CAT Series and Progression Formulas, Preparation Tips, Know Types and Differences

By Anjali Chowdhury|Updated : April 7th, 2022

Series and Progression questions for CAT appear mainly in the Quantitative Aptitude (QA)section. In CAT 2021, 22 questions were asked from this section.

Progression and Series are two closely related topics and candidates must understand the difference between these two. A progression is a number of things in a series, whereas a series is a set or sequence. One of the most common examples of Progression and Series is an arithmetic progression.

So, the candidates who will appear for the CAT 2022 exam must note that the Progression and Series section is entirely based on some formulas.

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Table of Content

1. Types of Progression
2. Types of Series
3. Important Sequence and Series Formulas
4. Preparation Tips for CAT Progression and Series section

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Types of Progression

The candidates may find the following three types of progression

Arithmetic Progression: Arithmetic Sequences are any series in which the difference between each consecutive term is constant.
Harmonic Progression: If the reciprocals of all the terms in a sequence form an arithmetic sequence, it is said to be in a harmonic sequence.
Geometric Progression: Geometric Progression is a sequence in which each succeeding term has a fixed ratio between them.

Types of Series

There are the following types of series, and the candidates may find these while solving CAT sequences and series sheets.

Arithmetic series: It is the total values of a sequence
Arithmetic mean: The arithmetic mean is the result of adding two numbers together
Geometric series: It is the total of all the elements in geometric sequences, i.e., if the ratio between each term and the term before it, is always constant, the series is said to be geometric.
Geometric mean: The average of two numbers is known as the geometric mean.
Harmonic mean: The reciprocal of the arithmetic mean is the harmonic mean.

Important Sequence and Series Formulas

Here is the list of some basic but important Series and Progression formulas :

Preparation Tips for CAT Progression and Series section

After understanding Progression and Series formulas, the candidates must follow the following tips to ace this section in CAT 2022 exam.

They must set a time for every section of progression and sequence.
Daily revision of the formulas is recommended.
They should solve previous years’ CAT question papers to clarify the concept of the CAT progression and sequence.
They can attend BYJU’s Exam Prep online CAT classes and doubt clearing sessions for clarification.
They can also solve BYJU’s Exam Prep mock test to get an experience of real exams and learn proper time management for each section of progression and sequence.