Nike caused controversy with its advertising campaign during the 1996 Olympics by using the slogan, You

Dont Win Silver You Lose Gold. Nikes use of this slogan drew harsh criticism from many former Olympic Silver medalists. In a way, it did undermine the importance of the second position but in Math things are often very different. Figuring out the second last digit is often tougher than figuring out the last digit in the particular type of Quantitative Ability questions I am going to write about. It is unlikely but definitely not impossible that in CAT you get a straightforward question that asks you to find out the second last digit of a number (abc pqr ). It did happen in CAT 2008. In few cases, you will be able to do it by forming a cycle and observing the pattern. Those will be the easier cases. Read on if you wish to do the same for the not-so-easy cases.

The question becomes really simple if the last digit in abc pqr is 0 or 5 because if it 0, the second last digit will be 0 and if it is 5, second last digit will be 2 or 7 (which can be easily figured out by observing the cyclicity). All the other questions can be divided in two broad categories, a) Last digit is odd b) Last digit is even I recommend that before using any of the concepts given below, you should try and see if a pattern exists. Let us consider our number is abc pqr where a, b, c, p, q and r are digits and c is not 0 or 5.

Concept 1: What to do when the last digit is odd? The second last digit always depends on the last two digits of the number so anything before that can be easily neglected. We first convert the number in such a way that the last digit of the base becomes 1. The second last digit of the number will then simply be, Last digit of (Second last digit of base) X (Last digit of power)

Let us look at few examples, Eg 1a: Second last digit of 3791 768 = Last digit of 98 = 2 Eg 1b: Second last digit of 1739 768 = Second last digit of 39 768 = Second last digit of Second Last digit of 1521 384 = Last digit of 2 4 = 8 Eg 1c: Second last digit of 9317 768 = Second last digit of 17 768 = Second last digit of (17 4 ) 192 = Second last digit of (21) 192 = Last digit of 2 x 2 = 4

Concept 2: What to do when the last digit is even? The second last digit always depends on the last two digits of the number so anything before that can be easily neglected.

We need to remember the following ideas: **2 raised to power 10 will always end in 24. 24 raised to an even power will always end in 76 and to an odd power will always end in 24. 76 raised to any power will always end in 76.

Now we can use these to find out the second last digit. We reduce the number in such a way that the last two digits of the base become 76.

Eg 2a: Second last digit of 1372 482 Second last digit of 72 482 Second last digit of 72 480 x 72 2 Second last digit of (72 10 ) 48 x (**84) Second last digit of 24 48 x (**84) Second last digit of 76 x 84 Second last digit of 6384 = 8

Eg 2b: Second last digit of 48 307 = (48 3 ) 102 x 48 = (****92) 102 x 48 Second last digit of 92 100 x 92 2 x 48 = 76 x (**64) x 48 Second last digit of (****72) = 7

Eg 2c: Second last digit of 154 84 = Second last digit of (54) 84 Second last digit of (54 5 ) 16 x 54 4 = (***24) 16 x (54 2 ) 2 Second last digit of 76 x (2916) 2 Second last digit of 76 x 56 Second last digit of 4256 = 5 I hope that after reading this post you will be at ease in figuring out the second last digit in such type of questions. I also hope that you will not mind winning silver medals either.