Jim went to the bakery to buy donuts for his office mates. H

[alanforde800Maximus]

Jim went to the bakery to buy donuts for his office mates. He chose a quantity of similar donuts, for which he was charged a total of $15. As the donuts were being boxed, Jim noticed that a few of them were slightly ragged-looking so he complained to the clerk. The clerk immediately apologized and then gave Jim 3 extra donuts for free to make up for the damaged goods. As Jim left the shop, he realized that due to the addition of the 3 free donuts, the effective price of the donuts was reduced by $2 per dozen. How many donuts did Jim receive in the end?

(A) 18
(B) 21
(C) 24
(D) 28
(E) 33

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Hi alanforde800Maximus,

We're told that Jim bought a quantity of similar donuts, for which he was charged a total of $15. As the donuts were being boxed, Jim noticed that a few of them were slightly ragged-looking so he complained to the clerk, who apologized and then gave Jim 3 EXTRA donuts for free to make up for the damaged goods. As Jim left the shop, he realized that due to the addition of the 3 free donuts, the effective price of the donuts was reduced by $2 per dozen. We're asked for the total number of donuts Jim received in the end. This question can be solved Algebraically or by TESTing THE ANSWERS.

We know that a certain number of donuts were bought for $15, which would give us a certain price/dozen. After getting another 3 donuts for free, the price/dozen for all the donuts drops $2 EXACTLY. The fact that the difference is an integer is interesting - this makes me think that the original number of donuts (X) and the larger number of donuts (X+3) both "relate" nicely to the number 12. $2 is also relatively small compared to $15, so the correct answer will probably be one of the smaller answers.

Let's TEST Answer A first...

Answer A: 18 total donuts
Final number of donuts = 18 (this is a nice number - it's exactly 1.5 dozen donuts)
Initial number of donuts = 15 (this is also relatively nice - it's exactly 1.25 dozen donuts)

18 donuts for $15 = 1.5 dozen for $15 = $10 per dozen
15 donuts for $15 = 1 donut for $1 = $12 per dozen

The difference here is $2, which is a MATCH for what we were told.

Final Answer: A

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich