Questions

ADVANCED MATHEMATICS
Financial Maths (Adv), M1 Financial Modelling (Adv) 1. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2015 HSC 3 MC
Arithmetic Series (Y12) The first three terms of an arithmetic series are 3, 7 and 11.
Geometric Series (Y12) What is the 15th term of this series?
Teacher: Matt Singh (A)
Exam Equivalent Time: 178.5 minutes (based on allocation of 1.5 minutes per mark) (B)
(C)
(D)

2. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2023 HSC 11

The first three terms of an arithmetic sequence are 3, 7 and 11 .
Find the 15th term. (2 marks)

3. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2022 HSC 17

HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTION Cards are stacked to build a 'house of cards'. A house of cards with 3 rows is shown.

M1 Financial Modelling has contributed a substantial 12.2% to new syllabus Advanced exams since it A house of cards requires 3 cards in the top row, 6 cards in the next row, and each successive row has 3
was introduced in 2020. more cards than the previous row.

The topic is split into four sub-topics for the purposes of analysis: 1-Investments and Loans (2.3%), 2-
Arithmetic Series (3.3%), 3-Geometric Series (0.3%) and 4-Financial Applications of Series (6.3%).
This analysis looks at Geometric Series.

HSC ANALYSIS - What to expect and common pitfalls

Geometric Series has not yet appeared in a dedicated question in new syllabus exams to date (note that
its significant presence in "Financial Applications of Series" is not considered here but included in later
topic analysis).
Geometric Series did however appear in a cross topic question with Trapezoidal Rule in 2022 Q29a,
accounting for its single mark allocation in all new syllabus exams.
We expect this topic area to eat somewhat into the mark allocations currently going to Arithmetic Series a. Show that a house of cards with 12 rows has a total of 234 cards. (2 marks)
and revising it with a greater importance than its current 0.3% average contribution is recommended. b. Another house of cards has a total of 828 cards.
Numerous examples using the recursive definition of a geometric sequence are included to cover syllabus How many rows are in this house of cards? (3 marks)
changes and deserve revision attention.
Pitfalls: The summing of a series that incorporated both arithmetic and geometric elements in 2018 Adv
14d caused major problems and should be reviewed. 4. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2011 HSC 3a
Testing "sum to infinity" within the Geometric Series has been an examiner favourite, appearing more A skyscraper of 110 floors is to be built. The first floor to be built will cost $3 million. The cost of building
years than not in the last decade. The 2017 exam required a deep understanding of this concept and each subsequent floor will be $0.5 million more than the floor immediately below.
caused major difficulties.
i. What will be the cost of building the 25th floor? (2 marks)

ii. What will be the cost of building all 110 floors of the skyscraper? (2 marks)
5. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2020 HSC 12 13. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2012 HSC 12c
Calculate the sum of the arithmetic series . (3 marks) Jay is making a pattern using triangular tiles. The pattern has 3 tiles in the first row, 5 tiles in the second
row, and each successive row has 2 more tiles than the previous row.

6. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2021 HSC 14

The first term of an arithmetic sequence is 5. The sum of the first 43 terms is 2021.
What is the common difference of the sequence? (2 marks)

7. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2009 HSC 3a

An arithmetic series has 21 terms. The first term is 3 and the last term is 53.
i. How many tiles would Jay use in row 20? (2 marks)
Find the sum of the series. (2 marks)
ii. How many tiles would Jay use altogether to make the first 20 rows? (1 mark)

iii. Jay has only 200 tiles. How many complete rows of the pattern can Jay make? (2 marks)
8. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2005 HSC 3a

14. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2008 HSC 4b

Evaluate . (1 mark)

The zoom function in a software package multiplies the dimensions of an image by 1.2. In an image, the
height of a building is 50 mm. After the zoom function is applied once, the height of the building in the
image is 60 mm. After the second application, it is 72 mm.
9. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2006 HSC 3c
i. Calculate the height of the building in the image after the zoom function has been applied eight times.
On the first day of the harvest, an orchard produces 560 kg of fruit. On the next day, the orchard produces Give your answer to the nearest mm. (2 marks)
543 kg, and the amount produced continues to decrease by the same amount each day.
ii. The height of the building in the image is required to be more than 400 mm. Starting from the original
i. How much fruit is produced on the fourteenth day of the harvest? (2 marks) image, what is the least number of times the zoom function must be applied? (2 marks)
ii. What is the total amount of fruit that is produced in the first 14 days of the harvest? (1 mark)

iii. On what day does the daily production first fall below 60 kg? (2 marks) 15. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2010 HSC 4a
Susanna is training for a fun run by running every week for 26 weeks. She runs 1 km in the first week and
10. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2018 HSC 11d each week after that she runs 750 m more than the previous week, until she reaches 10 km in a week. She
then continues to run 10 km each week.
In an arithmetic series, the third term is 8 and the twentieth term is 59.
i. How far does Susannah run in the 9th week? (1 mark)
i. Find the common difference. (1 mark)
ii. In which week does she first run 10 km? (1 mark)
ii. Find the 50th term. (2 marks)
iii. What is the total distance that Susannah runs in 26 weeks? (2 marks)

11. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2008 HSC 1f

Find the sum of the first 21 terms of the arithmetic series 3 + 7 + 11 + ... (2 marks)

12. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2019 HSC 12b

In an arithmetic series, the fourth term is 6 and the sum of the first 16 terms is 120.
Find the common difference. (3 marks)
16. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2012 HSC 15a 20. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2014 HSC 14d
Rectangles of the same height are cut from a strip and arranged in a row. The first rectangle has width At the beginning of every 8-hour period, a patient is given 10 mL of a particular drug.
10cm. The width of each subsequent rectangle is 96% of the width of the previous rectangle.
During each of these 8-hour periods, the patient’s body partially breaks down the drug. Only of the
total amount of the drug present in the patient’s body at the beginning of each 8-hour period remains at
the end of that period.
i. How much of the drug is in the patient’s body immediately after the second dose is given? (1 mark)

ii. Show that the total amount of the drug in the patient’s body never exceeds 15 mL. (2 marks)

i. Find the length of the strip required to make the first ten rectangles. (2 marks)
21. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2023 HSC 21
ii. Explain why a strip of 3m is sufficient to make any number of rectangles. (1 mark)
The fourth term of a geometric sequence is 48 .

17. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2004 HSC 5a The eighth term of the same sequence is .

Clare is learning to drive. Her first lesson is 30 minutes long. Her second lesson is 35 minutes long. Each Find the possible value(s) of the common ratio and the corresponding first term(s). (3 marks)
subsequent lesson is 5 minutes longer than the lesson before.
i. How long will Clare’s twenty-first lesson be? (1 mark)
22. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2004 HSC 7a
ii. How many hours of lessons will Clare have completed after her twenty-first lesson? (2 marks)

iii. During which lesson will Clare have completed a total of 50 hours of driving lessons? (2 marks) Evaluate . (1 mark)

18. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2005 HSC 7a

23. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2014 HSC 12a
Anne and Kay are employed by an accounting firm.
Evaluate the arithmetic series 2 + 5 + 8 + 11 + ... + 1094. (2 marks)
Anne accepts employment with an initial annual salary of $50 000. In each of the following years her
annual salary is increased by $2500.
Kay accepts employment with an initial annual salary of $50 000. In each of the following years her
24. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2017 HSC 12c
annual salary is increased by 4%. In an arithmetic series, the fifth term is 200 and the sum of the first four terms is 1200.
i. What is Anne’s annual salary in her thirteenth year? (2 marks)
Find the value of the tenth term. (3 marks)
ii. What is Kay’s annual salary in her thirteenth year? (2 marks)

iii. By what amount does the total amount paid to Kay in her first twenty years exceed that paid to Anne in 25. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2018 HSC 14d
her first twenty years? (3 marks)
An artist posted a song online. Each day there were downloads, where is the number of days
after the song was posted.
19. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2007 HSC 3b
i. Find the number of downloads on each of the first 3 days after the song was posted. (1 mark)
Heather decides to swim every day to improve her fitness level. ii. What is the total number of times the song was downloaded in the first 20 days after it was posted? (2
marks)
On the first day she swims 750 metres, and on each day after that she swims metres more than the
previous day. That is, she swims 850 metres on the second day, 950 metres on the third day and so on.
i. Write down a formula for the distance she swims on the th day. (1 mark)

ii. How far does she swim on the 10th day? (1 mark)

iii. What is the total distance she swims in the first 10 days? (1 mark)

iv. After how many days does the total distance she has swum equal the width of the English Channel, a
distance of 34 kilometres? (2 marks)
26. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2008 HSC 5b 31. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2017 HSC 16b
Consider the geometric series A geometric series has first term and limiting sum 2.
Find all possible values for . (3 marks)

i. For what values of does this series have a limiting sum? (2 marks)

ii. The limiting sum of this series is . 32. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2011 HSC 9d
Find the value of . (2 marks)

27. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2011 HSC 5a i. Rationalise the denominator in the expression where is an integer and . (1

mark)
The number of members of a new social networking site doubles every day. On Day 1 there were 27
members and on Day 2 there were 54 members. ii. Using your result from part (i), or otherwise, find the value of the sum

i. How many members were there on Day 12? (1 mark)

(2 marks)
ii. On which day was the number of members first greater than 10 million? (2 marks)

iii. The site earns 0.5 cents per member per day. How much money did the site earn in the first 12 days?
Give your answer to the nearest dollar. (2 marks) 33. Probability, 2ADV S1 2013 HSC 15d
Pat and Chandra are playing a game. They take turns throwing two dice. The game is won by the first
28. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2013 HSC 12c player to throw a double six. Pat starts the game.

