Edexcel GCSE Maths Higher formulae sheet: A complete guide

If you're sitting Edexcel GCSE Maths Higher tier in 2027, there's a formulae sheet handed out with every paper. The thing to know up front is that it looks nothing like Appendix 3 of the 2015 specification document, which only lists four shape formulae for cones and spheres. The sheet you actually sit with is a much longer Ofqual-sanctioned insert that was brought in from 2022 onwards.

The lore was that this would only be around for a couple of years because of Covid. Then on 5 May 2026 Ofqual confirmed the sheets will carry on for the lifetime of the current specifications, so it's part of the furniture now.

The awkward bit is that if you revise from an older textbook or an out-of-date spec summary, you'll walk in thinking you need to memorise the quadratic formula, the sine rule, the cosine rule and compound interest. You don't. All of those are on the sheet your invigilator will drop in front of you.

This guide walks through what's on the current sheet, what you still have to bring in from memory, where to download the official PDF, and how Edexcel's version lines up with AQA and OCR.

The Higher sheet is the Ofqual-sanctioned supplementary insert, printed with every exam paper from the 2022 series onwards. Pearson publishes a fresh version each year and the content stays the same, with only presentational tweaks possible for the lifetime of the specification.

It's handed to every candidate at the start of the exam alongside the question paper. You can write on it, keep it next to you throughout, and nobody expects you to hand back the clean copy at the end. You get it in all three papers, so Paper 1 (non-calculator) as well as Papers 2 and 3. That's worth flagging because plenty of students assume the sheet is a calculator-paper thing.

The sheet doesn't replace what the spec expects of you, though. Pearson still wants you to use and rearrange formulae yourself, and it won't do any of the thinking for you. It gives you the standard forms. Recognising which one a question needs and setting it up correctly is on you.

The Higher sheet groups the formulae into blocks by topic. The list below reflects what Pearson has published through recent exam series. Check the current year's PDF before your exam, because the presentation can shift a bit from year to year.

The sheet is broad but it isn't the whole picture. You've still got a decent chunk to bring in from memory, and some of it catches people out because it feels like the kind of thing that should be printed.

Straight-line geometry sits firmly in the recall bucket. The equation of a line y = mx + c, the gradient formula (y₂ − y₁) / (x₂ − x₁), the midpoint formula and the distance between two points. None of those are on the sheet.

Algebra is a mixed bag. 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. All expected content, all come up in every Higher paper.

Sequence rules are expected knowledge too. nth-term formulae for arithmetic sequences, geometric sequences and the quadratic sequence rule are all memory work.

Area of a parallelogram, base × perpendicular height, 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 Higher content and none of them appear on the sheet.

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

At content level, the sheets across boards are near-identical. All three boards are governed by the same DfE subject content and the same Ofqual provision, so the formulae themselves don't vary. What varies is the layout.

AQA presents its Higher sheet with headings like 'Perimeter, area and volume' and 'The quadratic formula'. OCR, which the 2015 spec text somewhat confusingly describes as having 'no formula sheet', actually 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) is no longer the live reference; those are now given in the question.

For exam day, the best thing to do is 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, double-check 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 end up losing time hunting for things they could have found quickly with a bit of practice.

Print the current Pearson PDF and physically keep it next to every past paper you sit at home. 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, and you won't spend thirty seconds scanning for the quadratic formula in a question where you've only got two minutes anyway.

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 matters. Highlight compound interest too. It's 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 you touch the arithmetic. Students who skip straight 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 habit and other method-mark techniques.

For the sine and cosine rule, draw the triangle and label the sides and angles before you pick a rule. The sheet gives you both but doesn't tell you which fits a given set of knowns. That bit is on you.

If your revision runs on structured lessons rather than reading the spec 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. Trig especially benefits from seeing the triangle setup rather than reading the rule off a page.

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 under Geometry and Algebra. 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.