A Free ESAT Sample Pack: the First Ten Questions of Every Module
Lucas Rey · Oxford DPhil · Cambridge MRes
All five modules, with the full worked solutions, mark schemes, answer sheets and a reference to what the ESAT assesses. 23 documents, no sign-up.
Not sure where to start? 5 places to go
Start with your question
Why visitors arrive: You are a teacher, head of sixth form, or student looking for a full ESAT mock paper to sit under timed conditions.
Your question: Where can I get a complete ESAT mock paper with worked solutions?
You may also be asking
- What is in the pack, and how do I run it as a mock?
- How does it differ from the real ESAT?
- Can I get an unseen paper that my students have not seen?
Where to go next
- ESAT Worked Solutions Hub: Free worked solutions: the four full papers and the practice questions by topic
- For Schools: Commissioning unseen packs and school workshops
- Sit a sample module against the clock: four sample papers, five worked questions in every module, with a timed test at the top of each page
- Practice questions by topic and skill: Every published question filed under the specification topic and skill it tests
- How these papers are built: Measured against 648 official questions, with the gaps stated
- What it is: a full ESAT mock sitting: Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2, Physics, Chemistry, Biology.
- Format: 27 multiple-choice questions per module, 40 minutes each, no calculator, exactly as the UAT-UK content specification sets out.
- How much of it is here: the first 10 questions of every module, in full. Each file is the length of the real one, so you can see how long a commissioned paper runs; past question 10 the pages carry a note rather than questions.
- Cost: free, and free to use with your own students. Not for resale or republication.
- Calibration: built to feel like the real paper: the same length, the same pace, the same kind of traps.
ESAT past papers: what UAT-UK publishes
No ESAT sitting has been released yet: the test was first sat in 2024. What UAT-UK, which sets the ESAT, publishes instead is free and worth doing first:
- The official ESAT specimen and practice tests, on Pearson VUE, in the on-screen player the real test uses. The specimen tests explain every answer.
- The official ESAT Guide and the ENGAA and NSAA past paper archive, 2016 to 2023, with answer keys and a note wherever a question falls outside the ESAT specification.
- UAT-UK’s preparation page, with the ESAT specification.
None of those is written in the current five-module format with every question worked. This pack is, for the first ten questions of each module: download it below.
Download the pack
Every document is a PDF, watermarked as a sample. Start with the covering letter, which says what the pack is and how it was checked.
Mathematics 1
- Question paper: the first 10 questions, laid out exactly as the full paper is
- Answer sheet: a separate grid, so the paper can be reused and marking is mechanical
- Mark scheme: the keys and nothing else, so marking needs no subject knowledge
- Worked solutions: every question re-derived, every wrong option explained
Mathematics 2
- Question paper: the first 10 questions, laid out exactly as the full paper is
- Answer sheet: a separate grid, so the paper can be reused and marking is mechanical
- Mark scheme: the keys and nothing else, so marking needs no subject knowledge
- Worked solutions: every question re-derived, every wrong option explained
Physics
- Question paper: the first 10 questions, laid out exactly as the full paper is
- Answer sheet: a separate grid, so the paper can be reused and marking is mechanical
- Mark scheme: the keys and nothing else, so marking needs no subject knowledge
- Worked solutions: every question re-derived, every wrong option explained
Chemistry
- Question paper: the first 10 questions, laid out exactly as the full paper is
- Answer sheet: a separate grid, so the paper can be reused and marking is mechanical
- Mark scheme: the keys and nothing else, so marking needs no subject knowledge
- Worked solutions: every question re-derived, every wrong option explained
Biology
- Question paper: the first 10 questions, laid out exactly as the full paper is
- Answer sheet: a separate grid, so the paper can be reused and marking is mechanical
- Mark scheme: the keys and nothing else, so marking needs no subject knowledge
- Worked solutions: every question re-derived, every wrong option explained
Whole pack
- Covering letter: what the pack is, how it was checked, and what it does not do
- What the ESAT assesses: the content of the test, module by module, in a candidate's own words
- The whole extract, one document: all 22 documents in one bookmarked PDF, in reading order
Want the whole paper?
The pack above is a sample, written for nobody in particular and published as it stands. It shows 10 questions of the 27 rather than a whole module, because a whole paper is the thing being sold. A commissioned pack is 27 questions in every module, with the same worked solutions, mark schemes and answer sheets, written for your school, recorded against it and issued to nobody else.
- Written for your school, in its name and dated to your sitting.
- Checked question by question before it is issued, against the same rules every question in this extract was held to.
- Unseen. Your questions are published nowhere, including on this page.
- Ready to sit: printed pack, answer sheets, mark scheme, syllabus reference.
How these papers are made
How the questions are written and checked
Every question in this pack was written for this site and checked by a researcher before it was issued.
