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Topic Note: Ability to Identify Trends/ Relationships

Please note that each topic note contains some questions which some children could find
relatively difficult. However, we have preferred to keep them in the topic note to give the student
and parent an idea about various different type of questions. These relatively difficult questions
have been highlighted in red font.

SEQUENCING
These questions typically consist of a series of numbers, alphabets or symbols or a combination of
either of these, which are typically connected by way of a rule or pattern. The key to solving these
questions is to identify the trend or pattern and accordingly either find out the next term in the pattern
or a missing term in the pattern or identify a wrong term in the pattern.

The following explains the broad categories of patterns which one can find:

IMAGE BASED PATTERNS:

These questions consist of images or symbols – two or more which follow a particular pattern. The
pattern either consists of repeating images or the images are linked by a common rule. The key here is
to identify the repeating pattern or the rule which connects them. These questions could be broadly
classified into three categories:
 Repeating pattern – In this case, the images / symbols form a pattern which repeats itself
 Rule based pattern – In these questions, the images are linked by way of a common rule.
Some examples of such rules could be
o Movement of the shape or part of the shape in clockwise or anticlockwise direction

o A part getting added and subtracted in the shape

o Abstract Pattern – these are also rule based patterns, but the patterns are not so obvious
as movement in clock-wise / anti clock-wise direction or addition / subtraction in the
shape, but instead follow a slightly abstract rule like increasing number of sides of the
object or colours appears in the order in which they appear in the rainbow, etc.

SOLVED EXAMPLES

1) Identify the next term in the sequence:

?

Solution: Clearly as shown above the pattern is repeating itself. Thus in the above

question, after circle, the next term would be a square again and hence the answer is

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The above example is a very simple form of a symbolic sequencing problem. The type of
problems could vary significantly ranging from slightly longer pattern to more abstract
concepts being implemented. Few of such examples are given below:

2) Identify the next term in the sequence:

Solution: The above question can be broken down to a pattern which repeats itself as follows:

A B C

Clearly as shown above the pattern is repeating itself.

Block C should follow the same layout as Block AA or Block B and so after the square,
B we

should have a circle. So the next term in the sequence is

A B
If a child is facing difficulty in identifying such patterns, one best way is to make him do it
from basics. Get him to choose an alphabet for each shape, say A for and B for . Now
rewrite the pattern in alphabets, it can be written as ABAABABAABAB? Now let’s choose
first two terms in this pattern – AB. Check if they are getting repeated. The next two terms
after AB is AA. So clearly AB is not the repeating pattern. Now let’s take three alphabets –
ABA and check if they are repeating. The three alphabets after ABA are also ABA. But after
that is BAA. So ABA is not the repeating pattern. Continue this way till you find the repeating
pattern.
This is one of the easiest way for a child to find the repeating pattern. This is exactly how
our brain thinks and identifies the pattern, but just that it works so fast that we do not realize
each of these steps.

A more complicated question could be where the symbols are not getting repeated but following a
certain pattern:

3) Find the next term in the sequence:

Solution: In this question, though no pattern is being repeated, like in the questions above, all
the symbols / shapes seem to be following a certain rule: “Every shape in the sequence has

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one more side than the previous shape”. So the next shape in the sequence should be a

heptagon (one which has seven sides)

4) Find the next term in the sequence:

Solution: In this question also, though no pattern is being repeated, all the symbols / shapes
seem to be following a certain rule: “The arrow inside the square is at 45degrees in the
clockwise direction compared to the arrow in the previous square” So the next shape in the
sequence should have an arrow pointing at 45 degrees clockwise from south west direction. So

the next square should have an arrow pointing in west direction

5) Which colour will come in place of question mark in the last circle?

?
Solution: This is a more difficult kind of abstract question. There is no set approach to solve
such abstract questions. One needs to identify a way by which the shapes / symbols are related.
For instance in the given question, the colour in the circles are following the sequence of
rainbow colours: Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange. So the next circle should have
the Red colour to complete the sequence of rainbow colours.

NUMERICAL SERIES:
These consist of various numbers which are connected by certain rule. The numbers could be arranged
in ascending or descending order or could follow some other rule. Some examples of these patterns
could be:
1) Numbers in an ascending or descending order having a constant difference between them. For
example:
a. 2,5,8,11,14 – first term is 2 and constant difference between two consecutive terms is 3

ALPHABETICAL SERIES:

These questions comprise of various letters which are arranged in alphabetical or non-alphabetical
letter and follow a certain rule. Some examples are given below:

1) Alphabets in an alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order where the difference between every
two consecutive terms follows a pattern. Some examples are given below:

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a. A, C, E, G, I – first term is A and then the alphabets appear in an alphabetical order but
skip each alternate alphabet
b. S, R, Q, P – first term is S and alphabets are following reverse alphabetical order. The next
term will be O.
c. QPO, NML, KJI, ___, EDC - Each term of the series consists of letters in a reverse
alphabetical order. Thus the missing term is HGF
2) Alphabets arranged in a particular pattern with some letters missing in the pattern:
a. a b c a b c a b c _ b _: Alphabets are following the pattern a b c which is getting repeated
and hence the missing alphabets are a and c
b. a a b b a a b b _ a b _ : Here a a b b is getting repeated. Hence the missing letters are a and
b so that they complete the sequence a a b b

3) Alphabets related by some abstract rule. Some examples are given below:
a. Find the missing term in A, E, I, _ , U – the alphabets given here are vowels arranged in
alphabetical order. So the missing alphabet is O
b. Find the missing term in U, O, I, _ , A – the alphabets given here are vowels arranged in
reverse alphabetical order. So the missing alphabet is E

ALPHABETICAL + NUMERICAL SERIES

Sometimes the question involves both numerical and alphabetical term. Such questions can broadly be
of two types:

 Given sequence comprises two series, where one series involves alphabets and second series
involves numbers
Eg: 1A, 3B, 5C, 7D, .. – this involves two series 1,3,5,7 and A, B, C, D…
 The numbers are related to the alphabets. Some examples of such relationship could be:
o Number represents the position of the alphabet in the English alphabet e.g. A is 1, B is
2 and so on e.g.: A1, E5, I9, and so on – here the series moves as the vowel and the
number represents the position of the letter in the English alphabet.
o Number represents reverse position of the alphabet / position considering Z as 1 e.g. A
is 26, B is 25.
o Number represents the number of letters in a given word; e.g. BAT = 3, IF = 2, AND =
3, and so on.

Whenever a student gets a question involving numbers and alphabets, most questions
will involve one of the following relationship – for a grade 1 student. As they move to
higher classes, more complex relationships will be introduced.
o The number could represent the position of the alphabet in English alphabet
o The number could represent the number of letters in the word
o The number could also represent the number of vowels or consonants in a given word

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ALPHABETICAL + ALPHABETICAL SERIES

Sometimes the question involves relation between two different alphabetical terms. Some of these type
of questions are as follows:

 The right side alphabets represent the same word as left side, but the letter are re-arranged in a
particular order. Some Examples are given below:
o If BAD = DAB, then BAT = ?; Here the word on the right side “DAB” is the reverse
order of BAD. So in a similar way, BAT will become TAB
o If CAT = ACT and LEG=ELG, then YET = ?; Here the words on the right side “ACT”
and “ELG” are rearranged from of words on the left side “CAT” and “LEG”. The
rearrangement is done in such a way that the middle letter becomes first, the first letter
becomes second and the third letter stays at its position. In the same way, YET will
become YET.
In such kind of questions, it is important for the child to figure out the order in which
the words are rearranged. For Grade 1 kids, we will restrict, such words to simple 3
or 4 letter words. Even if they cannot read it, its fine. It is more important to
understand how the letters have been re-arranged.
 The right side alphabets and left side alphabets are related by some relationship, though not re-
arranged. Some examples are given below:
o If BAD = A, and EAR = EA then BUG = ?; Here the letter(s) on the right side
represent(s) the vowel(s) given in the word. So in a similar way, BUG will become U.

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PRACTICE QUESTIONS:

(Note for the parent: Some of the questions below may be very difficult, which are provided here for
practice at home, where the student can avail parent guidance. The idea is to help student challenge
their thinking – Generally as explained above, questions marked in red are tougher ones and could
require parent assistance)

Directions for Questions 1 to 14: Find the next term in the series:

1)

2)

3)

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4)

5)

6)

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7)

8)

9)

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10)

11)

12)

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13)

14)

15) Find the next term in the series: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, ?

A. 7 B. 10
C. 12 D. 13

16) Find the next term in the series: P, O, N, M, L,?

A. K B. Q
C. R D. J

17) Find the next term in the series: A, D, G, J, ?

A. K B. L
C. M D. J

18) Find the next term in the series: 2A, 4D, 6G, 8J, ?
A. 12M B. 12L
C. 10M D. 10J

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19) Find the next term in the series: 53, 53, 40, 40, 27, 27, ?
A. 53 B. 14
C. 24 D. 27

20) Find the next term in the series: 1Z, 2X, 3V, ___

A. 4W B. 5W
C. 4Y D. 4T

21) Find the missing term in the series: ABC, DEF, GHI, ____,MNO
A. JKL B. VKL
C. WIJ D. TKL

22) Find the missing term in the series: A1B2C3D4E5__G7H8

A. F6 B. F9
C. 6F D. E6

23) Identify the odd one out:

A. FOREST6 B. TREE4
C. NATION5 D. FOLLOW6

24) Find the next 5 terms in the series: 122333444455555666?

A. 66677 B. 77777
C. 67777 D. 66777

25) Find the next term in the series: 5671234 6712345 7123456 ?
A. 5671234 B. 4567123
C. 3456712 D. 1234567

26) If BALL = LLAB, BLOW = OWLB, then GOAT= ?

A. TAOG B. GOAT
C. ATGO D. ATOG

27) If BALL = ALL, BLOW = LOW, then GOAT= ?

A. TAOG B. ATO
C. ATGO D. OAT

28) If EYE = 3, NOSE = 4, OR = 2, then EARS=?

A. 1 B. 2
C. 3 D. 4

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29) If EYE = Y, NOSE = NS, FOR = FR, then EAR=?

A. EA B. E
C. A D. R

30) If A = 2, B = 3, C = 4, then E = ?
A. 5 B. 6
C. 7 D. 8

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ANSWERS

1) D
2) B
3) C
4) B
5) D
6) A
7) A
8) D
9) B
10) A
11) C
12) C
13) A
14) A
15) B
16) A
17) C
18) C
19) B
20) D
21) A
22) A
23) C
24) A
25) D
26) D
27) D
28) D
29) D
30) B

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