Progressions I

Progressions is one of the most important topics for CAT and other management entrance exams, questions
from which have appeared consistently in all these exams.

Key concepts discussed:

Arithmetic Progression (AP):

o

A progression in which the difference between any two successive terms is constant. The first
term is denoted by a and the common difference by d.

The nth term (an ) = a + (n 1)d

The sum of first n terms (sn ) =

o
o
o

n
n
(a + an ) = [2a + (n 1)d]
2
2
Three consecutive terms of an AP should be taken as a d, a, a + d.
Four consecutive terms of an AP should be taken as a 3d, a d, a + d, a + 3d.
Five consecutive terms of an AP should be taken as a 2d, a d, a, a + d, a + 2d.

Arithmetic mean (AM) =

=
o

Sum of all the terms

Number of terms

T1 + T 2 + T 3 + + T n
T + Tn 2
T + Tn
T + Tn 1
= 1
= 2
= 3
=
n
2
2
2
a+c
.
2

If a, b and c are in AP, then b =

Geometric Progression(GP):
o

A progression in which the ratio of any two successive terms is constant. The common ratio is
denoted by r.

The nth term (an ) = ar n 1

The sum of first n terms (sn ) =

The sum of infinite terms (s ) =

Three consecutive terms of a GP should be taken as

Four consecutive terms of a GP should be taken as

Session

a(r n 1)
a(1 r n )
, if r > 1; sn =
, if r < 1
r 1
1 r

a
, if r < 1
1 r
a
, a, ar .
r

a a
, , ar, ar 3 .
r3 r

Algebra

o
o

a a
, , a, ar, ar 2 .
r2 r
Geometric mean (GM) of n terms of a GP is the nth root of the product of the terms
Five consecutive terms of a GP should be taken as

o
o

a1a2a3 a 4 an = a1an = a2an 1 = a3 an 2 =

If a, b and c are in GP, then b2 = ac.

If a, b > 0, then AM GM .

Special series:

n n+1
( n) = ( 2 )

The sum of first n natural numbers

The sum of the squares of first n natural numbers

n (n + 1)
The sum of the cubes of first n natural numbers n =

The sum of first n terms of a sequence whose nth term is ( Tn ) =

n n + 1 2n + 1
( n ) = ( )(6 )
2

Tn

Highlight: This session deals with questions which are based on elementary concepts of Arithmetic
Progressions. Questions in the session are of moderate difficulty level.

Algebra

Session

The questions discussed in the session are given below along with their source.
Q1.

Fourth term of an arithmetic progression is 8. What is the sum of the first 7 terms of the arithmetic
progression?
(a) 7
(b) 64
(c) 56
(d) Cannot be determined
(CAT 1994)

Q2.

N the set of natural numbers is partitioned into subsets S1 = (1), S2 = (2, 3), S3 ={4, 5, 6),
S4 = {7, 8, 9, 10} and so on. The sum of the elements of the subset S50 is
(a) 61250
(b) 65525
(c) 42455
(d) 62525
(CAT 1990)

Q3.

Let T be the set of integers {3, 11, 19, 27, , 451, 459, 467} and S be a subset of T such that the
sum of no two elements of S is 470. The maximum possible number of elements in S is
(a) 32
(b) 28
(c) 29
(d) 30
(CAT 2003(L))

Q4.

If the sum of the first 11 terms of an arithmetic progression equals that of the first 19 terms, then
what is the sum of the first 30 terms?
(a) 0
(b) 1
(c) 1
(d) Not unique
(CAT 2004)

Q5.

Consider the set S = {2, 3, 4, , 2n + 1}, where n is a positive integer larger than 2007. Define
X as the average of the odd integers in S and Y as the average of the even integers in S. What is the
value of X Y?
(a) 0

(b) 1

(c)

1
n
2

(d)

n +1
2n

(e) 2008
(CAT 2007)

Session

Algebra