Where the ESAT differs from A level revision

Familiar content, different conditions

Most of the ESAT sits inside school maths and science, which can make it sound easier than it is. You'll recognise most of the material. The setting is what's new: each module is 27 multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes, with no calculator and no space for long written working.

So you can know every topic and still lose marks. The sections below cover where A level revision habits tend to fall short in the ESAT, and what to practise for each.

Writing a full method or picking an answer

A level questions reward a complete method: setting it out, carrying the algebra through and giving the answer in the right form. In the ESAT nobody sees your working. You need to spot what the question really wants, which might be an estimate, an extreme case, a substitution, a check of units or crossing out options, and only write a full solution when nothing quicker works.

Take a question asking which of several formulas for a time could be correct. Your A level habit says derive it. A check of units can often cross out most of the options in a few seconds, because only some of them come out in seconds, and then you only have to compare the ones left.

• Before you start any algebra, ask whether there's a quicker way in.
• Note the questions you got right but slowly.
• Treat careless arithmetic as a topic to practise, the same as any other.

Arithmetic inside a science question

Practising mental arithmetic on its own is fine, but it often falls apart once the numbers sit inside a physics ratio, a chemistry concentration or a graph. In the ESAT the skill is keeping the calculation small enough that you finish the question.

Say a question tells you 25.0 cm³ of a 0.200 mol/dm³ solution was used and asks for the number of moles. Convert the volume first: 25.0 cm³ is 0.0250 dm³. Then multiply the digits, 25 × 0.2 = 5, and put the thousandths back to get 0.00500 mol. Most of the risk is in the powers of ten, so handle them separately from the digits.

A ratio question works the same way. If a wire is swapped for one of the same material that's twice as long with half the cross-sectional area, you don't need any actual values. Resistance goes as length divided by area, so it goes up by 2 ÷ ½, a factor of 4.

Make a habit of simplifying before you put numbers in: cancel units, factorise, estimate the size of the answer, then look at the options. If they're close together, you'll need to be exact.

Switching topic every question

A homework set usually keeps you in one chapter. An ESAT module doesn't. In a few minutes you might go from a proportion question to a graph shape to a mechanics problem to rearranging an expression. You have to start each question fresh, without carrying the last question's method into the next one.

To practise this, mix your sets. Take eight questions from eight different topics, shuffle them and do them on a short timer. It feels slower at first, because you have to work out what each one is about before you begin.

When you go through a mock, group your mistakes by what went wrong. 'Wrote out a full equation when testing an option would have done' is more use to you than 'vectors'. Noetra records your time alongside the topic for each question, so you can tell a gap in what you know from a method that's right but slow.

Questions that don't say what they're about

Admissions test questions often wrap a familiar idea in short, unfamiliar wording, and they don't tell you which chapter they come from. A question asking how much further one car travels than another might really be about the area under a speed-time graph.

So part of your practice should be short mixed sets where your first job is to say what kind of question it is: a definition, a calculation, a comparison, an inference, or a case of crossing out options. Writing one word in the margin makes you decide before you start working.

Don't try to learn every possible trick. Keep a log of the mistakes you actually make, named plainly: missed a condition, answered for the wrong variable, rounded too early, ignored units, assumed the diagram was to scale, expanded something that should have been factorised. After a few mocks the same names will keep coming up, and those are what to practise.

How to practise for the difference

Start with one full timed module before any untimed note-making. It'll show you where your real gaps are. After that, alternate between focused practice and full mocks. The focused sessions fix a method, and the full mocks check that it still works with the clock going.

As you go, ask yourself which kinds of question you can now answer correctly in under 90 seconds, and which still make you spend time badly. That tells you more than whether you've covered the content, and it's the standard Noetra is built around.