GCSE Maths Formula Sheet and Physics Equation Sheet: What You're Given in 2027 — and What You Still Have to Learn

The short answer for anyone sitting exams in 2027: yes. A formulae sheet is provided in GCSE Maths and an equation sheet in GCSE Physics and Combined Science, on every board, on both tiers, as a clean copy inserted with the question paper.

The longer answer is a chain of decisions worth knowing, because it explains why so much advice online is out of date. The sheets began as a pandemic adaptation in 2022 and were kept for 2023 and 2024. In November 2024 Ofqual confirmed they would continue for 2025, 2026 and 2027 — including the November maths series in each of those years — and that the 2025 sheets would be identical to the 2024 ones. Then, on 5 May 2026, Ofqual went further and confirmed the sheets will continue from 2028 onwards for the remaining lifetime of the current qualifications, including any resit opportunities.

That decision came with conditions on the exam boards that tell you a great deal about how the sheets are meant to work. Boards must publish each year's sheets by 1 September of the preceding year, provide clean copies with the papers, keep the content consistent with previous years and between specifications, and — the clause students should read twice — not set questions that can be answered solely by transferring information from the formulae or equations sheets. The consultation behind it drew 91.7% support for the maths proposal and 93% for physics and combined science.

The maths sheet is far shorter than most families expect: eight entries on Foundation and thirteen on Higher. Here is the full contents, taken from Pearson Edexcel's Exam Aid documents and cross-checked against AQA's insert, which carries the same formulae in a different layout.

There is a neat irony buried in that table. The Department for Education's subject content says students are expected to know the quadratic formula, the circle formulae, Pythagoras, the trigonometric ratios, the sine and cosine rules and ½ab sin C, and that these must not be given in the assessment. It also says the trapezium, prism, compound interest and probability formulae should be derived or informally understood and must not be given either. The sheet hands over precisely those two groups — which is exactly why it took an Ofqual-level decision to allow it, rather than a change by the exam boards.

One practical note: the sheet is tier-specific. A Foundation student never sees the quadratic formula or the sine rule on their paper, because those topics are Higher-only content. If your child is still weighing the tiers, my guide to Foundation or Higher tier sets out what each one covers.

This is the section I would staple to the inside of every Year 11 folder. The sheet covers thirteen things; a GCSE maths course needs dozens. Everything below has to come from memory, and in my experience it is the quiet assumption that “it'll be on the sheet” that costs marks rather than any single missing formula.

A separate group is worth understanding because it causes needless worry: the volume of a sphere, the volume of a cone, the surface area of a sphere, the curved surface area of a cone and the kinematics formulae are not on the sheet but do not need to be memorised either. The subject content classes them as formulae students should be able to use but need not recall, so they are given inside the question whenever they are needed. If a question wants the volume of a sphere, it will hand you the formula.

The practical test I give students is simple. Work through a past paper with the official sheet beside you, and every time you reach for something that is not on it, write that formula on a single sheet of A4. Within two papers you have a personal, evidence-based “must memorise” list — and it will be much shorter and much more targeted than a generic revision poster.

Physics works the opposite way round, and this is where out-of-date advice does real damage. In a normal year AQA's specification splits equations into two lists: 23 that students must recall and apply, and 12 they select and apply from a printed equation sheet. Search for “AQA physics equation sheet” today and you will still find that old 12-equation insert, and plenty of pages describing it as current.

Under the arrangements that run through 2027 and onwards, the sheet is much fuller. AQA's Combined Science insert — printed with the wording “FOR USE IN JUNE 2026 ONLY” — lists the recall equations too: weight = mass × gravitational field strength, resultant force = mass × acceleration, potential difference = current × resistance, charge flow = current × time, distance = speed × time and the rest, alongside the select-and-apply list. Pearson's equivalent list for GCSE Physics (1PH0) and Combined Science (1SC0) does the same, with a separate block of physics-only equations at the end.

