Sequences (AQA GCSE Maths: Higher): Exam Questions

Here are the first 5 terms of an arithmetic sequence.

3     9   15   21   27

Find an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

Ben says that 150 is in the sequence.

Is Ben right?

You must explain your answer.

Here are the first four terms of an arithmetic sequence.

3   10   17   24

Find, in terms of , an expression for the th term of this arithmetic sequence.

Is 150 a term of this sequence?

You must explain how you get your answer.

Here are the first five terms of an arithmetic sequence.

2   6   10   14   18

Write down an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

Is 86 a term in the sequence?

You must give a reason for your answer.

Here are the first four terms of an arithmetic sequence.

11   17   23   29

Find, in terms of , an expression for the th term of this arithmetic sequence.

Is 121 a term of this arithmetic sequence?
You must explain your answer.

Here are the first four terms of an arithmetic sequence.

6   10   14   18

Write an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

The th term of a different arithmetic sequence is 

Is 108 a term of this sequence?

Show how you get your answer.

Here are the first five terms of an arithmetic sequence.

4   9   14   19   24

Find, in terms of , an expression for the th term of this sequence.

Here are the first five terms of a different sequence.

2      2      0      -4      -10

An expression for the th term of this sequence is 

Write down, in terms of , an expression for the th term of a sequence whose first five terms are  

4      4      0      -8      -20

Here are the first six terms of a Fibonacci sequence.

            1 1    2    3        5    8

The rule to continue a Fibonacci sequence is,

         the next term in the sequence is the sum of the two previous terms.

Find the 9th term of this sequence.

The first three terms of a different Fibonacci sequence are

Show that the th term of this sequence is 

Given that the 3rd term is 7 and the 6th term is 29,

find the value of and the value of .

Here are the first 5 terms of a quadratic sequence.

1   3   7   13   21

Find an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this quadratic sequence.

Find the th term of each of these sequences.

16,    19,    22,   25,   28,   ...

1,         3,      9,      27,      81,      ...

The first five terms of a sequence are 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, ..... Find

the 10th term,

the th term.

Here are the first six terms of a quadratic sequence.

-1   5   15   29   47   69

Find an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

Here are the first four terms of a sequence of fractions.

The numerators of the fractions form the sequence of whole numbers  The denominators of the fractions form the sequence of odd numbers 

Write down an expression, in terms of , for the  term of this sequence of fractions.

Here are the first five terms of a number sequence .

Find an expression, in terms of , for the  term of this sequence.

The  term of a sequence  is given by 

There are numbers that are terms in both the sequence  and the sequence 

Find one of these numbers.

Here are the first four terms of an arithmetic sequence.

Find an expression, in terms of , for the  term of this sequence.

Write down an expression, in terms of , for the  term of this sequence.

Here are the first five terms of a number sequence.

7    11    15    19    23

Find an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

The th term of a different number sequence is given by 

Write down the first 3 terms of this sequence.

Yuen says there are no numbers that are in both of the sequences.

Yuen is correct.

Explain why.

A sunflower grows at a rate of 4 cm each day.

How many days does it take to grow from a height of 80 cm to more than 1.06 m?

If the sunflower grows at a faster rate, how would this affect your answer to part ()?

Here are the first four terms of a sequence.

Find the nth term of this sequence.

The th term of a sequence is .

Write down an expression, in terms of and , for the 3rd term.

The 3rd term of this sequence is 21 and the 6th term is 96.

Find the value of and the value of
You must show all your working.

Here are the first five terms of an arithmetic sequence.

2      5      8      11      14

Write down an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

Is 299 a term of this sequence?

You must give a reason for your answer.

Write down an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

Here are the first five terms of a sequence.

4   11   22   37   56

Find an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

The th term of a sequence is given by  where  and  are integers.

The 2nd term of the sequence is —2
The 4th term of the sequence is 12

Find the 6th term of the sequence.

Here are the first five terms of a different quadratic sequence.

0   2   6   12   20

Find an expression, in terms of , for the th term of this sequence.

Find the th term of each sequence.

4,   8,   12,   16,   20,   .........

11,   20,   35,   56,   83,   ..........

is a geometric sequence.

Given that , and   are the first three terms of , find the value of .
You must show all your working.

Show that the th term of is 

Louis and Robert are investigating the growth in the population of a type of bacteria.
They have two flasks A and B.

At the start of day 1, there are 1000 bacteria in flask A.
The population of bacteria grows exponentially at the rate of 50% per day.

Show that the population of bacteria in flask A at the start of each day forms a geometric progression.

The population of bacteria in flask A at the start of the 10th day is times the population of bacteria in flask A at the start of the 6th day.

Find the value of .

At the start of day 1 there are 1000 bacteria in flask B. The population of bacteria in flask B grows exponentially at the rate of 30% per day.

Sketch a graph to compare the size of the population of bacteria in flask A and in flask B.

The table shows the first five terms of sequences A, B and C.

Complete the table for the 6th term of each sequence.

Write down the th term of sequence A.

i) Find the th term of sequence B.

[1]

ii) Find the value of when the th term of sequence B is 8281.

[3]

i) Find the th term of sequence C in its simplest form.

[2]

ii) Find the 8th term of sequence C.

[1]

The th term of another sequence D is .

Complete the table for the first four terms of sequence D.

In all the following sequences, after the first two terms, the rule is to add the previous two terms to find the next term.

Write down the next two terms in this sequence.

1      1      2      3      5      8      13      ........      ........

Write down the first two terms of this sequence.

..........      ...........      3      11      14

i) Find the value of and the value of .

2                  10 

[3]

ii) Find the value of , the value of and the value of .

-33                        18

[5]

The first two terms of a quadratic sequence are 10 and 17

Here is some information about the sequence.

Work out an expression for the nth term of the sequence.

Theo starts with savings of £18
James starts with no savings.

Each week from now,

   Theo will save £4.50 and James will save £4

In how many weeks will Theo and James have savings in the ratio 15 : 8 ?

A sequence is defined using this term-to-term rule,

where and are constants.

Given that  ,  and , find the value of and the value of .

= ................

= .................

Here is a sequence.

Work out the next term.

Find the th term.

A sequence is defined by the rule 

If , calculate

i)

=............................[3]

ii)

=............................[3]