Kim and Alex start jobs at the beginning of the same year. Kim's annual salary in the first year is $30,000 i. Find the probability that Pat wins the game on the first throw. (1 mark)
and increases by 5% at the beginning of each subsequent year. Alex's annual salary in the first year is ii. What is the probability that Pat wins the game on the first or on the second throw? (2 marks)
$33,000, and increases by $1,500 at the beginning of each subsequent year.
iii. Find the probability that Pat eventually wins the game. (2 marks)
i. Show that in the 10th year, Kim's annual salary is higher than Alex's annual salary. (2 marks)

ii. In the first 10 years how much, in total, does Kim earn? (2 marks)
34. Trigonometry, 2ADV T1 2005 HSC 9b
iii. Every year, Alex saves of her annual salary. How many years does it take her to save $87,500? (3
marks)

29. Trigonometry, 2ADV T2 2004 HSC 9a

Consider the geometric series
i. When the limiting sum exists, find its value in simplest form. (2 marks)

ii. For what values of in the interval

does the limiting sum of the series exist? (2 marks)

The triangle has a right angle at and . The line is drawn

30. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2016 HSC 14d perpendicular to . The line is then drawn perpendicular to . This process continues indefinitely
as shown in the diagram.
By summing the geometric series , or otherwise,
i. Find the length of the interval , and hence show that the length of the interval is . (2
marks)
find (2 marks)
ii. Show that the limiting sum

is given by . (3 marks)
Copyright © 2004-23 The State of New South Wales (Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW) Worked Solutions

1. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2015 HSC 3 MC

2. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2023 HSC 11

3. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2022 HSC 17

a.

b.
4. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2011 HSC 3a 6. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2021 HSC 14

i.

MARKER’S COMMENT: Better

responses listed the sequence of
terms in the series as illustrated.

7. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2009 HSC 3a

MARKER’S COMMENT: Better

responses stated the formula
ii. BEFORE any calculations were
performed. This allows markers to
allocate part marks to students who
had errors in calculation.

8. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2005 HSC 3a

5. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2020 HSC 12

9. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2006 HSC 3c 10. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2018 HSC 11d
i. i.

ii.

ii.

11. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2008 HSC 1f

iii.
12. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2019 HSC 12b
13. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2012 HSC 12c

i.

ii. MARKER’S COMMENT: Better

responses stated the formula
BEFORE any calculations were
performed. This enabled students to
get some marks if they made an
error in their working.

iii.

NOTE: Examiners often ask

questions requiring to be found
using the formula
as this
requires the solving of a quadratic,
and interpretation of the answer.
14. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2008 HSC 4b 15. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2010 HSC 4a

i. i.

MARKER’S COMMENT: Within this

GP, note that is the term where the
zoom has been applied 8 times.

ii.
ii.

MARKER’S COMMENT: Better

responses wrote the formula for the
term before clearly substituting
in known values and .

iii.

MARKER’S COMMENT: Many

students incorrectly calculated ,
not taking into account the AP
stopped at the 13th term.
16. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2012 HSC 15a 17. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2004 HSC 5a

i. i.

MARKER’S COMMENT: A common

error was to find instead of

ii.

ii.

(iii)
18. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2005 HSC 7a
i.

ii.

iii.
19. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2007 HSC 3b

i.

ii.

iii.

iv.
 21. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2023 HSC 21

20. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2014 HSC 14d

i.

ii.

22. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2004 HSC 7a

23. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2014 HSC 12a 25. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2018 HSC 14d
i.

ii.

♦ Mean mark 38%.

26. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2008 HSC 5b

i.
24. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2017 HSC 12c

ii.
27. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2011 HSC 5a
i.
MARKER’S COMMENT: Better
responses stated the general term,
before any substitution was
made, as shown in the worked
solutions.

ii.

MARKER’S COMMENT: Many

elementary errors were made by
students in dealing with logarithms.
BE VIGILANT.

iii.

♦ Mean mark 44%.

NOTE: This question can also be
easily solved by making the total
sum of members (each day) and
then multiplying by 0.5 cents.
28. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2013 HSC 12c
i.

29. Trigonometry, 2ADV T2 2004 HSC 9a

i.

ii.
ii.

30. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2016 HSC 14d

iii. ♦ Mean mark 45%.

♦ Mean mark 45%.

IMPORTANT: Using the AP sum
formula to create and then solve a
quadratic in is challenging and
often examined. Students need to
solve and interpret the solutions.
31. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2017 HSC 16b 33. Probability, 2ADV S1 2013 HSC 15d
i.

♦ Mean mark 39%.

ii.

♦♦ Mean mark 33%

MARKER’S COMMENT: Many
students did not account for
Chandra having to lose when Pat
wins on the 2nd attempt.

iii.

32. Financial Maths, 2ADV M1 2011 HSC 9d

i.

MARKER’S COMMENT: Students

connecting the information between ♦♦♦ Mean mark 8%!
parts (i) and (ii) were easily the most COMMENT: Be aware that
successful. AGAIN, the information diminishing probabilities and
from earlier parts of multi-part within the Series and
questions is gold plated information Applications are a natural cross-topic
for directing your answer. combination.

ii.

♦♦♦ Mean mark 15%.

34. Trigonometry, 2ADV T1 2005 HSC 9b

i.

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ii.