Bunuel
Old McDonald evenly divided his goats between his two children, Lilly and Hawk. Careless Lilly lost 35 goats, and reckless Hawk lost 40 of his goats. Both Lilly and Hawk sold their herds. Lilly sold each goat for $80 while Hawk sold each of his goats for $60. If Lilly got $1,100 more than Hawk for her herd, how many goats did McDonald have?
(A) 150
(B) 156
(C) 248
(D) 260
(E) 320
If your instinct is to set up algebra, PITA (Plugging In The Answers) is often easier, faster, and less likely to lead to a careless mistake.
I usually start with whichever answer choice from among B, C, and D looks like the easiest to work with. None looks amazing in this case, so I'll just go with the smallest.
(B) If McDonald had 156 goats, he gave 78 to Lilly and 78 to Hawk. Lilly lost 35, so ended up with 43. Hawk lost 40, so ended up with 38. Lilly sold those 43 for $80 each, so ended up with $3440. Hawk sold those 38 for $60 each, so ended up with $2280. That's a difference of $1160. Is that $1100? Nope. B is wrong.
Can you tell whether you need a number that is smaller or larger? If you can tell that you need something smaller, you're only left with (A) and you're done. If you're not confident in that, notice that 1160 is really close to 1100. We need an answer choice that's really close to 156. (A) is the only option. We probably don't even need to test it, but if want to test it just to be sure, go for it!
(A) If McDonald had 150 goats, he gave 75 to Lilly and 75 to Hawk. Lilly lost 35, so ended up with 40. Hawk lost 40, so ended up with 35. Lilly sold those 40 for $80 each, so ended up with $3200. Hawk sold those 35 for $60 each, so ended up with $2100. That's a difference $1100.
Answer choice A.
ThatDudeKnowsPITA