Flow charts and paths tend to be highly determinative. Once the chart has been constructed, the
questions typically can be answered with little additional thought—often all the answers can be discerned
by merely reading the chart.
The catch is that the chart may not be easy to derive. Because this type of question typically has many
conditions, the chart can easily get out of control. Charting is an art. However, there are some guidelines
that help:
- Look for a condition that starts the “flow” or that contains a lot of information.
- Look for an element that occurs in many conditions.
- Keep the chart flexible; it will probably have to evolve with the changing conditions.
Before we start, we need to address some of the hazards and symbols common to these questions.
Because flow charts and paths involve a “flowing” of information, the if-then symbol, , is the workhorse for these games. Because the information can often “flow” in both directions, the symbol ““ also comes into play.
A slash through a symbol indicates that information cannot flow in that
direction. For example: A 
B means information cannot flow from A to B.
Path question are easy to identify; typically they involve the actual movement of an element or of information. Some examples are