Abstract. The Composite Exponential Approximations (CEA) arise in a natural way when one investigates the stability and order properties of a combination of several methods for the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations, sequentially implemented with different step-lengths. Some general results on the order, acceptability and exponential fitting properties of CEA are derived. The composite Padé approximations and TV-approximations are explored in detail.1. Introduction. This paper gives a theory which is relevant to the use of variable step-length to increase the order of solution of stiff ordinary differential systems. In a nutshell, we explore the effect of combining two (or more) different numerical methods with different step-lengths so that the numerical order is increased, while other desirable properties of the solution (stability, exponential fitting, etc.) are retained.In its spirit this work follows two trails: first, the cyclic linear multistep methods [2], [20]. These methods consist of sequential application of several (possibly zero-unstable) linear multistep schemes, each with a constant step-length, so that the outcome, as a whole, is zero-stable and of high order. Second, the use of an a priori determined sequence of step-lengths (with a single method) in order to try and minimize the global error [6], [7], [13], [15].