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.
How these papers are made
Who writes the questions, and how they are checked
Our researchers write them. Doctoral researchers and recent graduates in engineering, physics and mathematics at Oxford and Cambridge, who teach the subjects. Every question here was written by one of them.
Then every question is checked by software we developed ourselves, in house, for exactly this work: fixed rules where an answer has to be exact, and a review pass where the question needs judgement. This is the part we would point at first. Someone reading several hundred questions is sharp on the first and tired by the hundredth; the checks are not. On every question, every time a paper is built, they:
- work the question out again from scratch, without being told the intended answer, and have to arrive at the same one
- confirm no second option is also correct
- confirm every wrong option is one a student could really reach, and name the mistake that gets them there
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.
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.
For individual preparation. The free question sets on this site are for a candidate working on their own. They are not licensed for a school, college or tutoring provider to print and run with a class, to republish or resell, or to fold into a course sold by another provider. A school sitting a timed mock is welcome to the free sample pack, which comes with mark schemes and a syllabus reference, and a paper written for your own candidates and used nowhere else is a commissioned pack.
Where to go from here
Everything on this page is free and stays free. These are the things worth doing next.
- Take the 15-question ESAT diagnostic - Twenty minutes, scored instantly, with a worked solution for every question you miss
- Follow the dated preparation plan - Every ESAT page on this site, sequenced backwards from the October sitting
- How every question on this site is checked - What is verified by hand, what is machine-checked, and how a mistake is reported and fixed
- Sitting another admissions test as well? - TMUA, PAT, MAT and STEP each have their own preparation page and free practice
- Join the ESAT preparation list - One email a week from June to October, and nothing else
- See what can actually be checked about this tutor - What is published, counted from the pages themselves, and the credentials behind it
- Enquire about one-to-one preparation - For candidates who want the gap closed rather than mapped
- Free sample pack for schools - Ten questions in every module with mark schemes and a syllabus reference, ready to sit as a timed mock
One-to-one places are limited and taken by application, not by the hour. This site is independent of UAT-UK, which administers the ESAT, and of every university that uses it; nothing here is endorsed by them, and the official specification and past papers remain the final word.