VCE General Mathematics formula sheet explained (VCAA)

Quick answer

The VCE General Mathematics formula sheet (VCAA) is two printed pages in four groups: data analysis, recursion and financial modelling, matrices, and networks. Exam 1 and Exam 2 each have a sheet, and the two carry the same content. It prints about a dozen formulas and no compound interest, annuity or depreciation formulas, so you build those from the recurrence relation and your calculator. This page describes the sheet in our own words and notation; print the official PDF from the VCAA General Mathematics examination page and work from that.

This guide describes the sheets VCAA links for General Mathematics (marked 2024 on the cover; no 2026-dated sheet was listed when we checked on 21 October 2026) under the VCE Mathematics Study Design 2023 to 2027. In 2026, Exam 1 is on Friday 30 October and Exam 2 on Monday 2 November. Past papers and marked questions are on the VCE General Mathematics page.

What is on the VCE General Mathematics formula sheet?

Page 2 holds data analysis and recursion and financial modelling. Page 3 holds matrices and networks. Each formula below is written in our notation, with what it is for and where students slip.

Data analysis

The standardised score of a value $x$ in a data set with mean $\bar{x}$ and standard deviation $s_x$:

$$z = \frac{x - \bar{x}}{s_x}$$

The fences used to flag outliers in a boxplot:

$$\text{lower fence} = Q_1 - 1.5 \times IQR \qquad \text{upper fence} = Q_3 + 1.5 \times IQR$$

The least squares line of best fit, where $r$ is the correlation coefficient and $s_x$, $s_y$ are the standard deviations of $x$ and $y$:

$$y = a + bx, \qquad b = r\,\frac{s_y}{s_x}, \qquad a = \bar{y} - b\bar{x}$$

The residual and the seasonal index:

$$\text{residual} = \text{actual value} - \text{predicted value}$$ $$\text{seasonal index} = \frac{\text{actual figure}}{\text{deseasonalised figure}}$$

Three traps sit in this group.

• The seasonal index is printed as a ratio, but you often need it the other way round. To deseasonalise a figure you divide the actual figure by the index. To find the actual figure from a deseasonalised one, you multiply.
• The sheet gives the fences, not the interquartile range. You still need $IQR = Q_3 - Q_1$ from memory, and a value is an outlier only if it lies beyond a fence.
• The slope formula needs $r$, and $r$ is not printed. Your calculator gives $r$ from the data, so the formula matters mainly when a question hands you $r$, $s_x$, $s_y$ and the means.

Recursion and financial modelling

The sheet prints a first-order linear recurrence relation and one financial formula.

$$u_0 = a, \qquad u_{n+1} = R\,u_n + d$$ $$r_{\text{effective}} = \left[\left(1 + \frac{r}{100n}\right)^n - 1\right] \times 100\%$$

In the effective rate formula, $r$ is the nominal annual rate as a percentage (so enter $6$ for 6%, not $0.06$) and $n$ is the number of compounding periods per year.

What the recurrence does not tell you is what $R$ and $d$ are for a given problem. For growth of a percentage per period, $R = 1 + \frac{r}{100}$. For decay, $R$ is below 1. The number $d$ is what is added each period, so a regular withdrawal or loan repayment makes it negative. The sheet prints none of that, and it prints no balance, repayment, annuity or depreciation formula. Those problems are set up as recurrences and solved with the finance tools on your calculator, so being able to write the right $R$ and $d$ is the skill.

Matrices

The determinant and inverse of a $2 \times 2$ matrix:

$$A = \begin{bmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{bmatrix}, \qquad \det A = ad - bc$$ $$A^{-1} = \frac{1}{\det A}\begin{bmatrix} d & -b \\ -c & a \end{bmatrix}, \qquad \det A \neq 0$$

Two matrix recurrence relations, the first for a general transition or change and the second for a Leslie matrix:

$$S_0 = \text{initial state}, \qquad S_{n+1} = T S_n + B$$ $$S_0 = \text{initial state}, \qquad S_{n+1} = L S_n$$

Here $T$ is a transition matrix, $B$ a matrix of additions or removals each step, and $L$ a Leslie matrix. The sheet prints the relations but does not print how to multiply matrices or the identity matrix, so those are yours.

Networks and decision mathematics

One formula, Euler's formula for a connected planar graph with $v$ vertices, $e$ edges and $f$ faces:

$$v + f = e + 2$$

A connected planar graph with 6 vertices and 9 edges has $f = 9 + 2 - 6 = 5$ faces. Remember that the outer region counts as a face.

What is not on the formula sheet?

This list comes from reading the printed pages, not from the study design. Each item is absent from the sheet, so it has to come from your memory or your bound reference. Whether a given item is examinable is a question for the study design.

The left column was checked against the two printed pages. The right column is our own note on where the gap can matter, not VCAA wording.

Are the Exam 1 and Exam 2 formula sheets the same?

Yes, on the files VCAA currently links. We compared the two sheets page by page: same four groups, same rows, same layout. Only the exam number in the header and on the cover changes. The differences between the papers are elsewhere.

Calculator and bound reference rules are from the 2026 Exams Navigator. Weightings are from the VCAA Administrative Handbook. The format row comes from the 2024 and 2025 assessor reports.

Unlike Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics, General Mathematics has no technology-free exam. Both papers allow a calculator and a bound reference, so the sheet competes with your own notes, not with an empty desk. For the Methods sheet and its technology-free Exam 1, see the Mathematical Methods formula sheet guide.

How do you use the sheet well in the exam?

Treat the sheet as a checklist for notation and for the few formulas you must apply by hand. The assessor reports point at what happens after that.

• Enter and copy calculator values carefully. Careful data entry and copying from the CAS come up in VCAA's General Mathematics reports for both 2024 Exam 2 and 2025 Exam 2. Misreading calculator output, such as exponent notation, loses marks that the formula never put at risk.
• Give the precision the question asks for. The 2024 and 2025 Exam 2 reports both comment on rounding and on writing an answer in the required form. Round only at the final step.
• Reread the question after writing your answer. The 2024 Exam 2 report encourages students to do exactly this.
• Use the study design's terminology. Both 2024 and 2025 Exam 2 reports say students need to be clear on the key knowledge and key skills and use the formal terms of the course.

Where do you practise with the sheet?

AusGrader holds VCAA General Mathematics Exam 1 and Exam 2 past papers with marked practice questions. Do a paper with only the printed sheet and your bound reference, and note each time you reached for something that is not on the sheet. That list is your own not-on-the-sheet list and more useful than anyone else's. For where the marks sit, see most tested topics and hardest topics. The topic pages for data analysis, probability and statistics, matrices, discrete mathematics and networks and decision mathematics cover the four groups on the sheet. Dates for every VCE exam are on the VCE exam timetable, and VCE past exams (VCAA) lists where to find them.