Prepare for the ESAT in five stages: confirm your modules, check your knowledge against UAT-UK’s content specification, fill the gaps with its free ESAT Guide, sit past questions at the real 40-minute pace, and review every mistake. Everything you need is published free by UAT-UK, which does not endorse any tutoring service.
By Archie Dyer, founder of Cognivia Tutoring · Last checked 15 October 2026
Modules of 40 minutes each27 multiple-choice questions per module, separately timed.
Mathematics 1 plus usually two moreYour course decides which. Choice is locked at booking.
No calculatorAn erasable booklet is provided for working.
A published specificationEvery module assumes the Mathematics 1 content.
Free official materialsThe ESAT Guide, and ENGAA and NSAA papers from 2016 to 2023.
What is the best way to prepare for the ESAT?
The best way starts with what UAT-UK, which runs the test, recommends: “read the test specification to see if there are any topics that you need to revise” and “answer the specimen test under timed conditions”. The plan below puts its free materials in the order I would use them. The facts are UAT-UK’s; the order and the advice are my own.
A five-stage ESAT preparation plan and the official free resource for each stage
Stage
What to do
Free official resource
1. Confirm your modules
Find out exactly which modules your courses need before you book.
Sit questions at the ESAT’s pace: 27 in 40 minutes, no calculator.
Specimen and practice tests in the Pearson test player, and ENGAA and NSAA past papers.
5. Review
Work out why each mark was lost, then go back to stage 2 or 3.
The explained answers with the specimen tests, and the answer keys with each past paper.
Recommendation quoted from UAT-UK’s About the ESAT page; resources listed on its Prepare page. Checked on 15 October 2026.
Stage 1: which ESAT modules do you need?
Everyone sits Mathematics 1. UAT-UK says most candidates then sit two further modules from Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics 2, and which two depends on the course. Engineering and Physics courses mostly name Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2 and Physics; others leave the choice to you.
Settle this first, because it decides everything that follows, and because UAT-UK says module selection cannot be changed or added after booking. If one of your courses names its modules and another leaves a free choice, the named modules have to come first. The guide to which ESAT modules you need sets out the 2027 entry course list by university.
Source: UAT-UK’s About the ESAT page and Course List 2027 Entry. Always check the course page on the university’s own website before booking. Checked on 15 October 2026.
What is the format of the ESAT?
The ESAT is a computer-based test at a Pearson VUE test centre, made of separately timed modules. For most candidates it is three modules and 120 minutes in total.
Each module
27 multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes.
Timing
The specification states: “If a candidate finishes a module early, the time will not be carried over to the next module.”
Calculator
Not allowed. The specification: “Candidates will be provided with an erasable booklet for working. Calculators may NOT be used.”
Marking
“Each correct answer will score 1 mark. No marks are deducted for incorrect answers.”
Score
Each module is reported separately, on a scale from 1 to 9 to one decimal place. There is no pass or fail. More in the guide to what a good ESAT score is.
Forty minutes for 27 questions is just under 90 seconds a question. That pace, more than any single topic, is what catches strong students out, so every guess should be made rather than left blank.
Stages 2 and 3: what do you need to know for the ESAT?
You need the topics listed for your modules in Appendix 1 of the specification. One rule matters more than any other: “All modules will assume knowledge of the content of Mathematics 1.” A gap in Mathematics 1 costs marks in Physics and Chemistry too.
Topic areas in the ESAT content specification, by module
Module
Topic areas in the specification
Mathematics 1
Units; number; ratio and proportion; algebra; geometry; statistics; probability.
Mathematics 2
Mathematics 1, plus algebra and functions; sequences and series; coordinate geometry; trigonometry; exponentials and logarithms; differentiation; integration; graphs of functions.
Seventeen areas, from atomic structure and the Periodic Table through quantitative chemistry, bonding, energetics and electrolysis to organic chemistry and chemical tests.
Biology
Eleven areas, from cells and membranes through inheritance, DNA and enzymes to animal and plant physiology and ecosystems.
A few details in the specification are worth knowing before you start:
Formulae mostly have to be known. The Physics section asks candidates to “know and be able to apply” its equations. In Mathematics 1, formulae for spheres, pyramids and cones “will be given if needed”.
Some things are excluded. In Mathematics 1, “Candidates are not expected to recall or use the sine or cosine rules.”
Units are examined throughout. Knowledge of the SI unit of every quantity is assumed, along with the prefixes from nano- to giga-.
Mathematics 2 overlaps with the TMUA. Its extra topics are the same eight areas as Part 1 of the TMUA specification, and UAT-UK publishes one set of notes for both.
How I would approach it: print the pages for your modules and treat them as a checklist, marking each line as secure, shaky or not yet taught. Students on any curriculum, A-Level or IB, should read every line, because no school course matches it exactly. Then use the matching document in UAT-UK’s ESAT Guide for the lines that are not secure, starting with Mathematics 1.
Stages 4 and 5: where are ESAT past papers, and how should you use them?
The ESAT is newer than the tests it replaced, so UAT-UK points candidates to two kinds of practice material, both free:
Specimen and practice tests that open in the Pearson test player, the software used at the test centre. UAT-UK says the specimen tests “include explained answers that will aid your preparation”, and that questions should be viewed on a desktop computer, not a phone.
ENGAA and NSAA past papers, the Cambridge engineering and natural sciences tests, for each year from 2016 to 2023, each with an answer key. UAT-UK says they “contain questions of the type found in the ESAT”, and adds: “We have indicated in the papers where questions are not in the ESAT specification.”
Practice tests do not give a score. UAT-UK says its tests “do not award a score upon completion”, and that “candidates should not expect to score as highly on these tests as they have in their school exams.” Be wary of anyone converting a practice mark into a predicted score.
How I would use them:
Use the ESAT’s pace, not the old papers’. The ENGAA and NSAA were written for older tests, so rather than copying their timing, set your own blocks of 27 questions in 40 minutes, from the topics in your modules, with no calculator.
Skip the questions UAT-UK has marked as outside the ESAT specification, rather than learning extra content for them.
Save the specimen and practice tests for later, so there is fresh, ESAT-format material in the final weeks.
Review before moving on. For each question that was wrong or guessed, decide whether the cause was a gap in knowledge, a misread question, a slip in arithmetic or time. Then go back to the specification or the ESAT Guide.
There is no official figure, and it depends on your starting point. UAT-UK says the ESAT “will draw on science and mathematics that you are likely to have already learned in your school studies”, so “you shouldn’t need to do too much additional preparation”.
My own judgement is to start early enough to finish the specification check before timed practice begins, with a little each week rather than everything in the final fortnight. For the January 2027 sitting, booking opens on 26 October 2026 and closes on 21 December, and the test runs from 4 to 8 January 2027. Starting in late October gives about ten weeks.
Not necessarily. UAT-UK states: “All necessary preparatory materials are available, free of charge, to all candidates”, and says it is “not connected to, and does not endorse or promote” any paid preparation service. Many candidates prepare with the free materials alone. A tutor does not replace that work. What one-to-one help adds is someone to explain the answer that still does not make sense, to find the Mathematics 1 gap behind a run of wrong Physics answers, and to work on pace.
How Cognivia can help
Cognivia Tutoring is independent, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by UAT-UK, Pearson VUE or any university. Archie Dyer, a second-year Theoretical Physics student at UCL who sat the ESAT himself, teaches Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2, Physics and Chemistry, but not Biology. Lessons are one hour, at £45 online on Google Meet or £55 in person around Marylebone, London. A 5-pack of five lessons saves £15, at £210 online or £260 in person, and a 30-minute online introduction is free with no card needed. None of this is a promise about a score.
UAT-UK statements from its Prepare page. Checked on 15 October 2026.
FAQ
ESAT preparation questions, answered
There is no official figure. UAT-UK says the ESAT draws on science and mathematics you are likely to have already learned at school, so you should not need too much additional preparation. How long it takes depends on how many lines of the specification are new to you and on how comfortable you are with the pace of 27 questions in 40 minutes.
UAT-UK publishes free specimen and practice tests in the Pearson test player, with explained answers for the specimen tests. It also publishes ENGAA and NSAA past papers from 2016 to 2023 with answer keys, which it says contain questions of the type found in the ESAT, with questions outside the ESAT specification marked.
No. The ESAT specification states that calculators may not be used. Candidates are given an erasable booklet for working.
Not in general. The Physics section of the specification asks candidates to know and be able to apply its equations. In Mathematics 1, formulae for spheres, pyramids and cones will be given if needed, and the sine and cosine rules are not expected.
No. UAT-UK says module selection cannot be changed or added after booking; a candidate who needs different modules has to cancel and re-book, subject to test centre availability. Check each course page before booking.
Not necessarily. UAT-UK makes all its preparation materials free and does not endorse any paid service, and many candidates prepare with those alone. One-to-one help adds someone to explain the answers that still do not make sense, find gaps in Mathematics 1 and work on pace.
Yes. Archie Dyer teaches the Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2, Physics and Chemistry modules one to one in one-hour lessons, at £45 online or £55 in person around Marylebone, London, with a free 30-minute online introduction. Biology is not taught. Cognivia Tutoring is independent of UAT-UK and makes no promise about scores.
Where to go next
The pages below cover the test itself, the dates and the tutoring.
