How We Teach the ESAT: Our Method

Parents ask us three questions in almost every first email: what format will my child learn in, how will I know they are improving, and what does it cost.

Those are the right questions, and the honest answer to the third depends on the first two. So here is how we actually work — the same process we would walk you through on a call, written down.

First, confirm which modules you need

The ESAT is modular, and this is where preparation most often goes wrong before a single question has been answered.

Mathematics 1 is compulsory for everyone. Beyond that, your course specifies which further modules you sit, chosen from Mathematics 2, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

Most Imperial engineering routes — Aeronautical, Civil, Electrical and Electronic, Mechanical — require Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2 and Physics. Design Engineering requires only Mathematics 1 and Mathematics 2. Preparing the wrong set is pure wasted effort, and we see it every cycle.

So before anything else: open the official page for each specific course and write down its module requirement. Published summaries contradict each other, including on module counts, so the course page is the only authority. Our ESAT guide covers the structure in full.

What makes the ESAT different to teach

Each module is roughly 27 multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes, computer-based, with no calculator and no dictionary. That is under ninety seconds a question.

A-level teaching actively works against this. At A level, showing full method earns marks and the pacing is two to three times more generous. On the ESAT nothing is marked except the option selected, so any working beyond what you need to choose confidently is wasted time.

There is also real overlap between modules that most students fail to exploit. Mathematics 1 is the foundation the others stand on, and the Physics module is largely mechanics — applied algebra and calculus under a different name. Sequencing preparation rather than parallelising it is worth a great deal.

Stage one: find the real starting point

We do not quote a plan before we know what we are planning for. The first step is a timed Mathematics 1 module plus one further module your course requires, marked by us rather than self-scored.

We run it with no calculator from the first attempt, because the most common preparation failure is practising with one and then sitting without. A diagnostic done with a calculator tells us almost nothing about how the real paper will go.

What comes out of it is not a score. It is a profile: which topics are secure, which are shaky, and crucially why marks were lost — because that determines everything that follows.

Stage two: separate knowledge gaps from habit gaps

This is the distinction that most preparation misses, and it is the reason two students with identical scores can need opposite programmes.

On the ESAT the dominant pattern is pace, not knowledge. Students who know the material perfectly well run out of time because they solve every question properly, when half of them resolve faster by estimation, elimination or substitution. Genuine content gaps do occur - usually in Mathematics 2 algebra, or in mechanics - and the diagnostic separates the two cleanly.

A knowledge gap needs teaching. A habit gap needs a different kind of practice entirely, and more teaching will not touch it. Getting this wrong is how a student works hard for three months and does not move.

Stage three: build the pathway backwards from the date

There are two sittings, October and January, and Cambridge applicants must sit in October while Imperial applicants can generally use either. We plan backwards from yours, and we sequence rather than parallelise: get Mathematics 1 genuinely fast first, then Mathematics 2, then Physics - because each builds on the last. Chemistry and Biology sit apart and need their own time.

We sequence it so the highest-yield work happens while there is still time to consolidate it, and we deliberately stop introducing new material in the final stretch so nothing goes in half-learned.

Stage four: monitor progress against something real

Each module is tracked separately for accuracy and, more importantly, questions completed inside the time limit. We also track calculator-free arithmetic fluency explicitly, because it underpins everything and improves measurably with drilling.

You get a written summary you can actually read — what improved, what has not, and what next week targets. Not a percentage with no explanation attached.

Stage five: choose the format that fits the student

One-to-one suits a student sitting an unusual module combination, or one with a specific content gap to close quickly. Small group suits students on the common Maths 1 plus Maths 2 plus Physics route, where the material is shared and watching someone else choose a faster method is instructive.

Fees follow from that choice, which is why we do not publish a single number for every student. We tell you the fee once the format and duration are agreed, before you commit to anything, and it does not change afterwards.

The no-calculator point is not a detail

It is the single thing we most often have to correct in a student's existing preparation.

Mental arithmetic, estimation, cancelling before multiplying, working symbolically until the final step, and sanity-checking by order of magnitude are all trainable. They are also what decides whether a student finishes a 27-question module. Every session and every practice set on our programme runs without a calculator from week one.

Starting the conversation

Send us the courses your child is applying to and we will confirm the exact module requirement for each — this is the first thing to get right.

Then we will mark a diagnostic in Mathematics 1 and one further module, show you whether the gap is pace or content, and recommend a format and duration. The fee is quoted once that is agreed.