What does a child have to do to find a sequence term in the 11+?

Use a stated or inferred linear rule to find a named term. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the number strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

What is the trap in an 11+ find a sequence term question?

Term 10 sits 9 steps along, not 10 steps along. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.

What can I say if my child is stuck on find a sequence term?

Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Count how many steps separate term 1 from term 10, and note that it is one fewer than 10.

What is not part of find a sequence term in the 11+?

The skill map draws the line here: One linear sequence only. A question past that line is testing a different named maths skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.

Which other 11+ skills should we practise alongside find a sequence term?

The number strand holds 13 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to find a sequence term are multiply whole numbers or decimals, read place value and round to a stated place. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.

How can my child practise find a sequence term for free?

Use Frog Sequence Hop, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to find a sequence term, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Maths · Number

Find a sequence term

Use a stated or inferred linear rule to find a named term.

Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.

Practise it now

The frog can only land on a stone that carries on the pattern. Tap the lily pads to fill both blank stones.

This exercise practises find a sequence term alongside its own main skill, Number Sequences.

Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.

A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

Jumping to a term further down a sequence

Omar writes down the first 4 terms of a number sequence. What is term 10?

The Position column numbers the terms; the Value column holds them.

Position	Value
Term 1	10
Term 2	17
Term 3	24
Term 4	31

70
80
73
66

Answer: 73

How you get there

Term 1 is 10 and each step adds 7, and there are 9 steps from term 1 to term 10, so the value is $10 + 9$ x 7, which equals 73.

Why the other answers tempt

Term 10 sits 9 steps along, not 10 steps along.

If they are stuck, say this

Count how many steps separate term 1 from term 10, and note that it is one fewer than 10.

Now do it live in Frog Sequence Hop

What this exercise is doing

Frog Sequence Hop

The frog can only land on a stone that carries on the pattern. Tap the lily pads to fill both blank stones.

This engine’s own main skill is Number Sequences. It practises find a sequence term alongside it.

The trap here is to spot the first gap and assume every gap is the same. From 3 to 6 the gap is 3, but from 6 to 12 the gap is 6, and from 12 to 24 it is 12. When the gaps themselves keep growing, stop adding and start looking for a multiplier: 3 times 2 is 6, 6 times 2 is 12, 12 times 2 is 24, so the sequence doubles and the next terms are 48 and 96. The general strategy for any sequence is to write the differences underneath first. Equal differences mean add the same number every time. Growing differences mean try multiplying, and if that fails try squares or a two-step rule such as double then add one.

What to say if they get stuck

Work out what happens between each pair of stones. Write the jumps down: 3 to 6, 6 to 12, 12 to 24.
The jumps are 3, then 6, then 12. They are not the same size, so this is not an adding sequence.
Each stone is the one before it multiplied by 2. So the next stone is 24 times 2.

Open Frog Sequence Hop on its own page to share it

How find a sequence term differs from the skills beside it

The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: use a stated or inferred linear rule to find a named term, and it stops where one linear sequence only.

Continue a number sequence
Infer and apply one arithmetic sequence rule. Excludes alternating rules and algebraic nth terms.
Continue a letter or number sequence
Infer and apply one or two repeating symbolic rules. Record rule count and alternation separately.

Related maths skills

All maths 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about find a sequence term

Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.

: Use a stated or inferred linear rule to find a named term. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the number strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
: Term 10 sits 9 steps along, not 10 steps along. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
: Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Count how many steps separate term 1 from term 10, and note that it is one fewer than 10.
: The skill map draws the line here: One linear sequence only. A question past that line is testing a different named maths skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
: The number strand holds 13 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to find a sequence term are multiply whole numbers or decimals, read place value and round to a stated place. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
: Use Frog Sequence Hop, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to find a sequence term, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Knowing which maths topic to practise is most of the work

A free diagnostic covers arithmetic, fractions, geometry, measure and data handling, and comes back with the topics to spend the next few weeks on.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic