B) Monday morning, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon
(C) Monday afternoon, Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, Saturday afternoon
(D) Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, Friday afternoon, Saturday afternoon
(E) Wednesday afternoon, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon.
5) Which one of the following is a pair of days on both of which Doctor Yamata must treat patients?
(A) Monday and Tuesday
(B) Monday and Saturday
(C) Tuesday and Friday
(D) Tuesday and Saturday
(E) Friday and Saturday
As you can see, these types of games are complicated. They deal with four variable sets, which calculate to have more than 20 million possibilities. However, as you do more and more of these problems you start being able to pick up on more inferences that are key to solving the questions.
The key to this problem is to figure out which tasks she performs in the morning and afternoon. You can deduce that in the mornings she treats patients on one day, conducts research on one day, and performs operations for three. For her afternoons, she treats patients on three days, and lectures on two consecutive days on Monday or Tuesday. Linking the rules so that they provide more information is essential.
By the time 8 minutes and 45 seconds was up, I was able to correctly answer only three questions because I simply didn’t write down one of the rules which was necessary for questions 3 and 4. So, I will continue to practice until I consistently set these problems up correctly.
Answers: 1) b 2) c 3) e 4) e 5) e
