Number properties

[Aman verma]

Q : At his birthday party Ethan invited his 100 friends and they took their seats numbered as 1,2,3,4......100.Starting from seat number 1 every third guest was served cookies,every fourth guest was served with pastries,and every fifth guest was served with blueberry tarts and the remaining guests were served with COCA-COLA only.How many guests enjoyed COCA-COLA in the party ?

a) 33

b) 13

c) 41

d) 51

e) 60

Now the answer is given as [spoiler]a) 33 [/spoiler] but according to my calculation it should be 40which is not given in the options.Also no explanation is provided for the above answer.Now can anybody provide an explanation how the answer can be 33.

[ajith]

Q : At his birthday party Ethan invited his 100 friends and they took their seats numbered as 1,2,3,4......100.Starting from seat number 1 every third guest was served cookies,every fourth guest was served with pastries,and every fifth guest was served with blueberry tarts and the remaining guests were served with COCA-COLA only.How many guests enjoyed COCA-COLA in the party ?

a) 33

b) 13

c) 41

d) 51

e) 60

Now the answer is given as [spoiler]a) 33 [/spoiler] but according to my calculation it should be 40which is not given in the options.Also no explanation is provided for the above answer.Now can anybody provide an explanation how the answer can be 33.

33 Guests were served cookies
25 guests were served pastries
20 guests were served tarts

8 were served cookies and pastries
6 were served tarts and cookies
5 were served tarts and pastries

1 was served all of them

Total no of people served = 33+25+20-8-6-5+1 =60

No of people not served = 100-60 =40, I am with you

[Aman verma]

Thanks Ajith for the reply. Now the source of all my questions is from a GMAT coaching center ( I am not allowed to take it's name or post it's question on the Net ; Patent & Copyright regulations) This question will not be discussed any further at that center hence I need an explanation.How could that possibly be 33 ?

[vscid]

Thanks Ajith for the reply. Now the source of all my questions is from a GMAT coaching center ( I cannot take it's name or post it's question on the Net ; Patent & Copyright regulations) This question will not be discussed any further at that center hence I need an explanation.How could that possibly be 33 ?

Hey Aman, if OG can go wrong sometimes, so can any coaching center!!

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

Thanks Ajith for the reply. Now the source of all my questions is from a GMAT coaching center ( I cannot take it's name or post it's question on the Net ; Patent & Copyright regulations) This question will not be discussed any further at that center hence I need an explanation.How could that possibly be 33 ?

We've discussed this mythical coaching centre before (and unless this centre is very shady, i.e. they steal real questions or infringe copyright themselves, I really don't understand why they wouldn't want publicity; also, from a purely legal point of view, there's nothing illegal about saying a company's name in public). Here's my unofficial opinion: it sucks, get your money back if you paid them anything, never use their materials or post their questions here again!

[Ian Stewart]

Thanks Ajith for the reply. Now the source of all my questions is from a GMAT coaching center ( I cannot take it's name or post it's question on the Net ; Patent & Copyright regulations) This question will not be discussed any further at that center hence I need an explanation.How could that possibly be 33 ?

What 'patent' or 'copyright' regulations could possibly prevent you from posting the name of a prep company on this forum? In fact, that's completely backwards: posting questions without attributing them to their source infringes on the rights of the author to be acknowledged as the originator of the material.

I thought it was a requirement on this forum (if seldom enforced) that people identify the sources of the questions they post -- it certainly ought to be a rule at least, so that forum visitors can judge in advance whether a thread will be worth reading.

[Aman verma]

Thanks Ajith for the reply. Now the source of all my questions is from a GMAT coaching center ( I cannot take it's name or post it's question on the Net ; Patent & Copyright regulations) This question will not be discussed any further at that center hence I need an explanation.How could that possibly be 33 ?

We've discussed this mythical coaching centre before (and unless this centre is very shady, i.e. they steal real questions or infringe copyright themselves, I really don't understand why they wouldn't want publicity; also, from a purely legal point of view, there's nothing illegal about saying a company's name in public). Here's my unofficial opinion: it sucks, get your money back if you paid them anything, never use their materials or post their questions here again!

Caplan coaching centre