Determine If a Series is Absolutely Convergent, Conditionally Convergent, or Divergent

Step 1: Take the absolute value of the series. Then determine whether the series converges.

If it converges, then we say the series converges absolutely and we are done.
If it does not converge, then we say it does not converge absolutely and we move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Use the Alternating Series Test to determine whether the original series converges or diverges.

If it converges, then we say the series converges conditionally.
If the Alternating Series Test fails, we attempt another test.