Four athletes, Wen-Wen, Mikaila, Brian, and Jamal, won gold medals in the Olympics. If Mikaila won 2 more than Brian did, Jamal won 6 less than Wen-Wen did, and Wen-Wen won 2 more than Mikaila did, how many more gold medals did Brian win than Jamal did?
Choose the correct choice from the following answers
A) 4 B) 6 C) 2 D) 1 E) 12
In this word problem, the first key is to turn the story into equations:   Mikaila won 2 more than Brian did: M = 2 + B   Jamal won 6 less than Wen-Wen did: J = W - 6   Wen-Wen won 2 more than Mikaila did: W = 2 + M   Then, in classic GMAT style, the problem doesn't ask you to solve for a single variable, but instead to solve for the difference between B and J (how many more gold medals did Brian win than Jamal did?). This means that your goal is to get the equations in terms of B and J so that you can solve for the expression B - J.   Taking the first equation and solving for B, you have B = M - 2.   Taking the second equation and solving for J you have J = W - 6, and then with the third equation you can replace W with 2 + M so that both B and J are in terms of M: J = (2 + M) - 6.   So if B = M - 2 and J = M - 4, then:   B - J = (M - 2) - (M - 4)   B - J = M - 2 - M + 4 (remove the parentheses by distributing the multiplication)   B - J = 2, so the answer is 2.
<result>C</result>
Four athletes, Wen-Wen, Mikaila, Brian, and Jamal, won gold medals in the Olympics. If Mikaila won 2 more than Brian did, Jamal won 6 less than Wen-Wen did, and Wen-Wen won 2 more than Mikaila did, how many more gold medals did Brian win than Jamal did?