Sitting the ESAT in Malaysia: dates in Malaysian time, and STPM against the specification

The sitting you can book now is January

Booking for the October sitting closed at 18:00 UK time on 28 September 2026, which was 01:00 on Tuesday 29 September in Malaysia. If you have not booked, the sitting open to you is January: 4 to 8 January 2027. Malaysia has no fixed test days, so every day of that window is available. Late bookings are not accepted.

Who January is for. Cambridge and Oxford applicants must sit in October; the only exceptions are Cambridge mature colleges with a January deadline and Oxford's Astrophoria Foundation Year. If you are applying only to Imperial or UCL, you can choose January, and UAT-UK says neither sitting gives an advantage. If you already booked October, you sit between 12 and 16 October 2026 and your results come on 16 November 2026.

STPM and the ESAT

The Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia calendar puts the STPM 2026 Semester 3 written papers on 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26 November 2026: after the October ESAT and before the January one. So the ESAT does not share a week with your Semester 3 papers, whichever sitting you take.

Entry requirements, as each university states them: Cambridge says an STPM offer "would be based on grades AAA"; Imperial asks for a "minimum of AAA including required subjects". Check the course page for the subjects your course names.

STPM Mathematics and Physics against the ESAT

The ESAT has five modules: Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Everyone sits Mathematics 1, most people sit two more, and your course decides which. The codes below are the ESAT specification's own.

• STPM Mathematics T (954), the syllabus used from the Semester 1 2026 examination, covers logarithms, the binomial expansion, sequences and series, analytic geometry, differentiation, integration and differential equations. That is the ground of MM2, MM3, MM5, MM6 and MM7.
• It includes the trapezium rule (12.2, Numerical integration), MM7.5, which several other school curricula leave out. If you took Mathematics T, you have met it.
• STPM Physics (960) covers everything in the ESAT's Physics module, P1 to P7, and more.
• Chemistry and Biology: go through the ESAT specification line by line against your notes and mark anything you have not met.

Calculators and dictionaries are not allowed in the ESAT, so practise mental arithmetic and estimation early.

Booking and sitting it in Malaysia

• Create a UAT-UK account first, with your name exactly as it appears on your ID, then choose the ESAT and your modules and book a centre and time through Pearson VUE. The official website is esat-tmua.ac.uk.
• You sit it on a computer at a Pearson VUE test centre, not at your school.
• ID: an original, valid document with a photo, in the name you booked with. A passport is accepted at any centre; a government identity card or photocard driving licence only in the country that issued it. ID without a visible signature normally needs a signed bank card as well, but a Malaysian passport is accepted without a signature at a centre in Malaysia.
• The fee depends on where the test centre is, not on your nationality or home; see UAT-UK's website for the amount.
• Extra time is not given because English is not your first language. It is for candidates with a disability, learning difference or medical condition, with evidence.
• Modules cannot be changed, added or removed after booking. You would have to cancel and book again, and your slot may be gone.

Where to start

• The preparation plan: what to do, in order, working back from your test date.
• The free diagnostic: find your weakest module first.
• Practice by topic: every question filed under the specification topic and skill it tests.
• The mock papers: all five modules, with a timed test at the top of each module page.
• One to one teaching: how I teach, and how to get in touch.

Every question here is written and checked by me, Lucas Rey. I did my master's at Cambridge, then moved on to research at Oxford, and I teach the ESAT.