series questions in reasoning -- Solving the Series Conundrum

Logical sequences are type of questions which has intrigued test-givers since long. We are providing with some sure short rules to decode the number series, mastering these will help you to crack any series questions in your exams, In case you have any other trick please write as a comment  and we will update this post then.

Trick 1:-

Solve for at least 4 terms first before you are sure of the involved pattern.Looking for the first 3 terms may help at time but we suggest you to conclude the pattern after looking for first 4 terms as this becomes sure shot then.

Trick 2:-

Consider the odd even pairs. Observe the pattern in numbers on odd places and on even places. At times a series is a pattern involving addition or subtraction on numbers at alternative places. See Example 2 and Example 3 for better clarity.

Trick 3:-

For a series involving terms in increasing order with a small difference some addition is involved wherin the current term is added to a certain number.



Example 1 :- 32 49  66 83 100 ?

*** Common difference is 17 so the last number should be 117.***

Example 2 :- 17 2 23 8 29 14 ? ?

*** the numbers at odd places : 17 23 29 have common difference of 6 so next number should be 35, Similarly numbers at even places ie 2 8 and 14 have a common difference of 6 so next  number oughts to be 20. ***

Example 3 :- 12 24 19 23 26 22 ? ?

*** the numbers at odd places : 12 19 26 have common difference of 7 so next number should be 33, Similarly numbers at even places ie 24 23 22 have a common difference of -1  so next  number oughts to be 21. so the series becomes
12 24 19 23 26 22 33 21 ***

Trick 4:-

Remember squares as the series could be straightforward squares

Example 4 :- 121 144 163 196 225 ?

Similarly the examiner may give a series of cubes

Example 5 :- 125 216 343 512 729 ?

Trick 5:-

Try multiplying number with a constant to find next term.

Example 6 :-  7.5 15 30 60 120 ?

*** Multiply the nth term with 2 and get (n+1)th term ***

Example 7 :- 1.3, 9. 1.69, 3, 2.19, 1.5, 2.87 ?

*** the numbers at odd places are multiplied by 1.3 and  numbers at even places are divided by 2 so the next number becomes .75 ***

Trick 6:-

Learn the EJOTY trick. This is very helpful in solving questions involving alphabets. With the help of this tricl  you can easily find the position of any letter without much effort.

Alphabets :-  E   J    O   T    Y

Positions :-  5   10   15   20  25

Now use these tricks and solve the questions here .