VCE Physics formula sheet explained (VCAA)

Yes, you get one. VCAA supplies a four-page Formula Sheet with the VCE Physics exam, and you keep it afterwards. In 2026 it holds 45 formula lines in six groups, plus the constants, SI multipliers and unit conversions you need, and it does not tell you which line a question wants, how to rearrange it or how to handle units and significant figures.

This guide describes the 2026 VCAA Physics Formula Sheet, issued in February 2026 for the Units 3 and 4 written examination (Year 12). We compared its text with the sheet printed with the 2025 exam and the formulas and data are identical, so past papers from 2025 carry the same sheet. VCAA owns the sheet, so this page annotates it and links to the original on the VCAA Physics page instead of reprinting it.

For every past paper, see VCE Physics past exams (VCAA). To see which topics carry the marks, read VCE Physics most tested topics and VCE Physics hardest topics.

Is there a formula sheet in the VCE Physics exam?

Yes. The cover of the 2025 Physics exam lists the materials supplied as the Question and Answer Book, a Formula Sheet and a Multiple-Choice Answer Sheet. Approved materials on that cover were one scientific calculator and pre-written notes (one folded A3 sheet or two A4 sheets bound together by tape). The 2026 cover lists the 2026 rules, so check it when you sit the paper.

The sheet's own cover page says "You may keep this Formula Sheet". VCAA's 2026 examination navigator lists Physics among the studies that permit a scientific calculator only. The Physics written exam is on Thursday 12 November 2026, 9:00 am to 11:45 am, including the 15-minute reading period (see the VCE exam timetable). Exam format and timing are covered in the VCE exam preparation guide.

What is on the VCE Physics formula sheet?

The formula lines fall into six groups, in this order on the sheet. Counting each of the five constant-acceleration equations separately and every other labelled row once (some rows print two related formulas):

Each group sits under one VCAA area of study in our topic pages (the last column), so a question filed under one topic usually sends you to one or two groups. The exceptions are questions that mix topics, such as a charged particle (fields group) whose kinetic energy you need (motion group).

Below the formulas the sheet prints four more blocks:

• Data: $g$ at Earth's surface, the electron mass and charge, Planck's constant in both J s and eV s, the speed of light, the universal gravitational constant, the mass and radius of Earth, and the Coulomb constant.
• Metric (SI) multipliers: pico, nano, micro and milli, then kilo, mega, giga and tera.
• Unit conversions: tonnes to kilograms, and kilowatt hours to joules.
• Nomenclature: how to write the force due to gravity, the force on one object by another, and the normal force.

What is not on the VCE Physics formula sheet?

Checked line by line against the 2026 sheet, these are relationships students often assume are printed and are not:

• Work as force times distance, and energy as power times time. Power appears as $P = VI$ and in the transmission-loss line, but not as energy over time.
• Period as the reciprocal of frequency. The wave equation is printed, and the circular motion line has period $T$, but nothing links $T$ to $f$.
• Centripetal acceleration. You get net force as $F_{net} = mv^2/r$, not $a = v^2/r$.
• Weight as mass times g. The sheet's only lines with $g$ are gravitational potential energy and the gravitational field. The force-due-to-gravity symbol is in the nomenclature block, with no formula.
• Charge as current times time.
• Refraction. There is no Snell's law line.
• Projectile shortcuts. There is no range, maximum height or time-of-flight formula, and no instruction on resolving a velocity into components. The 2024 VCAA assessor report says students used pre-derived formulae for Question 3a "but did not know how to apply it to this situation", and that "a few students employed the range equation, apparently unaware that that formula is not applicable in this situation".
• Anything on graphs, gradients, uncertainty or data handling.

If it is on neither the sheet nor this list, treat it as yours to know. We have not read every VCE Physics question against this list, so use it as a starting point, not a guarantee.

Where do the symbols and signs trip people up?

• The sheet prints a minus sign you might not expect. The second constant-acceleration displacement line is $s = vt - \tfrac{1}{2}at^2$, not plus. If you copy the sheet into your notes, copy it from the PDF, not from a pasted text version, which can drop or change signs.
• Two ways to get $g$. The data block gives $g = 9.81\ \text{m s}^{-2}$ at Earth's surface, and the gravitational field line gives $g = GM/r^2$. At the surface they agree (see the second worked example), and away from the surface only the second one works.
• Two Planck constants. The data block prints $h$ in J s and in eV s. Use the eV s value when the answer is wanted in electron volts, and the J s value when you want joules, so you do not convert at the end.
• The same letters mean different things. $E$ is electric field strength on the field lines and energy on the photon line. $\varepsilon$ is induced emf, and $V$ is a potential difference in several lines. Write what each symbol is in your working before you substitute.
• Relativity symbols with a zero. Time dilation is printed with a subscript zero on one time and length contraction with a subscript zero on one length. VCAA's sheet does not define these, so learn from your class notes which quantity each one is.
• Sign convention. In the model answer to 2024 Question 3a the vertical launch velocity is positive and the acceleration is substituted as $-9.81\ \text{m s}^{-2}$. The report lists "did not maintain a strong sign convention and had acceleration due to gravity acting upwards" as a repeated error.

How do VCAA markers expect you to use the sheet?

The VCAA assessor reports for 2024 and 2025 comment on what students do after they find a line on the sheet, not on finding it. Four points recur:

• Working earns the marks. The 2024 report says students "are still not being awarded marks for not showing sufficient working", quotes the Section B instruction that "appropriate working must be shown" where more than one mark is available, and adds that the workings in the report "should be considered the minimum required working" (p. 1).
• Units in the box mean the unit you were told. Where the answer box has a unit, respond in that unit (2024 report, p. 14). The sheet's multipliers and conversions are there so you can convert before you substitute.
• Significant figures are checked. On 2025 Question 7b the report notes that almost all students who calculated correctly went on to give the correct number of significant figures (p. 11), so treat them as part of the answer.
• Gradients need shown working, on the line. The 2025 report reminds students to demonstrate a gradient, for example by showing rise over run, and to use points that lie on the line (p. 19). The sheet has no gradient formula, so the skill is yours.

A weak and a strong version of the same working look like this:

Worked uses of the sheet

These are our own illustrations of combining sheet lines, not VCAA questions.

Common mistakes with the sheet

How do I practise with the sheet?

Do calculation questions with the 2026 sheet open next to the paper, and write each answer the way the strong column above does. The VCE Physics past exams page has the marked questions from the VCAA papers, and they are grouped by topic, so you can pick the sheet group you want to drill. Start with the group whose lines you could not name from memory at the top of this page.