Key points

  • A wrong answer costs nothing in the ESAT, so practise choosing an answer, flagging the question and moving on.
  • Most candidates sit three 40-minute modules, so do some full sittings to see how your third module holds up.
  • Official practice material is limited, so use it carefully, and when you get a question wrong, work out why the wrong option looked right.

Moving on from a question

If you're used to doing well, leaving a question unfinished can feel like giving up. In the ESAT it's something you practise. Your score is based on correct answers and there's no penalty for wrong ones, so the worst result is a blank you spent four minutes on.

A better habit is to choose the best answer you can, flag the question and get on with the rest of the module. You might come back to it with time to spare, and if you don't, you still have a chance at the mark.

Practise this in every timed paper before the test. Picture question 9 in one of your mocks: you've filled half a page and the numbers won't come out. That's the moment to pick between the options that are still possible and go on to question 10. If you've never done it in practice, doing it for the first time on the day is much harder.

Sitting the third module

Most ESAT candidates sit three 40-minute modules, which is 120 minutes of quick decisions. You can do well in a single practice module and still fade by the third. When that happens, it tends to show up as misread questions, the same arithmetic mistakes coming back, and poor choices about where to spend time.

You don't need a full sitting every day, but you do need some. Now and then, do all three of your modules in one go and compare each with how it goes when you sit it alone. Is your Physics slower after Mathematics 1? Does your Chemistry accuracy drop after a Biology module with a lot of reading?

If the third module is clearly worse, look at which kind of mistake went up. More misreads suggest you need to slow your reading down late in the session. More time lost on single questions suggests you need to move on sooner when you're tired.

Making the official material last

The official specimen and sample material is valuable, because it shows you the real format and style of question. There isn't much of it, though. If you work through it all quickly without going over your mistakes, you get a short spell of reassurance and then only a vague memory of what was on it.

Use the official papers to check where you stand, and spread them across your preparation. Sit one early to see your starting point, and keep one or two back for the last few weeks, so you still have something unseen to check yourself against near the test.

For most of your practice, use original mocks written to the specification. Good preparation should never depend on copying real past-paper questions, and it's fair to ask any provider where their questions come from.

Reviewing a wrong answer

Finding out which answer was right is only the start. The more useful question is why the wrong option looked right to you. Maybe you picked it after doing half the calculation. Maybe you lost a minus sign. Maybe you misread what the option was a value of, such as a radius when the question asked for a diameter.

After a mock, Noetra's review names the common mistake behind most wrong options, so you can see what would have led you to them. Use the same idea whenever you mark anything: for each wrong answer, write one line saying what you did and what you'll do differently.

Then try a fresh question of the same kind a few days later. If you get it right and the mistake doesn't come back, cross it off. If it does come back, it stays on your list.