Logic games

Logic games, abbreviated LG, and officially referred to as analytical reasoning, was historically one of three types of sections that appeared on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) before August 2024. A logic games section contained four 5-8 question "games", totaling 22-25 questions. Each game contained a scenario and a set of rules that govern the scenario, followed by questions that tested the test-taker's ability to understand and apply the rules, to draw inferences based on them. In the words of the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), which administers the test, it "measure[d] the ability to understand a structure of relationships and to draw logical conclusions about that structure". What made the games challenging was that the rules did not produce a single "correct" set of relationships among all elements of the game; rather, the examinee was tested on their ability to analyze the range of possibilities embedded in a set of rules. Individual questions often added rules or modify existing rules, requiring quick reorganization of known information.

Like all other sections on the LSAT, the time allowed for the section was 35 minutes. Most students found the logic games section to be the most difficult and intimidating portion of the LSAT. For example, the For Dummies series published a book specifically devoted to LSAT logic games, in addition to its more general book about the entire LSAT. What made the logic games so hard was that they were designed as tests of pure deductive reasoning, a skill which few people specifically study or develop in school. However, the section was widely considered the easiest and fastest to improve at once the right strategies were learned and employed.

The dominant pedagogical method in American law schools is the combination of the Socratic method with the casebook method. As part of this method, a law professor will often call upon a law student and ask them to identify the specific legal rules articulated by the court in a particular reported case. The law professor will then describe various hypothetical scenarios, adding or changing various facts, and ask if the same rules apply or if the outcome of the case may be different under different facts. The logic games section was supposed to test this ability to rapidly analyze hypothetical scenarios or "hypotheticals".

In 2019 the LSAC reached a legal settlement with two blind LSAT test takers who claimed that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because they were unfairly penalized for not being able to draw the diagrams commonly used to solve the questions in the section. As part of the settlement, the LSAC agreed to review and overhaul the section within four years. In October 2023, it announced that the section would be replaced by a second logical reasoning section in August 2024.