Analysis and Approaches SL focuses on algebra, functions, trigonometry, calculus and probability, with an emphasis on exact answers and mathematical reasoning. The IB formula booklet gives you the formulas with no explanation. Here are all 64 that apply to AA SL, with what each one means and when to use it.
This is an annotated companion to the booklet you are given in the exam, not a copy of it. Formulas are grouped by topic: Prior learning, Number & Algebra, Functions, Geometry & Trigonometry, Statistics & Probability, Calculus.
Base times perpendicular height.
When: Any parallelogram.
Half of base times perpendicular height.
When: When you know a base and its height.
Average of the two parallel sides times the height between them.
When: Four-sided shapes with one pair of parallel sides.
π times the radius squared.
When: Circles and disc-shaped regions.
The distance around a circle.
When: Perimeter of a circle.
Length × width × height.
When: Rectangular boxes.
Circle area times height.
When: Cylinders / tubes.
Cross-section area times length.
When: Any solid with a constant cross-section.
Unroll the side into a rectangle: circumference × height.
When: Surface area of the curved part.
Pythagoras on the horizontal and vertical gaps.
When: Length of a segment from coordinates.
Average the x-coordinates and the y-coordinates.
When: The point halfway between two points.
Start at the first term and add the common difference once per step.
When: Sequences that go up/down by a fixed amount.
Use when you know the first term and the common difference.
When: Totalling an arithmetic sequence from \(u_1\) and \(d\).
Use when you know the first and last term.
When: Totalling an arithmetic sequence from \(u_1\) and \(u_n\).
Multiply the first term by the ratio once per step.
When: Growth/decay by a fixed factor.
Shortcut for adding terms that keep multiplying by r.
When: Repeated percentage growth (e.g. savings).
If terms shrink, infinitely many add to a finite total.
When: Only when |r| < 1.
PV = start; r% = yearly rate; k = compounds per year; n = years.
When: Investments/loans compounding more than once a year.
Logs undo exponentials; use a log when the unknown is a power.
When: Solving for an exponent.
Products → sums, quotients → differences, powers come out front.
When: Combining/splitting logs to solve equations.
Rewrite a log in a base your calculator has (10 or e).
When: Evaluating e.g. log₅30.
Expands a bracket to a power; each term chooses r b's via C(n,r).
When: Expanding powers or finding one term.
The vertical line through the vertex - halfway between the roots.
When: Max/min of a quadratic.
Solves any quadratic; the ± gives the two roots.
When: When it won't factorise nicely.
Δ>0 → two roots; Δ=0 → one; Δ<0 → none.
When: How many real roots a quadratic has.
Three equivalent forms: gradient–intercept, general, and point–gradient.
When: Lines, gradients and intercepts.
Rise over run between two points.
When: Finding the slope from two points.
Rewrite any exponential in base \(e\); logs and powers of the same base undo each other.
When: Switching bases (AA).
Grows with the cube of the radius.
When: Balls, domes.
Exactly four circle-areas.
When: Outer area of a sphere.
A third of the cylinder with the same base and height.
When: Cones.
Uses the slant height l, not the vertical height.
When: Surface of the sloping part.
A third of base area times height.
When: Pyramids.
The three ratios linking an angle to the sides of a right triangle.
When: Right-angled triangles.
Pairs each side with its opposite angle.
When: A side + its opposite angle are known.
Pythagoras plus an angle-correction term.
When: Two sides + included angle, or all three sides.
Half the product of two sides times the sine of the angle between.
When: No perpendicular height available.
Radius times the angle (θ in radians).
When: AA - angles in radians.
The 'pizza slice' area (θ in radians).
When: AA - angles in radians.
Lets you swap between sin and cos.
When: Given one of sinθ/cosθ, find the other.
Definition of tan in terms of sin and cos.
When: Simplifying / solving trig equations.
Rewrite trig of 2θ in terms of θ.
When: Simplifying, integrating, exact values.
Pythagoras in three dimensions.
When: Length of a segment in 3-D space.
Average each coordinate of the two endpoints.
When: Midpoint in 3-D space.
Each value weighted by how often it occurs.
When: Grouped or repeated data.
Favourable outcomes over total outcomes.
When: Equally-likely outcomes.
Add the chances, subtract the overlap.
When: P(A or B).
Chance of A once B is known - sample space shrinks to B.
When: 'Given that…' problems.
Multiply when one event doesn't affect the other.
When: Both happen; also the test for independence.
Long-run average: outcomes weighted by probability.
When: Fair games, average payoff.
n independent trials, success chance p; on average np successes.
When: Fixed number of yes/no trials.
How many standard deviations a value is from the mean.
When: Normal-distribution problems by hand.
Line of best fit; r measures strength/direction of linear association.
When: Bivariate data, prediction.
The spread of the middle 50% of the data.
When: Spread; outlier boundaries.
An event and its non-occurrence have probabilities that sum to 1.
When: Finding \(P(\text{not } A)\).
When two events cannot both happen, just add their probabilities.
When: Events with no overlap.
Bring the power down, reduce it by one.
When: Differentiating powers of x.
The common functions and their derivatives.
When: Differentiating trig/exponential/log (AA).
Differentiate the outside, times the derivative of the inside.
When: Function inside a function.
For products and fractions of two functions.
When: Differentiating e.g. x²eˣ or x/(x+1).
Reverse of differentiating: raise the power, divide by it.
When: Integrating powers of x (don't forget +C).
The common antiderivatives.
When: Integrating exponential/log/trig (AA).
A definite integral sums thin strips into a signed area.
When: Area, and (with velocity) distance.
Differentiate to go displacement→velocity→acceleration; integrate to reverse.
When: Motion problems.
Knowing a formula is not the same as using it under exam pressure. Practise every AA SL topic with auto-marked questions and full worked solutions, and see the GDC guides for the calculator steps that go with them.