On every question, every time a paper is built, it is re-derived independently from its own stem, its key confirmed as the only correct option, and every wrong option traced to a slip a real student makes.
Nothing goes into a paper until it has passed all of it. That is why the worked solutions can tell a student what reasoning led them to C, rather than only that the answer was B.
Using this with a class. This pack is the one thing here made to be printed and sat with a group, which is why it carries mark schemes and answer sheets. You are welcome to run it with your candidates. The question sets elsewhere on the site are published for individual candidates working on their own and are not licensed for class use, republication or resale. A paper written for your own candidates and used nowhere else is a commissioned pack.
What this pack does, and what it does not
A mock paper that overstates its own fidelity is worse than one that admits its limits, so here are both, measured rather than asserted.
Measured against the official papers
- Built to feel like the real paper: the same length, the same pace, the same kind of traps. A blind guess scores about 16 percent here against about 14 percent on the official papers, so read a raw mark as a slight overestimate.
Where it differs from the real test
- It is on paper, which is what makes it usable in a classroom. You can print it, sit a whole cohort under timed conditions, and mark it in the room the same afternoon, with no device and no account for anyone. The real ESAT is sat on screen at a Pearson test centre, so a printed mock trains the mathematics and the pacing but not the interface. Use the official on-screen practice at least once for that, or one of the free timed subject papers on this site, which run in the browser and mark themselves.
- The worked solutions go further than the published papers do. The historic ENGAA and NSAA papers ship an answer key and nothing else, and while the official specimen tests do explain their answers, no full-length paper in the current format shows its working. So every solution here, the named error behind every wrong option included, is work the official material does not offer at this length.
How it was checked
Every question was independently re-derived from its own stem, its key confirmed as uniquely correct, and each wrong option traced to a specific error that produces that exact value. The pack is then checked against the specification before it goes out.
One thing worth saying plainly: nobody has read this pack cover to cover in one sitting. Every question is checked on its own, which is a real method with a real limit, and the limit is better stated than implied.
Frequently asked questions
Are there any ESAT past papers?
No. The ESAT was first sat in 2024 and UAT-UK has not released a past paper for it. What the official site publishes is five subject guides and the 16 historic ENGAA and NSAA papers, 2016 to 2023, each with an answer key, with a note in the papers where a question falls outside the ESAT specification. Those predecessor papers are the closest thing to official practice that exists, and everything else you will find online is a copy of them.
What about the official ESAT specimen questions?
They exist and you should sit them, but they are short. Pearson VUE hosts a specimen test and a sample exam for each of the five subjects, both running in the real on-screen test player, and the specimen tests explain the answer to every question. What they do not give you is a full-length timed sitting: this pack is that, on paper, at the official 27 questions in 40 minutes.
Can I use ENGAA and NSAA past papers to prepare for the ESAT?
Yes, and you should: the ESAT draws on the same material. Two limits are worth knowing. They are in the old format rather than the current five modules of 27 questions in 40 minutes, and they ship an answer key with no worked solutions, so a question you get wrong tells you only that you were wrong. This pack is written in the current format, and every question is worked.
Where can I get free ESAT practice papers with worked solutions?
Here, and without an account. This is a sample pack, written for nobody in particular: the first 10 questions of each of the 5 modules, 23 documents in all, with the worked solutions in full. There is no sign-up, no email address to give and nothing to pay. A commissioned paper carries 27 questions per module and is written for one school at a time.
Is this an official ESAT paper?
No, and no unofficial paper should claim to be. It is independent of UAT-UK, and calibrated against the official material rather than against an opinion. The section above sets out where it differs from the real test.
Can a school set this as a timed mock?
Yes, and it is built for that. Each module is 40 minutes, stated on the paper itself, and the pack carries separate answer sheets so papers can be reused and a mark scheme that is keys only, so marking needs no subject knowledge. It is free to use with your own students. It is not for resale or republication.
Will my students have seen these questions before?
Possibly, because this pack is published, and that is exactly why only one is ever given away. A commissioned pack is written for your school, recorded against it, and issued to nobody else and published nowhere.
Commissioning an unseen pack
This pack is published, so your students may have seen it. A commissioned pack is different: its questions are written for your school, recorded against it, and never issued to anyone else or published here. That is the whole point of an unseen paper, and it is why only one pack is ever given away.
Papers are built to the same specification, in your school's name, dated to your sitting, and delivered as the same 23 documents.
Using this with a class
You have the pack. These are the two things it leads to.
- Commission an unseen paper for your cohort - Written for your candidates and used nowhere else, so nobody has seen it before the day
- The free ESAT library - Twenty sample papers and practice questions by topic, every question worked in full, free for a candidate working on their own
- Ask about a place for a named candidate - One-to-one preparation, limited and taken by application
The sample pack is free to use with a class. A commissioned paper is written for your candidates alone, and its questions are never published here.