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# If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

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If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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29 Sep 2013, 19:57
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If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term
2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term
[Reveal] Spoiler: OA
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If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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29 Sep 2013, 23:41
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If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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03 Jan 2015, 06:41
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Hi Bunuel and all,

I know OA says E, I don't think I'm wrong either unless my understanding is...

thus consider/ please correct my understanding for this sentence. Because it seems to me that with arithmetic progression -consecutive progression and the term made known, then only can the answer be found.

My answer was C, because we know that is an arithmetic progression and the first and 239th term is 952. Therefore 1st, 2nd,....239th term => 952/238 = 4. Therefore 1st to 240th term is 1st term + the arithmetic progression difference = 4 + 956 = 960.

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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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05 Jan 2015, 04:03
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killgmatagain wrote:
Hi Bunuel and all,

I know OA says E, I don't think I'm wrong either unless my understanding is...

thus consider/ please correct my understanding for this sentence. Because it seems to me that with arithmetic progression -consecutive progression and the term made known, then only can the answer be found.

My answer was C, because we know that is an arithmetic progression and the first and 239th term is 952. Therefore 1st, 2nd,....239th term => 952/238 = 4. Therefore 1st to 240th term is 1st term + the arithmetic progression difference = 4 + 956 = 960.

GKA

(2) says that the difference between 239th term and the first term is 952. This is true for ANY evenly spaced set with the common difference of 4.
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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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11 Oct 2015, 07:38
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Bunuel wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

To get this right:

(1) Statement 1 says: $$A_N = A_{N-1}-4$$. The question asks for $$A_{239}=?$$. So all we needed to solve was one of the real values values such as $$A_{50}$$ or any other?

Can you confirm this Bunuel?
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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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11 Oct 2015, 07:43
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reto wrote:
Bunuel wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

To get this right:

(1) Statement 1 says: $$A_N = A_{N-1}-4$$. The question asks for $$A_{239}=?$$. So all we needed to solve was one of the real values values such as $$A_{50}$$ or any other?

Can you confirm this Bunuel?

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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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29 Oct 2015, 07:30
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Bunuel wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

Need your help in correcting my understanding.

1. Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term
2. The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term

If first term = a, second term = a-4, so common difference = -4 (from 1).
tn = a + (n-1)d so we can write: a-952 = a + (239-1)d
1+2
a-952 = a + (239-1) (-4),we will find a and then we can find 239th term. Please help me understand where exactly I am unable to interpret the statements correctly.
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If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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11 Jan 2016, 13:27
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gauraku wrote:
Bunuel wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

Need your help in correcting my understanding.

1. Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term
2. The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term

If first term = a, second term = a-4, so common difference = -4 (from 1).
tn = a + (n-1)d so we can write: a-952 = a + (239-1)d
1+2
a-952 = a + (239-1) (-4),we will find a and then we can find 239th term. Please help me understand where exactly I am unable to interpret the statements correctly.

Hi Gauraku- I had a similar idea at first but I believe you're overcomplicating. One of the key ideas I always try to keep in mind is: how is the GMAT trying to trick me? What does it want me to believe? In this case, the GMAT wants you to think exactly as you have. However, when you simplify your equation, a = 0. While this could be a value of the first term, the first term could also equal 1000 and the 239th term equal 8 OR the first term could equal 10000 and 239th term equal 9,048. All three of these pairs follow the rule of being 4 less than the preceding term.

The main idea is that when we divide 952 by 4, we get 238, meaning that the 238th term is -4*238 less than the 1st- this does not give any new information since we already know all terms are spaced 4 apart from statement 1.
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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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11 Jun 2017, 07:04
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teeva wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term
2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term

IMPORTANT: Statement 2 can be directly inferred from statement 1.
That is, if each term is 4 less than the previous term (e.g., 19, 15, 11, etc) then we can conclude that term2 will be 4 less than term1.
We can also conclude that term3 will be 8 less than term1, and:
term4 will be 12 less than term1.
term5 will be 16 less than term1.
.
.
.
term239 will be 952 less than term1 (same as statement 2).

So, as you can see, statement 2 DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY EXTRA INFORMATION beyond the information that statement 1 provided.

So, if statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT (which is clearly the case), then statement 2 cannot be NOT SUFFICIENT.
More importantly, the statements combined are NOT SUFFICIENT.

[Reveal] Spoiler:
E

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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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12 Sep 2017, 12:46
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term
2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term

When solving such type of questions always think what is required to get the value of 239 Term

If we know how the series is formed, or if we are given the certain relationship between terms, or are the terms of the seq repetitive or is some kind of pattern in these terms.

So stmt 1 : Gives us how the seq is formed.

It says ( Xn)= (Xn-1) -4. This means the seq is an AP.

So 239 term will be X239= (Xn-1)+ (239-1) (-4)
so we are given X 239= X(n-1)-952.
So we need to find the value of Xn-1 to get the value of X239

Stmt 2: This is what has been derived from STMT 1

So We cannot find the value if required term till we have at least value of Xn-1 or any other term of the seq.
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If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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22 Dec 2017, 19:58
Bunuel wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

Hi Bunuel,

The common difference would be -4 in this Question, right?
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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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23 Dec 2017, 01:07
SidJainGMAT wrote:
Bunuel wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

Hi Bunuel,

The common difference would be -4 in this Question, right?

_______________________________
Yes.
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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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23 Dec 2017, 01:26
Bunuel wrote:
SidJainGMAT wrote:
Bunuel wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

Hi Bunuel,

The common difference would be -4 in this Question, right?

_______________________________
Yes.

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Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S? [#permalink]

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14 Mar 2018, 14:43
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gauraku wrote:
Bunuel wrote:
If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?

(1) Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term. We have an evenly spaced set (arithmetic progression) but we need to know any term to answer the question. Not sufficient.

(2) The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term. Clearly insufficient.

(1)+(2) The second statement can be derived from the first, so we have no new info. Basically we only know that the sequence is an arithmetic progression with common difference of 4. Not sufficient.

Need your help in correcting my understanding.

1. Each term of S after the first term is 4 less than the preceding term
2. The 239th term of S is 952 less than the first term

If first term = a, second term = a-4, so common difference = -4 (from 1).
tn = a + (n-1)d so we can write: a-952 = a + (239-1)d
1+2
a-952 = a + (239-1) (-4),we will find a and then we can find 239th term. Please help me understand where exactly I am unable to interpret the statements correctly.

I got in the same predicament as you and then noted what is happening here:-
If you look your equation -> a-952 = a + (239-1)d , the 'a's cancel out on both sides leaving you with -952 = (239-1)d .
This will give you a value of 'd' , which we already have.
So we are back to (1). We have not got any new information, eg. Value of a.
Re: If sequences S has 240 terms, what is the 239th term of S?   [#permalink] 14 Mar 2018, 14:43
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