United States
Hong KongWhat the mathematics reference sheet covers, and why we will not guess
A mathematics reference sheet is supplied during the Mathematics subtest, per FLDOE's Test Structure document. We cannot tell you what is on it. The sheet is published on the testing vendor's site, which blocks automated access, and we will not list contents we have not read.
This page has a title it cannot fully answer, and leaving it that way is deliberate.
What is documented
FLDOE's Test Structure document, effective 1 January 2026, states that an on-screen calculator and a mathematics reference sheet are supplied during the Mathematics subtest. We hold that document and have read it. It says a sheet is provided. It does not print the sheet.
- Supplied
- Yes, during the Mathematics subtest
- Source for that
- FTCE Test Structure Information, effective 1 January 2026
- Contents
- Not verified by us
- Why not
- The sheet is on the testing vendor's site, which blocks automated access
- What we will do
- Say so, rather than reprint someone else's summary
Why we are not filling the gap
It would be easy. Every other site covering this exam publishes a formula list, and we could assemble a plausible one in twenty minutes from the geometry and measurement competency.
Here is the problem with that. A candidate who reads a formula list on a prep site and believes it is the supplied sheet stops memorizing those formulas. If our list is wrong in one place - if we include the volume of a cone and the real sheet does not - we have not given you a small inaccuracy. We have removed something from your revision on the strength of a guess, and you find out at a Pearson center with 100 minutes on a clock.
The asymmetry is the whole argument. A missing list costs you some convenience. A wrong list costs you marks.
Anyone who has the vendor's Test Information Guide open in front of them can tell you exactly what is on that sheet, and on this specific question they are more useful than we are. If a site cites the guide by name and describes what it saw, that is worth more than our honest gap. Ask any site where its formula list came from.
The better question anyway
A reference sheet solves recall. It cannot solve selection, and selection is what this subtest tests.
Look at how wrong options are built on Mathematics items. Area offered when the stem asked for perimeter. Mean offered when it asked for median. Circumference offered against area. In each case both formulas would be on any reference sheet worth printing, sitting side by side, and the sheet gives you no help at all in choosing between them.
So a candidate whose weakness is remembering that the area of a circle uses the radius squared is helped by a sheet. A candidate whose weakness is reading a word problem and deciding what quantity it wants is not, and the second candidate is far more common.
Build your own list from the rule
You can do this from documents that are public and that we do hold. Mathematics carries four competencies and 21 skills, and Section 82 of the competencies document names each skill in the rule's own words. Work through them and write down every formula the skills imply.
| Competency | Skills | What to build a list from |
|---|---|---|
| Number sense, concepts and operations | 3 | Fraction, decimal and percent conversion; order of operations; ratio and rate |
| Geometry and measurement | 4 | Perimeter, area and volume of the figures the skills name; angle relationships; unit conversion |
| Algebraic thinking and the coordinate plane | 7 | Solving linear equations and inequalities; slope; systems; sequences and functions |
| Probability, statistics and data | 7 | Mean, median, mode and range; simple and compound probability; reading tables and graphs |
The skill counts are published in the competencies document. FLDOE does not publish how many items fall under each competency, so the counts above are a guide to breadth rather than a weighting.
Then split the list in two
Take everything you wrote down and sort it into things a sheet could plausibly give you, and things it never could. The volume of a cylinder could be on a sheet. Knowing that a question about how much a tank holds is a volume question is not the kind of thing a sheet contains.
Memorize the first column anyway, on the assumption that nothing is supplied. Drill the second column as the real work, because that is where the subtest lives. If the sheet turns out to be generous, you have lost an evening of memorization and gained the confidence of not needing it.
On the day
Whatever the sheet contains, open it once at the start and look at it, so you know what is there before you need it. Hunting through an unfamiliar reference document mid-question is a good way to spend two of your 2.86 minutes discovering that the formula you wanted is not on it.
Common questions
Is a formula sheet provided on the FTCE Mathematics subtest?
Yes. FLDOE's Test Structure document states that an on-screen calculator and a mathematics reference sheet are supplied during the Mathematics subtest. What the sheet contains is published on the testing vendor's site, which we have not been able to access.
What formulas are on the FTCE reference sheet?
We cannot tell you, and we will not guess. The sheet is on the vendor's site, which blocks automated access, so we have not read it. Any list we published would be inference, and a wrong list would remove real formulas from your revision.
Should I memorize formulas if a sheet is provided?
Yes. Prepare as though nothing is supplied, then treat whatever the sheet gives you as a bonus. Since we cannot verify its contents, the only safe assumption is the conservative one.
Which formulas should I learn for FTCE Mathematics?
Build the list from the competencies themselves, which are public: perimeter, area and volume, angle relationships, unit conversion, linear equations and inequalities, slope, systems, mean, median, mode, range, and simple and compound probability.
Does a reference sheet make the Mathematics subtest easier?
Less than people expect. A sheet solves recall, not selection, and most marks are lost by choosing the wrong formula rather than by misremembering one. Area and perimeter both appear on any sheet, and the item is about knowing which was asked for.