WACE Chemistry Data Booklet 2026: Formulas, Tables and Uses (SCSA)

Quick answer. The WACE Chemistry formula sheet is the Chemistry ATAR Course Data Booklet, an eight-page SCSA booklet supplied in the exam. It prints only six formulas (moles from mass, moles from concentration and volume, moles of gas at STP, the ideal gas law, parts per million and pH), plus constants, solubility rules, colours, 20 amino acids and a table of standard reduction potentials. Everything else you calculate with, such as dilution, equilibrium constants, percentage yield and cell potential, you have to know.

This guide describes the 2026 data booklet, which SCSA says is valid for teaching and examining until 31 December 2026, and which goes with the Year 12 Chemistry ATAR syllabus effective from 1 January 2024. SCSA's syllabus does not say whether the booklet changes in 2027, so check the edition against your own year. For the exam itself (format, timing, calculators and marks), see the WACE Chemistry exam guide. For the whole course, start at the WACE Chemistry past exams page, which holds marked questions from SCSA papers.

The booklet is SCSA's copyright, so this guide describes it and states its facts without reproducing its tables. Open the official 2026 Chemistry data booklet beside this page.

Is there a WACE Chemistry formula sheet?

Not as a separate sheet. The Data Booklet is the only reference SCSA supplies. The supervisor provides it with the Question/Answer booklet, and the paper's instructions say it is not handed in with your Question/Answer booklet.

Page 1 is the cover and page 2 holds the contents and the copyright notice. The booklet has no worked examples and no instructions for use, so the rest of this guide covers how each part is used.

What formulas are in the WACE Chemistry data booklet?

Six, in a short block at the top of page 4.

How do you use the six formulas?

The booklet gives the relationships and the numbers. Choosing the right one, matching units and rearranging are on you. These worked examples use the booklet's own constants and the standard atomic weights from its periodic table.

Moles, mass and gas volume at STP

The booklet gives you $n = \frac{V}{22.71}$, so you rearrange to $V = 22.71\,n$ yourself. It also defines STP as 0.0 °C and 100.0 kPa. If a question states a different temperature or pressure, 22.71 is the wrong number and you need the ideal gas law.

The ideal gas law

The booklet prints the gas constant as $R = 8.314\ \text{J K}^{-1}\,\text{mol}^{-1}$ and says pressures are in kPa and volumes in L. Because one kPa multiplied by one litre is one joule, you can put kPa and L straight into $PV = nRT$ with that value of $R$. A check: one mole at 100.0 kPa and 273.15 K gives $V = \frac{1 \times 8.314 \times 273.15}{100.0} = 22.71\ \text{L}$, which is the booklet's molar volume.

Concentration and moles of solute

$n = cV$ only works with volume in litres when concentration is in mol L$^{-1}$. The booklet says volumes are given in L or mL, so a volume in mL is the usual place a factor of 1000 goes missing.

To find a concentration or a volume, rearrange to $c = \frac{n}{V}$ or $V = \frac{n}{c}$. The booklet does not print either.

Parts per million

The booklet's definition is milligrams of solute per kilogram of solution. So 12 mg of solute in 0.500 kg of solution is $\frac{12}{0.500} = 24\ \text{ppm}$. For a dilute aqueous solution, one kilogram is close to one litre, so ppm is close to mg L$^{-1}$, and 1 g L$^{-1}$ is close to 1000 ppm. The booklet lists mol L$^{-1}$, g L$^{-1}$ and ppm as the concentration units in use, and the 2025 examination report asks for fluency in converting between every concentration unit in the syllabus.

pH

$\text{pH} = -\log_{10}[\text{H}^+]$ goes both ways.

• From concentration to pH: $[\text{H}^+] = 2.0 \times 10^{-3}\ \text{mol L}^{-1}$ gives $\text{pH} = 2.70$.
• From pH to concentration: $\text{pH} = 9.20$ gives $[\text{H}^+] = 10^{-9.20} = 6.3 \times 10^{-10}\ \text{mol L}^{-1}$.

