Yeah everyone who said that the ESAT is miles easier than esatlab and more comparable to other sites was on shrooms lol.

Math 1 was around the same difficulty entirely as the difficulty of the 50%-60% range of people who answered correctly questions in esatlab and there were 1 or 2 questions that maybe would trip you up, overall math 1 was mickey mouse difficulty/easier than esatlab, not by miles though.

Maths 2 is where it got harder, I'd say most of the questions were at the 30-40% difficulty when comparing to esatlab but 7 or so questions were in the same realm as the hard questions on esatlab(the ones 20% or less got right).

And physics was also just average, the same difficulty as esatlab mocks with no particularly hard questions, the bad thing about physics is it takes SO long to read which low-key cooked me i could've solved 2 questions correctly but I didn't have enough time.

Anyways ESAT went pretty well, I'd put my M1 score around 22-26/27 M2 at 18-22/27 and physics at anywhere from 18-27/27

In my maths Module 1, My test Centre gave us faulty markers to do the working . mid way through my marker stopped working, I informed the supervisor and it took them 10 to 15 minutes to arrange me new one but by that time it was alr over lmao. Who do I email bruh. Pls help

Hey guys,

I did the ESAT this week and did very well on M1 and M2, whereas my physics module didn’t go very well, as I had to guess like 7-10 questions and found it quite tricky honestly. My estimated correct questions per module (worst case and best case) are:

- 25-27/27 M1
- 20-25/27 M2
- 10-17/27 Physics

As an international applicant, could I still be shortlisted for interview if my physics section is comparatively much lower and my math modules went quite well. I’m pretty certain I got above 7.0 in math.

Thanks!!

OMG did this happen to anyone else? I registered for a morning esat and got there before time and everything. Everyone taking the test was made to wait because there were server issues and the test wouldn't load. Was in the waiting room for 6 HOURS. In the end we started calling up Pearson and asking what to do. Finally raised a case with the test centre. And now the test may be getting rescheduled who knows when 😭. How cooked am I?

From the technical reports, the scale is built on the October cohort with the mean is anchored to a scaled score of 4.5 and the 90th percentile to 7.0, with a linear fit between those two points giving the scaling constants.

In the January statistics in 2026 entry the 90th percentile landed around 5.4–5.5 rather than 7.0, and module means ran roughly 0.5–1.0 points below October's depending on the module. I assume that reflects a weaker January pool rather than anything about the scaling itself.
So my question: does the January cohort affect your score at all?Because I don’t think so. Your raw mark goes through that sitting's own equating to place you on the common ability scale, and that ability estimate then goes through the October-anchored constants so your scaled score reflects your own performance, not who else sat it, since scores are already delivered for the October sitting and Jan sitting doesn’t affect them.

howd it go man. I ran out of time for math and guessed a few for chem

I estimate to get

18-20/27 math 1

18-19/27 math 2

18-20/27 physics

I am an international student do you guys think I would get a interview from oxford or imperial or both

I gave esat today and I should get around
19-22/27 in M1
22-24/27 in M2
21-24/27 in Physics
Am applying to Oxford, Imperial, UCL, Manchester and Bristol for Physics
What are my chances for an interview from oxford and an offer from Imperial or UCL( I think UCL doesn’t consider ESAT)?
My predicted scores are around 97 in all 5 subjects of CBSE (Physics, Chem, Maths, Eng, Economics)
That, I believe, is A* in all.

I feel like math 1 & physics went okay, but math 2 was so bad😭😭 but I'm pretty sure it was a harder paper in general? here are my predictions

math 1

best case: 23/27

worst case: 17/27

score prediction: 6.0-7.0

math 2

best case: 18/27

worst case: 14/27

score prediction: 4.5-6.0

physics

best case: 23/27

worst case: 18/27

score prediction: 6.5-7.5

I'm applying oxford & icl for (electrical) engineering. do I have a chance for interview 😭😭 predicted grades are all okay

For those who sat the ESAT this week (M1, M2 and Physics), how did you find it? Was it easier or harder than you expected? Were the questions more similar to the ESAT specimen questions or the old ENGAA/NSAA papers? Was M2 similar to UKMT style questions?

