ESAT preparation guide

The ESAT Physics Module: Seven Topics, No Calculator, 40 Minutes

Physics is one of the four optional ESAT modules. Cambridge Engineering specifies it, every Oxford engineering and physics course that requires the ESAT specifies it, five Imperial departments specify it, and UCL lists it as one of four options for Electronic and Electrical Engineering. The official specification breaks the module into seven topics: Electricity, Magnetism, Mechanics, Thermal physics, Matter, Waves and Radioactivity. Most of the candidates we teach arrive from A level or IB, where revision priorities compress thermal work and push nuclear physics into the final round, and two of those seven topics quietly go missing. This page covers the Physics module and nothing else: how to read the seven topics, what sitting the paper without a calculator actually changes, why the SI prefix requirement is the cheapest thing to fix and the most commonly ignored, and which courses genuinely require the module.

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In short

The Physics specification lists seven topics with no weighting published, and Thermal physics and Radioactivity sit in that list alongside Mechanics: revising to A level priorities deletes two of them.
Every module assumes the content of Mathematics 1, so the unit conversion and proportional reasoning inside a physics question are being tested against that standard too.
No calculator is allowed at any point, so practise bare-handed and put an order-of-magnitude line on the scrap sheet every time.
SI prefixes from nano to giga and units written with negative indices are an explicit specification requirement, and the cheapest marks in the module.
Cambridge Engineering, every Oxford engineering and physics course that uses the ESAT and five Imperial departments fix Physics into the combination, and the choice cannot be changed after booking.

27 questions, 40 minutes, separately timed, no penalty for a wrong answer

Start with the specification. Physics runs on the same format as every other module: 40 minutes, 27 multiple-choice questions. Each module is separately timed, so finishing Physics early gains you nothing, because the leftover time is not carried into the next module and there are no breaks between modules. Most candidates sit three modules, which makes the ESAT about 120 minutes long in total.

The marking rule is a single line. Each correct answer scores one mark, and no marks are deducted for a wrong one. Filling in every remaining answer in the last minute is therefore free expected value, and a blank is worth exactly zero. That matters more than most candidates assume, because 27 questions in 40 minutes gives you under 90 seconds each, and any honest run leaves a few you never read properly.

Results are reported per module on a scale from 1 (low) to 9 (high), to one decimal place. Each module is equated and scaled separately, and the scores are not combined into a total. UAT-UK states there is no pass or fail score for the ESAT, publishes no grade boundaries, and does not accept appeals against scores. Whatever number you have seen quoted online as a safe Physics score has no official source behind it.

Item	Physics module
Length	40 minutes
Questions	27 multiple choice
Timing	Separately timed, no time carried over
Marking	One mark per correct answer, nothing deducted for a wrong one
Reporting	1 to 9, to one decimal place, reported per module
Equipment	No calculator and no dictionary; an erasable booklet is provided for working

The specification splits Physics into seven topics, and none of them is optional

The seven topics, taken word for word from the specification, are Electricity, Magnetism, Mechanics, Thermal physics, Matter, Waves and Radioactivity. No weighting is published, and nothing in the specification marks any topic as minor. The current version of the specification applies to the October 2026 and January 2027 sittings.

The table below is how we position those topics when we teach. It is our experience, not an official ranking, and for the detail beneath each heading you should go to the specification PDF itself.

Official topic	How we position it
P1. Electricity	The densest source of circuit-reasoning questions; series and parallel, potential dividers and power relations need to run in your head
P2. Magnetism	Fields, force directions and induction, where one wrong direction throws away the whole question
P3. Mechanics	The heaviest topic in our teaching: kinematics, forces and moments, work, energy and momentum
P4. Thermal physics	One of the two most commonly skipped topics, see the next section
P5. Matter	Density, pressure, deformation and material properties, where the physics looks simple and the numbers get ugly
P6. Waves	Wave quantities, optics and superposition, usually bundled with graph reading
P7. Radioactivity	The other most commonly skipped topic: decay, half-lives and order-of-magnitude reasoning

One line from the specification is worth keeping in view: the test is designed to be challenging in order to differentiate effectively between able applicants, including those who might have achieved the highest possible grades in school examinations. An A* in A level Physics is not a cushion. It guarantees you understand the question, not that you finish it inside 90 seconds.

Thermal physics and radioactivity are the two topics A level revision habits quietly delete

This is the most consistent failure pattern we see. Candidates arrive with a physics background built on A level or IB, and in both, mechanics and electricity sit at the top of every revision plan while thermal work gets compressed and nuclear physics is pushed to the last round, often never drilled under time pressure at all. In the ESAT, Thermal physics and Radioactivity sit in the same seven-topic list as Mechanics, and the specification neither ranks them nor marks either as minor.