The booklet gives $K_\text{w} = 1.00 \times 10^{-14}$ for water at 25 °C. From it, $[\text{OH}^-] = \frac{K_\text{w}}{[\text{H}^+]}$, so the pH 9.20 solution has $[\text{OH}^-] = \frac{1.00 \times 10^{-14}}{6.3 \times 10^{-10}} = 1.6 \times 10^{-5}\ \text{mol L}^{-1}$. Note the 25 °C: $K_\text{w}$ changes with temperature, so the booklet's value is for that temperature only.

What units and constants does the data booklet give?

How do you use the solubility rules?

Page 4 has two tables, grouped by anion. Compounds are sorted into those that are generally soluble in water and those that are generally insoluble, each with exceptions. The booklet defines the words: soluble is more than 0.1 mol dissolving per litre, slightly soluble is between 0.01 and 0.1 mol per litre, and insoluble is less than 0.01 mol per litre.

• Generally soluble: most chlorides, bromides and iodides, all nitrates and ethanoates, and most sulfates. Exceptions include AgCl, AgBr, AgI, CuI, $\text{PbI}_2$, $\text{SrSO}_4$, $\text{BaSO}_4$ and $\text{PbSO}_4$ (insoluble), and $\text{PbCl}_2$, $\text{PbBr}_2$, $\text{CaSO}_4$ and $\text{Ag}_2\text{SO}_4$ (slightly soluble).
• Generally insoluble: most hydroxides, carbonates, phosphates and sulfides. The sodium, potassium and ammonium compounds of the carbonate, phosphate and sulfide ions are listed as soluble, as are NaOH, KOH and $\text{Ba(OH)}_2$ among the hydroxides.

To predict a precipitate, split each reactant into its ions, pair the cation from one with the anion from the other, and look up the new pairs. Mixing $\text{AgNO}_3(\text{aq})$ and $\text{NaCl}(\text{aq})$ gives AgCl, which the table lists as an insoluble exception, so a precipitate forms. Nitrate and sodium compounds are soluble, so $\text{NaNO}_3$ stays in solution and the net ionic equation is $\text{Ag}^+(\text{aq}) + \text{Cl}^-(\text{aq}) \rightarrow \text{AgCl}(\text{s})$.

Two footnotes on the page matter. The booklet notes that $\text{NH}_3$ dissolves in water to form both $\text{NH}_3(\text{aq})$ and $\text{NH}_4^+(\text{aq})$/$\text{OH}^-(\text{aq})$, and, against AgOH in the soluble exceptions, that $\text{Ag}^+(\text{aq})$ reacts with $\text{OH}^-(\text{aq})$ to form insoluble $\text{Ag}_2\text{O}$. For a "slightly soluble" compound, the table gives you the range but cannot say whether a precipitate forms at the concentrations in your question, so read the question's quantities.

How do you use the colour tables?

Page 5 starts with two general rules: an ionic solid usually has the colour of any coloured ion in it, and two colourless ions usually give a white solid. It then lists the exceptions and the colours of ions, elements and halogens.

• Solids that break the rule: copper(II) oxide and sulfide are black, copper(II) carbonate and chloride are green, lead(II) iodide is yellow, lead(II) sulfide is grey, manganese(IV) oxide is black, and the silver compounds range from yellow (carbonate) and pale yellow (iodide) to brown (oxide) and black (sulfide).
• Coloured ions in water: $\text{Cr}^{3+}$ deep green, $\text{Co}^{2+}$ pink, $\text{Cu}^{2+}$ blue, $\text{Fe}^{2+}$ pale green, $\text{Fe}^{3+}$ pale brown, $\text{Mn}^{2+}$ pale pink, $\text{Ni}^{2+}$ green, $\text{CrO}_4^{2-}$ yellow, $\text{Cr}_2\text{O}_7^{2-}$ orange and $\text{MnO}_4^{-}$ purple.
• Other substances: copper metal is salmon pink and sulfur is yellow. Most metals are silvery or grey, and most gases and liquids are colourless.
• Halogens: each has a colour as the free element, in water and in an organic solvent. $\text{Br}_2$ is red as a liquid, orange in water and red in organic solvent. $\text{I}_2$ is purple as a gas, grey as a solid, brown in water and purple in organic solvent.

