QCAA Formula Sheets and Data Books by Subject (QCE)

Quick answer

Of the 2025 syllabuses we have read, six name a QCAA formula document in their assessment conditions: Chemistry, Physics, Mathematical Methods, General Mathematics, Specialist Mathematics and Engineering. In each, QCAA provides it in the external exam. In Mathematical Methods, General Mathematics and Specialist Mathematics your teacher must provide the formula book in IA2 and IA3, and in Engineering in IA2. This page links to our explainer for each one.

The conditions below come from the 2025 General senior syllabuses, which Year 12 students sit under from 2026. We now hold all six books. Each card below says what a book covers and how long it is, and links our guide and the official PDF. QCAA publishes its material under a CC BY 4.0 licence, but the PDF stays the authority, so download the current edition rather than relying on a copy. For marked past-paper questions in each subject, start at the QCAA past papers hub (QCE).

Which QCE subjects have a formula sheet guide?

Six subjects, one card each. Page counts are the numbered pages, so they leave out the cover and any blank or licence-only pages. Five of the six covers are dated June 2026. The Physics book prints version 1.3 and no date.

Chemistry: Formula and data book

QCAA calls it the formula and data book. It runs to 18 numbered pages (24 in the PDF), the longest of the six, because most of it is data. The formulas sit on pages 2 and 3, under eight headings: processing of data; chemical reactions (reactants, products and energy change); intermolecular forces and gases; aqueous solutions and acidity; rates of chemical reactions; chemical equilibrium systems; oxidation and reduction; and properties and structure of organic materials (the retention factor). The rest is constants, a reaction pathways diagram, a list of elements, the periodic table, atomic and ionic radii, electronegativity, first ionisation enthalpy, a solubility table, bond enthalpies, the reactivity series, standard electrode potentials, the twenty common amino acids, glucose and fructose, acid-base indicators, an infrared table and polyatomic ions. It prints the molar volume at STP as 22.7 dm³ per mole, not 22.4. Its only rate formula is the average rate of reaction, so it has no rate law, and it has no half-life, Nernst equation or buffer formulas, and no NMR or mass spectrometry data.

• Pages: 18 numbered
• Our guide: QCAA Chemistry formula and data book
• Official PDF: Chemistry 2025 Formula and data book

Physics: Formula and data book

Eight numbered pages. Pages 1 to 4 hold the formulas, grouped by topic: processing of data, heating processes, ionising radiation and nuclear reactions, special relativity, electrical circuits, electromagnetism, linear motion and force, gravity and motion, waves, quantum theory and the Standard Model. Pages 5 and 6 hold physical constants and a table of unit prefixes, and pages 7 and 8 are the list of elements and the periodic table. The book defines no symbols, so the same letter can mean different things in different formulas. It does not print the Doppler effect, Hooke's law, torque, resistivity or lens and mirror equations.

• Pages: 8 numbered
• Our guide: QCAA Physics formula sheet
• Official PDF: Physics 2025 v1.3 Formula and data book

Mathematical Methods: Formula book

Three numbered pages in six sections: Mensuration, Graph equations, Logarithms, Calculus, Trigonometry and Statistics (which also holds probability). The trigonometry section has only four items (cosine rule, sine rule, triangle area and the Pythagorean identity). It does not print sequences and series, finance, matrices, vectors, complex numbers, integration by parts or substitution, the normal distribution, hypothesis testing or combinations and permutations. Apart from $w$ in the trapezoidal rule, it defines none of its symbols.

• Pages: 3 numbered
• Our guide: QCAA Maths Methods formula sheet
• Official PDF: Mathematical Methods 2025 formula book

General Mathematics: Formula book

Two numbered pages under eight headings: Mensuration, Shape and measurement, Data, Sequences, Earth geometry, Graphs and networks, Trigonometry and Finance. Graphs and networks holds a single formula, Euler's, and the Earth geometry formulas are printed without saying when each one applies. The only symbol the book defines is $s$ in Heron's rule. It does not print standard deviation, the correlation coefficient, probability rules, depreciation or the quadratic formula.

• Pages: 2 numbered
• Our guide: QCAA General Maths formula sheet
• Official PDF: General Mathematics 2025: Formula book

Specialist Mathematics: Formula book

Eight numbered pages of tables and no prose. Its first three pages carry the same six sections as the Mathematical Methods book. It then adds additional calculus, trigonometry and statistics for Specialist Mathematics, Specialist graph equations, real and complex numbers, matrices and vectors. Its one physical constant is $g = 9.8\text{ m s}^{-2}$. It prints no normal distribution table, no Euler's formula and no derivatives of secant, cosecant or cotangent.

• Pages: 8 numbered
• Our guide: QCAA Specialist Maths formula sheet
• Official PDF: Specialist Mathematics 2025 formula book

Engineering: Formula sheet

QCAA's own title is "formula and data book", and the syllabus calls it the formula sheet. It is two numbered pages. Page 1 holds Statics, Materials and Dynamics (which also carries the machine and friction formulas), and page 2 holds Electrical circuits, one constant ($g = 9.8\text{ m s}^{-2}$), seven unit prefixes, electric circuit symbols and six logic gate symbols. The gear ratio formula is printed twice with opposite orientations, and the circuit formulas carry no series or parallel labels. The book has no variable definitions or worked examples, and only the constant carries a unit.

• Pages: 2 numbered
• Our guide: QCAA Engineering formula sheet
• Official PDF: Engineering 2025 formula and data book

Who provides the formula sheet, and when?

The syllabus conditions differ by subject and by assessment. This is what the 2025 syllabuses say for the tasks where we have read them.

For every subject, the conditions your teacher issues with an internal task are the ones that count on the day.

What changed for 2026?

QCAA's July 2026 summary of external assessment changes says the formula document has been updated for all six subjects:

• Chemistry: the formula and data booklet has been updated and now includes the reaction pathway diagram.
• Physics: the formula and data booklet has been updated.
• General Mathematics, Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics: the formula book has been updated, and formulas have been included in the syllabus for clarity.
• Engineering: the formula book has been updated, including additional formulas for gears, pulleys, power and efficiency.

We have not compared the new editions line by line with the old ones, so replace any copy downloaded before 2026.

The same summary says the Accounting formula book has been updated, and the Accounting syllabus points to a formula book for its Unit 4 ratio calculations. The external assessment conditions in the Accounting syllabus do not name it as a provided resource, so ask your teacher what you will have in each task. We do not have an Accounting formula sheet guide yet.

Two syllabus-level changes affect how the sheets are used. The 2026 summary lists perusal time changing to 5 minutes for Chemistry, Physics and Engineering, and the Mathematics syllabuses call the document a formula book where the 2019 versions said formula sheet. Older advice about "the formula sheet" may describe the superseded course.

What is the difference between a formula sheet and a formula book?

Nothing in practice. QCAA's naming varies by subject and by syllabus year, and students search for all of them as "formula sheet". Each guide above explains the document for its own subject: what the syllabus asks you to calculate with it, what it does not do for you and, where QCAA's subject reports cover it, where students lost marks.

How do you practise with a formula sheet?

Work from marked questions, not from the sheet alone. Open the subject page for the subject you are sitting, pick questions that name a relationship, and use only the permitted resources for that paper. Then check whether you chose the wrong relationship, misread the data or slipped in the arithmetic. The fixes differ, and the guides above point you to the subject-specific evidence for each.

For Year 11, the same habit applies. Units 1 and 2 are set by your school, so ask your teacher which resources are allowed in each task, then use the syllabus formula tables in the Chemistry and Physics guides to see which calculations are expected.