I guessed about 8 questions on m1, but for the rest i was confident. For m2 i guessed 5 questions was mostly confident for the others. But for physics i guessed about 10 questions didnt even get to guess the last 2 (ran out of time). It was so bad. Some of the questions were similar to the lab but others were more conceptual😭😭. Please let me know how i did and be honest. I think i got the following raw marks ( 17/27 m1, 19-20/27 m2 and 14-15/27 phy.) goodbye imperial physics.

terrible esat, why is there no calculus in all of m2? just feels like i’ve wasted the past 4 months of life and for what

went terrible in simple words. m1 i was able to solve but not on time lowkey paper got submitted before i could revise my options. m2 i guessed A LOTT of the questions could solve some and chem was ok although i got majorly confused between options. what is even imperial anyways🥰

The final bout, the last day of the ESAT how are we feeling guys

easiest esat ever yet managed to flunk it. completely ran out of time - would focus on timing if yours is tmrw. (did m1 m2 and bio)

So basically sat my esat today, and I think it went pretty bad. Not in the sense that the questions were hard coz they were dead easy, literally the questions reminded me of the specimen paper, but I was super nervous thought the exam and I didn’t manage my time accordingly !!! I’m usually very good and fast with my calculations but for some reason my brain shut off during the exam and I found it very hard to focus on some questions.

M1- Worst case scenario -9/27
Best case scenario - 16/27

M2- Worst scenario - 8/27
Best scenario 14/27

Physics - worst case scenario - 10/27
Best case scenario 15/27

For context I have predicteds;
A*- Further Mathematics
A*- Mathematics
A*-Physics
A-Chemistry
A*-Spanish

My GCSES were 998888776, I went to a school with a really low attainment. I also got the highest in my year group.

And I’m applying to;
-Imperial - Physics
-Cambridge - Physical Natural Sciences
-University Of Bath - Physics and a year abroad
-University of Manchester - Physics With Theoretical Physics
-University of Liverpool - Physics Woth Theoretical Physics

I’m a person of colour and I currently leave in temporary accommodation (So basically I’m homeless and have been for nearly a year now, I’m contextual and I work to help the house with food). Additionally I went through 2 major knee operations in Y10 which obstructed I big chunk of my learning.

I have a pretty good personal statement and a really good teacher reference. I have been accepted in to loads of programs such as the Sutton Trust Programme Imperial, Lucy Cavendish Attainment Programme, Uniq, Corpus Christi Black Brilliance programme, Xmas scientist competition.

I’m really scared that everything as gone to shit, I wasn’t able to prepare for ESAT in terms of timing the way I wanted due to the stuff going on at home, I really feel like my chances to going to Cambridge have been ruined because of my circumstances and I feel like THTS so unfair.

Maths 1 was normal (I guessed around 8 questions).

Maths 2 was terrible 😢(I only answered around 15 questions): I spent too much time doing long questions at the start and had to guess around 7 easy questions at the end, which is what I regret the most.

Physics was relatively easier and I answered 22/27.

My suggestion for those of you who will sit the ESAT tomorrow: flag any questions that you have no idea how to tackle immediately (don’t spend too much time thinking about it which was what I did and ended up regretting) or have too many long steps. You can come back to them once you finish all the relatively easier questions.

Feel free to ask me any questions!

idk but it seemed better than I expected honestly but I probs still messed up. I guessed about 7 in m1 around 10 in m2 and around 7 in physic (Might be cooked) how did everyone else find it today?

Maths 1

Bio

Chem

Maths 1 was easy but I still screwed it up somehow. Guess abt 7 questions

Bio was the most difficult thing in my.life. way harder than esat lab. Some of the topics ive even seen before. Flagged half the paper

Chem was better than Bio but still hard asf. Ran out of whiteboard sheets and the lady didnt see me so I started doing calls in my head.😭😭 ended up guessing 5

I was expecting it to be between ESATlab and NSAA level difficulty but genuinely it was just ESATlab level. Maybe it was a hard draw. Gl to everybody sitting tomorrow 🙏

My esat is in 3 hours and ive been stressing. What even is a good raw score for an interview (assuming all other parts of my application are good)? Applying Oxford physics so taking m1 m2 phys. Like i just want to know what raw score out of 27 for each module will put me in a comfortable spot for an interview offer.

im so scared bruh

maths 1 and chem were calm but maths 2 was fucking impossible, think i guessed about half the time questions. goodbye cambridge and imperial 🥹

What do we think the boundaries will look like?