WACE Mathematics Methods formula sheet explained (SCSA)

Quick answer

The WACE Mathematics Methods formula sheet (SCSA) is a four-page document whose pages 2 to 4 hold the content: calculus rules, mensuration, a little trigonometry, the logarithm laws and probability. SCSA supplies it with both sections of the exam, so it is in front of you in Section One: Calculator-free as well. It gives you results to quote, not methods, and it leaves out the sine and cosine rules, double-angle identities, exact trigonometric values and the value of z for a confidence interval. This page describes the sheet in our own words; print the official PDF and work from that.

This guide describes the 2026 sheet (reference 2025/113745), which SCSA marks as valid for teaching and examining until 31 December 2026, under the Mathematics Methods ATAR Year 12 syllabus effective 1 January 2026. Exam format, calculators and marking are in the WACE Mathematics Methods exam guide, and past papers and marked practice questions are on the WACE Mathematics Methods page.

What is on the Methods formula sheet?

Page 1 is the cover. Each group below is a heading on pages 2 to 4.

The sheet closes with a note: any additional formulas the examination panel identifies as necessary will be included in the body of the particular question.

What do the details on the sheet mean?

Several rows reward a slower read. These are the ones that catch students out.

• Powers and the logarithm integral. The power integral is printed with a condition that $n$ is not $-1$, and the integral of $\frac{1}{x}$ is printed as $\ln x$ for $x > 0$. The $f'/f$ integral is printed for $f(x) > 0$. If a question gives you a negative $x$ or an expression that can go negative, the printed conditions are why you cannot copy the row without checking.
• Exponential and trigonometric rows. The derivative rows for $e^{ax-b}$, $\sin(ax-b)$ and $\cos(ax-b)$ already include the factor $a$. The integral rows carry $\frac{1}{a}$ instead, and the sine integral carries a minus sign. The exponential integral is printed for $e^{ax}$, without the $-b$. Read the sign and the $a$ every time, because Section One marks the exact result.
• Product and quotient rule. Each is printed twice, once in $u$, $v$ notation and once in $f$, $g$ notation, and the two are the same rule. Use whichever matches the question.
• Chain rule. Printed as $\frac{dy}{dx} = \frac{dy}{du} \times \frac{du}{dx}$ and as $y' = f'(g(x))\,g'(x)$.
• Fundamental theorem. Both directions are there: the derivative of an integral with a variable upper limit, and the evaluation of a definite integral from an antiderivative.
• Increments formula. $\delta y \approx \frac{dy}{dx} \times \delta x$ gives an approximation for a small change in $x$. It is an approximation, so a question that asks for an exact change wants the difference of the two values instead.
• Exponential growth and decay. The sheet prints $\frac{dP}{dt} = kP$ and $P = P_0 e^{kt}$. It does not print how to find $k$ from information in the question.
• Binomial. The binomial probability is printed with the coefficient in bracket notation, but the sheet does not define that coefficient. Know how to evaluate it by hand for Section One.
• Sample proportions. The margin of error and confidence interval are printed in terms of $z$, with no value of $z$ given.

What is not on the Methods formula sheet?

This list comes from reading pages 2 to 4. Whether a result is examinable is a question for the syllabus; what follows is only whether it is printed.

The left column was checked against the printed sheet. The right column is our own note on where the gap can matter, not SCSA wording. The exam guide also lists the sheet by group; this page adds the worked use and the gaps that matter most in Section One.

How do you use the sheet in Section One: Calculator-free?

Section One has no calculator and no notes, which means the sheet and your memory are the whole toolkit. The 2024 and 2025 examination reports named log laws, basic algebra and fraction arithmetic as Section One losses, which is the material that sits between the printed rows. Four short examples show where the sheet stops and your own working starts.

How does the sheet change in Section Two: Calculator-assumed?

You get the same sheet, plus up to three calculators (CAS included) and up to two unfolded A4 sheets of notes. So the question is what to put on your notes. Not the printed rows, which you already have. Put there the things the sheet leaves out and a CAS does not do for you: the sine and cosine rules, double-angle identities, the z-values you want, and the steps a "show" question needs. The exam guide covers the calculator and notes rules in full, in the section on what calculators and notes you can use.

Keep your calculator in radian mode for trigonometric calculus, because the derivative and integral rows on the sheet for sine and cosine only hold in radians.

Where do you practise with the sheet?

Do a Section One paper with the printed sheet and nothing else, then list every result you reached for that is not on it. That list is your personal not-on-the-sheet list. The marks-by-topic guides show where the calculus and probability rows get used most: most tested topics and hardest topics. Questions that use the calculus rows are in Further differentiation and applications, and the sample-proportion row is used in Interval estimates for proportions. Dates for every WACE written exam are on the WACE exam timetable.