ESAT test Imperial College

[Cottonclothes]

DC has to take this exam for engineering. Has anyone got experience of it; how difficult it is and how it impacts the application? How could DC practice for it.

Also, any other advice regarding the application process and interview would be helpful.

The ESAT is a new online test, it is also used by Cambridge. It replaces the ENGAA which was on paper , but a similar structure. you can access past ENGAA papers on Physics and Maths tutor and there are also unofficial solutions on there. These would be a good starting point.

For Engineering you sit Maths1, Maths2 and Physics.

No calculators or formulae sheets are permitted so your DC needs to look at the specification carefully and learn any necessary equations etc .

There are also online sample papers for the ESAT available on the University Admissions test website.

Imperial use the score in the ESAT together with the whole application to decide who to interview.

your DC will need to book to sit the test at a Pearson Vue test centre ( like driving theory tests ) ,and costs £75x it would be advisable to book as soon as possible after the bookings open on 1st August as the slots will book up. If they need to apply for a bursary to cover the cost or access arrangements this can be done at the same time.

Both Imperial and Cambridge have been clear that other than familiarising oneself with the format there is no need to prepare for ESAT since it is designed to test content from GCSE Science and AS maths which should be very familiar to candidates. They will then have to use that knowledge to solve unfamiliar problems.

This is very helpful. Thank you very much

Thank you

It is probably worth pointing out as Mike Nicholson did in a webinar earlier this year that if a student is good enough to consider applying to Cambridge or Imperial, then they can work out what ESAT involves and how to enter for themselves.

meant to also add that if not also applying for Cambridge there is the option to sit the ESAT in January instead.

I don’t agree with the other poster. many students get guided through the process by their schools and many do not, there is no harm helping a student to navigate the unfamiliar and stressful process of knowing how to apply. It is then up to the university to decide if they are worthy of an offer or not.

Tomorrow is the day for DD. 🤞

I hope all your DC do. well. I’m busy double checking whatshe can bring/not brig to the test centre.

Let us know how it goes. Mine is doing it Wednesday. Some of his friends are doing it tomorrow and will probably to to put the frighteners on everyone else so it'll be good to hear an objective viewpoint. 🙂

Will do!

We are struggling to find clear info about whether to bring pen and scratch paper. They do say no phones, wallets, etc.

How did it go @Stockpot ? Was paper and pencil provided? The email says they can't take anything in, but my son says he will need lots of paper for his workings.

@drarma , if you search ESAT on the Facebook page WIWIKAU there is some feedback from today

They were not allowed to take anything in. DD’s test centre gave them white boards to use.

DD found it harder than the practice test, but she gets very anxious before tests. She vomited before entering and felt nauseous during the first two maths tests. She finally calmed during the physics tests and found it easier. I think these are rather personal struggles and you cannot extrapolate much from it for your own DC.

Thanks Stockpot. Fingers crossed she will get the result she wants.

How did it go @drarma ?

Just about to start. 🙃

Good luck!

Thanks. He found it tough, like everyone else. But, thinking about it, the grade threshold is surely likely to vary depending on the course. He's applying for civil eng, so I'm convinced his maths result won't need to be as strong as someone applying for, say, Electronic Eng or Computer Science, or even pure Physics.

Either way, he's pragmatic about it. He knows he'll be a civil engineer whichever course he gets onto, and all of the universities he's applied to have their pluses and minuses.

I was chatting to a boy today who had just come out of his ESAT and was waiting for his lift home (I was waiting for my DS and recognised the other boy’s school tie - I thought I’d need to explain all this so that you don’t think I regularly talk to random schoolboys). Anyway, he said he found it very tough.

Good luck to everyone sitting their tests today and tomorrow.

My son did it yesterday. Hard to tell how it went for him. Said 2 subjects were okay but in maths 2 he ran out of time with quite a bit to go..Hard to guess if it was from lack of prep or hard questions, but he says he would have got all questions if he had more time.

DC found it hard too. Time is very limited to get all questions done properly

The results for the October ESAT tests are now on applicants' PearsonVue accounts.

Info on interpretation here: esat-tmua.ac.uk/test-results/

DC could not open the website this morning as it wasn’t loading.

How did your DC do?

Oh, not amazingly, but he'd already written it off anyway and decided Imperial isn't for him.

I'm glad - I didn't warm to it at the open day or at the online event. 🙃

Same here but we have not given up on IC; you never know. They take into account other things: A levels,PS, school recommendation

I believe the average was 4