NCEA Level 1 periodic table and Chemistry and Biology resource booklet

Formula sheet

The card below opens today's Level 1 Chemistry paper with the booklet's contents in the drawer. This is the 2025 resource booklet for 92023, the latest NZQA has published, and NZQA's 2026 specification says a periodic table and an example list of physical properties will be provided as a separate resource booklet. It is not a formula sheet in the usual sense, because the standards contain no formulae to look up.

Types of materials

The booklet's first page lists five types of material:

• Covalent networks
• Ionic materials
• Metallic solids
• Molecular substances
• Polymers

Physical properties

It also lists seven physical properties:

• Density
• Electrical conduction
• Hardness
• Heat conduction
• Malleability
• Melting / boiling point
• Solubility in water

Periodic table

The last page is a periodic table of the elements. Each box shows the atomic number and the element symbol, and the groups are numbered 1 to 18. There are no molar masses on it, which is different from the Level 2 and Level 3 tables.

What is not on the sheet

• Molar masses. The table shows atomic numbers and symbols only, so you cannot look up a mass.
• Formulae. Neither 92022 (genetic variation) nor 92023 uses a formula you look up. Answers are in paragraphs, which NZQA's specification says each question asks for.
• What each material is like. The booklet lists types and properties but does not link them. That link is the whole standard.
• Examples. NZQA says candidates should be familiar with the types of materials in the standard's explanatory notes and with the particle arrangements and attractions in them.

NZQA's 2026 specification says 92023 asks you to show how the physical properties of one or more specific types of materials inform its use, and that the exam is an online digital examination.

How to use the booklet in the exam

1. Find each element in the periodic table and note its group: group 1 and 2 are metals on the left, groups 13 to 18 are on the right.
2. Decide which type of material the substance is from its elements. A metal with a non-metal is usually ionic, two non-metals are usually molecular or a covalent network, and a metal alone is metallic.
3. Pick the physical properties the question is about from the list.
4. Write a paragraph: the particles, the attractions between them, and how that explains the property and so the use.

From the table to a material

Magnesium has atomic number 12 and oxygen has 8. The table puts magnesium in the second column of groups and oxygen in group 16, so one is a metal and the other a non-metal, and magnesium oxide is an ionic material. That leads to the properties on the list: it has a high melting point because every ion is held to its neighbours by strong attractions, it is brittle because moving layers brings like charges together, and it conducts electricity when dissolved or melted but not as a solid, because the ions can only move then.

Compare that with a metallic solid such as copper, where the particles are positive ions in a sea of shared electrons. The same property list gives different answers: copper conducts as a solid and is malleable. Practise naming the bond type in our Chemical Bonding course, then press Mark to check your answer there:

The five types of material at a glance

These are general chemistry, not a list from NZQA, and there are exceptions: graphite is a covalent network that conducts. Always answer for the substance the question names.

The Level 1 booklet and the others

The Level 2 Chemistry booklet adds molar masses to the periodic table and has formulae such as n = cV. The Level 3 booklet adds the pH, Ka and Ks lines. For how Level 1 works, see the NCEA Level 1 Chemistry and Biology guide.

Exam answers

The answers and a worked mark scheme come with today's paper once it is marked. Sit the paper with the table open beside you, mark it, and the worked answers show how each question wanted the table used. We do not publish official or past paper answers. Every question on the daily paper is our own.

Use the booklet with today's paper

Uni-Sine publishes a free daily paper on the NCEA Level 1 Chemistry and Biology: Chemistry track. It is a short timed paper of 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, not a full NCEA exam, and it is not written by NZQA. Open the booklet from the paper itself, so the table is one click away as it is in the exam.

Common mistakes with the Level 1 periodic table

• Looking for a molar mass. There is none on this table.
• Naming the type of material without explaining. The marks are for linking particles and attractions to the property.
• Claiming every ionic material conducts. It conducts only when its ions can move.
• Using one property for every material. Pick the properties the question asks about.

Read next

New Zealand · NCEA Level 2NCEA Level 2 Chemistry periodic table and formula sheetThe NCEA Level 2 Chemistry periodic table and resource booklet: the formulae for 91164 and 91166, what is missing and worked examples.