As you may remember, the first type of game we at Blueprint Prep recommend tackling on the LSAT is the ordering game. These are the ones that involve ordering of some sort (surprise!). They come in many forms: kids running a race, heights of armadillos, the relative wealth of various orphans. The common thread is that something is being ordered. At Blueprint Prep, we find that many of our students think these are the most intuitive type of game on the LSAT.

Contrasted to this on the LSAT are grouping games. These games involve no inherent ordering, but rather have variables being put into groups. These, too, come in a wide variety of flavors, and could involve putting cars in parking lots, felons in anger management classes, or employees in first class or coach. We don’t care if Janet gets a window or an aisle seat, or whether she boards first or last – all we care about is if she’s in first class or back with the peasants. At Blueprint, we’ve found that a lot of students prepping for the LSAT find these harder than ordering games, but they, too, can be mastered.

At Blueprint, we recommend first prepping for ordering games, and then grouping games. In fact, this is the way we teach them in our actual prep courses at Blueprint. But what then? Are you all done? Sadly no. The LSAT’s a harsh mistress, and she’s going to make you do both at once. That’s right. At Blueprint Prep, we creatively call these “combo” games.

For example, you could have eight schoolchildren trying out for the track team, and only five will make the cut. If it stopped there, this would be a classic in-and-out grouping game; they’re either on the team or they’re not. But then you could have the added pleasure of having to order the kids who are on the team. Perhaps they run a race, and come in first through fifth place. If this sounds like fun, it is. And by “fun,” we at Blueprint Prep really mean “terribly frightening.” You can get rules like “Billy makes the team only if Amanda does as well, and he must finish after Amanda.” Yikes.

While this sounds bad, it’s actually not once you’ve mastered ordering and grouping games. In fact, it’s a rather natural extension. While that might look nasty, we at Blueprint can assure you that it’ll be fairly simple once you get to that stage of your preparation. But only if you do ordering and grouping games first. So take the advice of Blueprint Prep, and go at it in the natural progression: ordering games, then grouping games, and then (and only then) combo games. With some practice you’ll be on your way to mastering logic games, nabbing that fantastic LSAT score, and wandering into the gilded halls of law school.