Edexcel GCSE Maths Higher formulae sheet: A complete guide

If you're sitting Edexcel GCSE Maths Higher tier (specification 1MA1) in 2027, Pearson provides a supplementary formulae sheet with every paper. That isn't the appendix in the 2015 specification document, which only lists four shape formulae. It's a longer, Ofqual-sanctioned supplementary sheet, and on 5 May 2026 Ofqual confirmed the sheets will continue for the lifetime of the current specifications.

The gap between the 2015 appendix and the sheet you actually sit with is the main thing to get right. If you revise from a pre-2022 textbook or an older spec summary, you'll walk in thinking you need to recall the quadratic formula, the sine rule, the cosine rule and compound interest from memory. You don't. All of those are now on the sheet, printed on a separate insert given to every candidate.

This guide walks through what's on the current Higher sheet, what Higher tier students still need to recall, where to download the official PDF, and how the Edexcel version compares with the sibling AQA and OCR sheets.

Edexcel's current Higher formulae sheet is the Ofqual-sanctioned supplementary insert, printed with every exam paper from the 2022 series onwards. Pearson has published updated versions each year, and the content is confirmed to stay consistent year to year for the lifetime of the specification, with only presentational changes possible.

The sheet is given to every candidate alongside the question paper. You can write on it, you can keep it next to you throughout the exam, and a fresh clean copy is provided for every candidate. It's included in all three papers, which means you get it in Paper 1 (non-calculator) as well as Papers 2 and 3 (both calculator). That's worth knowing because a surprising number of students assume the sheet only applies to calculator papers.

The sheet does not override the specification, Pearson still expects you to use and rearrange formulae, and it doesn't do any of the thinking for you. It gives you the standard forms. You still have to recognise which one a question needs and set it up correctly.

The Higher sheet groups formulae by topic area. The exact list below reflects the content Pearson has published through recent exam series, verify against the current year's PDF on Pearson's assessment-resources page before your exam, because presentation can change year to year.

The sheet is broad but not exhaustive. Higher students still have to bring a decent chunk of material in from memory. The main items:

Straight-line geometry: equation of a line y = mx + c, gradient = (y₂ − y₁) / (x₂ − x₁), midpoint formula, distance between two points. These are derivation territory, not boxed sheet content.

Algebraic manipulation. The sheet gives you the quadratic formula, but it doesn't give you the laws of indices, the completed-square form, or anything about surds. These are expected content and come up in every Higher paper.

Sequence rules. nth-term formulae for arithmetic and geometric sequences, and the quadratic sequence rule, are expected knowledge rather than sheet content.

Area of a parallelogram: base × perpendicular height. This isn't on the sheet; the trapezium formula is, but the parallelogram one isn't, so learn it as a standard result.

Transformations, loci, vectors and the circle theorems are all expected content for the Higher tier and don't appear on the sheet.

And a reminder on what IS printed, so you don't waste revision time memorising it: area of a trapezium, volume of a prism, circumference and area of a circle, Pythagoras' theorem, the right-angled trig ratios (SOHCAHTOA), sine rule, cosine rule, ½ab sin C, the quadratic formula, compound interest and both probability rules all appear on the current sheet. The cone, sphere and pyramid formulae and the kinematics equations are NOT on the sheet, Pearson gives them inside any question that needs them.

At content level the sheets across boards are close to identical, all three sheets are governed by the same DfE subject content and the same Ofqual provision. The main differences are presentational.

AQA presents its Higher sheet with headings like 'Perimeter, area and volume' and 'The quadratic formula'. OCR, which the 2015 spec text describes as having 'no formula sheet', ships a sheet in practice that mirrors AQA's content with slightly different section ordering. The current GCSE Maths formula sheet is the common Ofqual-specified set, printed with every paper from 2022 onwards. Pearson's pre-2022 Appendix 3 (cone and sphere formulae) is no longer the live reference, those formulae are now given in the question.

For exam day, practise with your own board's current PDF, not a generic version. Layout familiarity saves time, and swapping between boards' presentations under exam pressure is a drain you don't need. If you're switching schools or using cross-board resources, confirm the exact ordering and wording from Pearson's own PDF before your mocks. Our GCSE formula sheets guide covers the provision across all boards and subjects.

Having every formula in front of you is a safety net, not a shortcut. Students who treat the sheet as a last resort rather than a working tool lose time hunting for things they could have found quickly with a bit of practice.

Print the current Pearson PDF and physically slot it next to every past paper you sit at home. The habit of glancing at the sheet, finding the formula, and coming back to the question is a motor skill, build it before exam day. By the time you've done five or six papers with the sheet alongside you, you'll know roughly where every formula lives.

Mark the three Higher-only trig formulae and the quadratic formula clearly on your print-out. Those are the ones most students reach for on calculator papers, and finding them quickly is worth seconds per question. Highlight compound interest too, it's deceptively easy to lose marks on, because the question often phrases things as 'depreciation at r% per year' (so r is negative) rather than straightforward growth.

Write the formula out before substituting numbers. Even with the sheet in front of you, examiners award a method mark for setting the formula up correctly before the arithmetic. Students who go straight from the question to the calculation sometimes drop that mark on arithmetic they later get wrong. Our guide to showing your working in GCSE maths covers the formula-writing pattern and other method-mark techniques worth practising.

For the sine and cosine rule in particular, draw the triangle and label the sides and angles before deciding which rule to apply. The sheet gives you both rules, but it doesn't tell you which one fits a given set of knowns. Pattern-recognition is on you.

If your revision runs on structured lessons rather than reading the specification cover to cover, Cognito's Edexcel GCSE Maths Higher course walks through every formula on your sheet with worked examples. The sine rule, cosine rule, quadratic formula and compound interest each have their own video lesson plus a quiz block testing you on when to reach for which. Trigonometry, in particular, benefits from seeing the triangle setup rather than reading the rule off a page. The kinematics equations aren't on the sheet (Pearson prints them inside any question that needs them), but if you want the setup practice, they're covered in the applied-maths topic area.

The formulae you still need to recall, straight-line geometry, laws of indices, completed-square form, surds, nth-term rules and the parallelogram area, are covered in the Geometry and Algebra topic blocks. Working through those alongside your print-out of the sheet is the fastest route to being quick with the formulae you have, and fluent on the ones you don't. Our guide to getting a grade 9 in GCSE Maths covers the exam-technique patterns that go on top of formula knowledge.