Admissions Test Preparation · Editorial Standards
How We Verify Every ESAT Solution
A wrong worked solution costs a real applicant real marks. Every question across all four papers is built from that paper's own original source copy and checked against it directly, not written from memory or pattern. Every solution then passes the same three-part review before it is published.
Built from the original papers, not from memory
Every question on this site starts from that paper's own original source copy: the actual printed question, diagram and answer options, not a paraphrase of them. Where a worked solution depends on a diagram, we go back to that source figure directly rather than infer what it probably shows.
To be precise about what "original" means here: the ESAT is a recent test, and official past papers are limited. The four mock papers on this site are our own, written to the UAT-UK specification, not reproductions of official ESAT sittings. "Original source copy" means the paper's own first authored draft, the version every worked solution is checked against so nothing drifts between what was written and what is published.
That source-first discipline is what catches the errors a quick read-through misses. When a question's answer turned on which quantity a graph's axis actually plotted, we measured the original figure pixel-by-pixel rather than trust the printed label. When a mechanics question's geometry was ambiguous, we reconstructed it with vector algebra and confirmed the credited answer by direct proof, not estimation. Both changes are live on the papers today, exactly as re-derived.
The three-part review every question passes
No question is published on the strength of one check. Each one is reviewed three separate times, for three different failure modes.
| Check | What it catches |
|---|---|
| Mathematical & Scientific Accuracy | Is the credited answer actually correct? Every distractor is recomputed independently, not pattern-matched, including a check that no two answer options are secretly the same value in different notation. That kind of duplicate is the easiest error to miss by eye and the easiest to catch by direct computation. |
| LaTeX & Formatting | Does every equation render correctly, on mobile as well as desktop, with no orphaned units, glued symbols or broken tables? Formatting bugs don't change what's correct, but they cost time under exam pressure, so they're treated as seriously as content errors. |
| Pedagogical Clarity | Does the fastest route to the answer actually appear, and does the explanation match the question that was asked? A solution that is technically correct but explains the wrong method, or answers a subtly different question than the one printed, fails this check even if the final number is right. |
When source material is incomplete, we say so
On rare occasions, our archive copy of a source paper doesn't fully reproduce one question: a scan artefact, a page break, a capture gap. In that situation the question is marked for manual review rather than filled in with a plausible-sounding guess. We would rather show you an honest gap than a confident-looking fabrication. If a clearer source copy later becomes available, the question is restored from it the same way as the rest of the paper.
Takeaway (📌): If a solution on this site ever looks off, it's worth a second look from us, not a second guess from you. Tell us which question and it gets checked against the source paper directly.
An ongoing process, not a one-time check
- Every paper is re-audited, not just proofread once. Passes are repeated over time, specifically looking for the errors an earlier pass was less likely to catch: duplicate answer options, diagram-dependent questions, and mismatches between a question and its own worked solution.
- Timing benchmarks are calibrated to the real exam, not to how long the topic takes to teach. Each question's target time is weighted against the paper's actual 40-minute, 27-question limit.
- Corrections are applied directly to the live page, not queued for a future edition. If a review changes a credited answer, the page you read reflects it immediately.