I split the total into 3,5,4,3. For strength I loved this scheme. It starts off with three, which serves kind of like a warmup, then a “harder” set of five, and then the last two sets taper off.
One of the first real programs I followed,
Johnny Parker's Ultimate Weight Training Program (Johnny Parker was the strength coach of the New York Giants football team when they won two Super Bowls under Bill Parcells in 1986 and 1990, and the author of the recent book,
The System) used a similar pattern, although if I recall correctly it was for the weight used, not the reps.
I called it the 1321 pattern because the first and last sets were the lowest weight (1), the second set was the highest (3), the third set was in between (2), and the last set was the same as the first (1), although the numbers are not necessarily proportional to the actual weights or reps used, which can be anything. It's basically a descending ladder, but with an extra bottom rung at the beginning to provide a bit of warm up or momentum.
I've since used it for reps as well. Another variation I use that is also ladder-like is to start with the highest rung, but then drop back down to the beginning of the next ladder and build up from there. So with 2, 3, 5 ladders it might look like 5, 2, 3, 5, 2, 3, 5. It just gives you one extra top set that you do while fresh, or you can leave off the last top rung and consider the first fresh top set to substitute for a final fatigued top set.