The 2024 examination report on this point says to describe a solution as colourless or coloured, never only "clear", and to avoid naming the chemicals in an observation. Past papers send you to this page directly: the 2023 and 2024 papers ask for observations that depend on the colours it lists.

What do the amino acid pages give you?

Pages 6 and 7 list the 20 α-amino acids in alphabetical order, from alanine to valine. Each has a name, a three-letter symbol and a structure drawn as $\text{H}_2\text{N-CH(R)-COOH}$, with the side chain R written out. Proline's ring, which includes the nitrogen, is drawn in full.

A 2022 question sends candidates to these pages for the side chain of an amino acid. The booklet shows the structures as given, so questions about the side chain's polarity, charge or the bond formed in a peptide link are answered by reading the structure, not by recalling it. It gives no property data such as isoelectric points.

How do you use the standard reduction potentials?

Page 8 is one table of 42 half-reactions at 25 °C, written as reductions with electrons on the left. They run from $\text{F}_2(\text{g}) + 2\text{e}^- \rightarrow 2\text{F}^-(\text{aq})$ at $+2.89$ V down to $\text{K}^+(\text{aq}) + \text{e}^- \rightarrow \text{K}(\text{s})$ at $-2.94$ V, and $2\text{H}^+(\text{aq}) + 2\text{e}^- \rightarrow \text{H}_2(\text{g})$ is set at 0 exactly. The source credited is Aylward and Findlay, SI Chemical Data (7th ed.).

• Higher on the table, stronger oxidising agent. The species on the left of a half-reaction with a more positive $E^\circ$ is the stronger oxidant. The species on the right of a more negative one is the stronger reductant.
• Cell potential. $E^\circ_\text{cell} = E^\circ_\text{reduction} - E^\circ_\text{oxidation}$, where both values are read off the table as printed. The booklet does not print this relationship.
• Spontaneous direction. A reaction is predicted when the oxidant sits above the reductant and $E^\circ_\text{cell}$ is positive.

Check the states. The table lists $\text{Cl}_2(\text{g})$ at $+1.36$ V and $\text{Cl}_2(\text{aq})$ at $+1.40$ V, $\text{Br}_2(\text{aq})$ at $+1.10$ V and $\text{Br}_2(\ell)$ at $+1.08$ V, and $\text{I}_2(\text{aq})$ at $+0.62$ V and $\text{I}_2(\text{s})$ at $+0.54$ V as separate rows. Pick the row that matches the state in the question. Some species appear twice for different reasons: $\text{H}_2\text{O}_2$ is an oxidant at $+1.76$ V and also the product of reducing $\text{O}_2$ at $+0.70$ V. The values are for standard conditions at 25 °C, so they predict a direction and not a rate.

For a topic-level view of how much of the paper this covers, see WACE Chemistry oxidation and reduction, which is the lowest scoring topic in our marked-attempt data.

What is not in the WACE Chemistry data booklet?

Learn these before the exam, because you cannot look them up:

• Dilution, $c_1V_1 = c_2V_2$, and concentration as $c = \frac{n}{V}$.
• Equilibrium constant expressions, $K_c$ and $K_a$. The booklet lists no $K_a$ values.
• Percentage yield.
• $E^\circ_\text{cell}$ from two reduction potentials.
• Any properties of the amino acids beyond their structures.
• The names, formulas and charges of polyatomic ions.

Common mistakes with the data booklet

How should you practise with the data booklet?

The 2025 examination report asks teachers to make sure students know the booklet's contents and can use it efficiently, so use the actual booklet in every practice question, not a copy of your own notes. Time yourself finding the reduction potentials, the colours and the solubility exception for one reaction, because that search happens inside a three-hour paper. To work out which parts you need most, check WACE Chemistry most tested topics and WACE Chemistry hardest topics. For what each question's key word asks you to do, see WACE command words explained. For papers to practise on, see WACE Chemistry past exams (SCSA), and for the course content, the WACE Chemistry ATAR syllabus.