WACE Math Methods exam 2026: date, time and cram sheet

When and how long

Mathematics MethodsMonday 2 November 20269.20 am startTwo sections: Section One (calculator-free) has 5 minutes reading and 50 minutes working time; Section Two (calculator-assumed) has 10 minutes reading and 100 minutes working time.

SCSA: arrive 30 minutes before the examination start time. Every ATAR written exam has 10 minutes reading time and 3 hours working time unless otherwise indicated. The timetable is final, and no allowance is made for misreading it.

Source: 2026 Year 12 ATAR course written examinations timetable (SCSA), checked Wednesday 23 September 2026. Where a start time, reading time or duration isn't shown, the timetable doesn't publish it: check your personal timetable and the front of your paper.

What the exam covers

We don't have past-paper frequency data for this exam, so here is the course, module by module. Make sure every module is covered.

Night-before and exam-morning checklists

The night before

Check your personalised timetable: SCSA makes no allowance for missing an exam by misreading it.^[1]
Read SCSA's Year 12 Information Handbook, Part II: Examinations (sitting an exam means you are taken to know it).^[1]
Pack your equipment the night before, set two alarms and sleep.^[2]

Exam morning

Arrive 30 minutes before the start time (9.20 am or 2.00 pm).^[1]
Most exams have 10 minutes reading time before working time starts.^[1]
Leave your phone and other electronic devices outside the exam room.^[2]

Exam-week survival kit: The last 7 days · The night before and exam morning · What to bring, and what's banned · How to use reading time · If you're sick or something goes wrong · Handling exam-week stress.

Last-week revision

WACE Math Methods cram sheet

Key formulas, definitions and facts copied from our Math Methods syllabus pages. One page when printed.

Unit 3

Discrete probability distribution

A discrete probability distribution lists every value $x$ the variable can take alongside its probability $P(X=x)$ . It is valid when both conditions hold:

0\le P(X=x)\le 1 \text{ for every } x, \qquad \sum_x P(X=x)=1.

From: Discrete probability distributions

Binomial probability

For $X\sim\mathrm{B}(n,p)$ ,

P(X=k)=\binom{n}{k}p^{k}(1-p)^{n-k}, \qquad k=0,1,\dots,n,

where

\binom{n}{k}=\dfrac{n!}{k!(n-k)!}

counts the arrangements of

k

successes among

n

trials.

From: Binomial probabilities and cumulative probabilities

Curve-sketching checklist

Domain and intercepts: find the $y$ -intercept ( $x=0$ ) and $x$ -intercepts ( $f(x)=0$ ).

From: Curve sketching with calculus

Mean and variance of a discrete variable

E(X) = \mu = \sum_x x\,P(X = x)

\mathrm{Var}(X) = \sigma^2 = \sum_x (x - \mu)^2 P(X = x) = E(X^2) - [E(X)]^2

\mathrm{SD}(X) = \sigma = \sqrt{\mathrm{Var}(X)}

From: Discrete random variables and the binomial distribution

Unit 4

Evaluation form. If $F$ is any antiderivative of $f$ , then

\int_a^b f(x)\,dx = F(b)-F(a).

Derivative form. If $g(x)=\displaystyle\int_a^x f(t)\,dt$ , then

g'(x)=f(x).

From: The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus

Margin of error

E = z\sqrt{\frac{\hat{p}(1-\hat{p})}{n}},

where

z

is the standard normal multiplier (

z\approx 1.96

for

95\%

,

z\approx 1.645

for

90\%

,

z\approx 2.576

for

99\%

).

From: Margin of error and sample size

The 68-95-99.7 rule

P(\mu-\sigma \le X \le \mu+\sigma) \approx 0.68,

P(\mu-2\sigma \le X \le \mu+2\sigma) \approx 0.95,

P(\mu-3\sigma \le X \le \mu+3\sigma) \approx 0.997.

From: The normal distribution and its properties

Sampling distribution of the sample proportion

E(\hat{p}) = p, \qquad \mathrm{SD}(\hat{p}) = \sqrt{\frac{p(1-p)}{n}}.

The standard deviation of

\hat{p}

is called the standard error. For large

n

,

\hat{p}

is approximately normal.

From: The sample proportion and its distribution