The ESAT in January: a ten week plan
Ten weeks is enough to prepare well if most of it is spent answering questions under time. This plan splits them into three phases: the content, then timing, then full papers, with the free material for each.
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The January sitting
The January sitting runs from Monday 4 to Friday 8 January 2027, and bookings open on Monday 26 October 2026 with UAT-UK, which runs the test (esat-tmua.ac.uk). Your universities may set their own booking deadline, so check each one, and book before you start week 1. Results come in your UAT-UK account about four weeks after the test.
Who January is for. Cambridge and Oxford applicants sit in October, so January is mostly for candidates applying elsewhere; check what each of your courses accepts on its own admissions page.
Weeks 1 to 4: the content
Work through the methods and the formulas and facts for your modules, and answer questions in short sets, reading the worked solution after each one.
- Week 1. Sit sample Paper 1 untimed, five questions in each of your modules, and keep the score for each module. That is your baseline. Then read the specification for your modules and mark anything you have not met.
- Weeks 2 and 3. Mathematics 1 first, since everyone sits it, then your other two modules. Use the practice questions by topic: pick a topic you marked, answer its questions, and read each worked solution, the explanation of every wrong option included.
- Week 4. The formulas and facts to know cold, and our ESAT methods, the shortcuts that turn a long calculation into a short one. Finish with sample Paper 2 and compare it with your Paper 1 score, skill by skill.
Done when every sub-topic of your modules has at least one question you answered and understood.
Weeks 5 to 8: timing
Sit one module at a time under timed conditions, then reread only the questions that cost you marks.
- The pace. Each module is 27 questions in 40 minutes, with no calculator. That is under a minute and a half a question, so the habit to build is moving on from a question that is not giving way and coming back to it.
- Two or three timed modules a week. Full timed modules are in ESAT practice, free to start, marked as you go. Between them, use sample Paper 3 and sample Paper 4 against the clock, at the target time each worked solution states.
- Keep a list of mistakes, not of topics. For each question that cost you marks, write the sentence that went wrong. Read the mistakes that cost the most marks once in this phase; most of yours will be on it.
Done when you finish a module inside 40 minutes without guessing the last few questions.
Weeks 9 and 10: full papers
Full timed papers: your modules back to back, as on the day, and rest the day before.
- Two or three full sittings. Sit your modules in one session, mark them, and reread only the questions that cost you marks.
- Nothing new. Go back over your list of mistakes and the methods you use most. A new topic in the last week costs more confidence than it earns marks.
- The day before. Rest. Check your booking, your test centre and the ID you will bring, in the name you booked with.
If you are behind
Starting late? Do not try to catch up on the weeks you missed. Find the phase whose end date is still ahead of you, start there, and shorten the content weeks rather than the timed ones: time under the clock is the part that cannot be crammed.