That last point matters when you download a sheet: Combined Science and separate Physics use different versions. Moments, pressure = force ÷ area, the transformer turns-ratio, pressure due to a column of liquid and the fixed-mass gas law appear for Physics students but not for Combined Science. If you are weighing those two routes, my guide to combined versus triple science covers the wider decision. The table below picks out the equations I see students misuse most — with the mistake to avoid, which is the part no sheet will ever tell them.

Parents often assume the sheets must have made these subjects markedly easier. The evidence says otherwise, and the design explains why. Ofqual's condition on the boards is explicit: they must not set questions that can be answered solely by transferring information from the sheet. A question that simply asked a student to state F = ma would no longer be a question at all.

What the marks are actually for is everything the sheet cannot do: choosing which relationship applies to an unfamiliar situation, rearranging it correctly, converting units, carrying values through several steps, and knowing what the answer should look like. In a six-mark calculation the formula is typically worth one mark. The other five are method, substitution, unit conversion and interpretation.

And the grades bear that out. GCSE maths boundaries have not collapsed since the sheets arrived — a grade 7 on Higher still took between 57% and 69% of the marks in June 2026, depending on the board, as the 2026 grade boundaries show. There is also a hidden cost nobody warns students about: time. A student who looks up four equations per paper loses several minutes of thinking time, and the sheet gives no clue which equation to pick.

The students who use the sheet well treat it as a safety net. The ones who struggle treat it as a substitute for knowing anything — and you can spot the difference within about ten minutes of a mock paper.

My routine with GCSE students is straightforward. Print the official sheet for their board and tier in September and use it for every practice paper from then on, so it is completely familiar by May. Learn the core relationships anyway, for speed rather than for recall marks. Keep the running “not on the sheet” list described earlier. Then drill the two things the sheet cannot help with: rearranging, and unit conversion.

For science specifically, I ask students to annotate past-paper questions with the equation they chose before doing any arithmetic — it makes selection a conscious decision rather than a guess. The wider method sits inside my guides to revising for GCSE maths and revising for GCSE science, both of which build the same habit: practise retrieval and application, not re-reading.

Download from the exam board, not from a revision site. Ofqual requires boards to publish each year's sheets by 1 September of the preceding year, so the 2027 versions were due by 1 September 2026 — OCR, for instance, confirmed it would publish links to its 2027 sheets on that date, and AQA published its own note on 2027 and 2028 arrangements the same day.

Check three things on any sheet before you revise with it. First, the exam year: the boards print it on the document, with wording like “FOR USE IN JUNE 2026 ONLY”, so an undated PDF from a file-sharing site is a warning sign. Second, the tier, since Foundation and Higher maths sheets differ. Third, the qualification, because Combined Science and separate Physics use different equation lists.

One rule to pass on to your child: you may not take your own copy into the exam room. The boards say so on the document itself, and a clean copy comes with the paper. Downloading it is for revision, so that on exam day the layout is something they have seen two hundred times rather than a surprise handed over with the question paper.

Ofqual's May 2026 decision ties the sheets to the lifetime of the current specifications, which is a deliberately precise phrase. Reformed GCSEs arising from the Curriculum and Assessment Review are due to be first taught from September 2029 and 2030, so today's Year 7s and younger are the cohort whose arrangements could genuinely differ. Everyone sitting exams in 2027 and 2028 is covered by what is described here — I set out the full reform timeline in my guide to what the 2026 reforms mean for GCSEs and A-levels.

It is also worth knowing where this leads. At A-level, formula booklets and data sheets have always been standard in maths and the sciences — but they have never been complete, and a great deal is still expected from memory. Students who arrive in Year 12 having outsourced their recall to a GCSE insert feel that gap immediately, which is one of several reasons the jump catches people out, as I describe in how hard A-level maths really is and its companion on A-level physics.

None of which is an argument against the sheets. They remove a genuinely unhelpful memory tax and let the exam test the thing that matters. But they reward the student who knows the material well enough to use the sheet quickly — and that is precisely what one-to-one work is for. If you would like help turning a page of printed formulae into confident, fast problem-solving, that is exactly what my GCSE and A-level tuition in Oxford is built around.