The cost is not a handful of marks. In a 27-question module, two absent topics turn a block of questions from solvable into guessable. Worse, these are the two topics best suited to a no-calculator paper: thermal work tends to land on energy bookkeeping and specific heat capacity estimates, radioactivity on integer multiples of a half-life and on what is conserved across a decay. Both reward mental arithmetic. Skipping them hands back the cheapest marks in the module.

In practice: move both topics out of the later pile and into the first third of your revision sequence, cover the concepts in one block, then drill them against the clock. The test for whether you are done is simple. Pull a question from either topic at random and see whether you can commit to an answer inside 90 seconds rather than grinding through elimination. If you cannot, you are still at the stage of understanding the physics rather than finishing the question.

The Physics module assumes you already have Mathematics 1

One sentence in the specification should reshape your revision order: all modules assume knowledge of the content of Mathematics 1. Every piece of numerical handling you do inside Physics is being marked against that standard as well. The steps a worked solution never bothers to write down are exactly where the mathematics is doing the work.

The seven official Mathematics 1 topics are Units, Number, Ratio and proportion, Algebra, Geometry, Statistics and Probability. Note what is absent: no trigonometry and no calculus, both of which live in Mathematics 2. For a physics candidate the practical consequence is that Units and Ratio and proportion, the two headings that look least like mathematics, are the ones that decide whether your unit conversions, scaling arguments and proportional reasoning survive contact with a physics question. The moment a stem asks what happens to one quantity when another doubles, you are being tested on ratio and proportion rather than on a formula.

So do not treat Mathematics 1 as a separate lane and hope it stays out of the way of Physics. Bind the two together. When you work a physics question, check deliberately whether a proportionality would have got you there faster than algebra; when you drill Units and Number, use physical quantities as the carrier. Every course that fixes Physics into the combination asks for Mathematics 1 and Mathematics 2 alongside it, the mathematical layer running through all three is continuous, and revising them in isolation just duplicates the work.

No calculator changes the shape of every physics calculation

The rule is blunt. The ESAT is a computer-based test, an erasable booklet is provided for working, and calculators and dictionaries may not be used. This hits Physics harder than any other module, because physics questions arrive carrying constants, units and powers of ten.

Three consequences follow. First, since no calculator is available at any point, the numbers you meet are normally tractable by hand, so if an intermediate result needs long division, suspect the route before you suspect your arithmetic. Second, the working that survives is symbolic: carry the algebra as far as you can before substituting, cancel before you multiply, and split every quantity into a coefficient and a power of ten so the exponents run on their own track. Third, options are frequently separated by an order of magnitude, which means a single exponent slip costs exactly as much as a conceptual error, and unlike a conceptual error it can be trained out completely.

Your practice has to change to match. Any physics revision done with a calculator in your hand transfers poorly, because what you are rehearsing is a keystroke sequence rather than estimation. From now on, work every physics question bare-handed, force an order-of-magnitude line onto the scrap sheet before you commit, and afterwards look back for the shorter route. Candidates who skip this step spend exam minutes on arithmetic that should have taken thirty seconds, then find in the last five minutes that the clock has gone.

SI prefixes and negative-index units are the cheapest marks in the module

The specification asks candidates to be familiar with the SI prefixes from nano to giga, and with units written using negative indices, velocity as m s to the minus one and so on. It sits in the general section of the specification, it looks too basic to be worth time, and so it gets skipped, while in Physics it turns up in almost every set you attempt.

Three failures dominate. Long prefix chains: nano to micro to milli to kilo, where any single missed step drops three orders of magnitude. Areas and volumes: a prefix attached to a length unit has to be squared or cubed along with the unit, and this error is nearly invisible in your own working because the arithmetic looks perfectly normal from start to finish. And reading speed: when a stem hands you a quantity as kg m to the minus three, a candidate who has to translate that internally has already lost time against one who reads it as a single object.

This is the best-value fix in the whole Physics syllabus. Write the eight prefixes from nano to giga on one sheet next to their powers of ten, then write out the common physical quantities in negative-index form from memory until you stop converting and start recognising. Half an hour of work, and it pays back on the day itself.

How to spend the 40 minutes: one full sweep, then go back

Twenty-seven questions in forty minutes is under 90 seconds each, and the difficulty is not spread evenly. The only strategy that holds up is a full sweep first: take every question you can settle inside a minute, flag the rest, and come back on a second pass. Candidates who grind through in strict question order typically lose three minutes to one hard item in the middle and never reach the ones at the end they could have done.

The no-penalty rule dictates how you flag. Before you leave any question, put an answer down. If the second pass never arrives, you have kept the expected value of that question instead of banking a guaranteed zero. It costs two seconds and it is the most commonly wasted source of marks in a 27-question module.

Two timing traps are specific to Physics. Graph interpretation looks expensive but often is not: end-point behaviour and the sign of a gradient will eliminate most of the options without reconstructing the whole function. And multi-step calculations, where if the numbers turn ugly after the third step you should stop and reread the stem, because there is usually a conservation statement or a proportionality you skipped that halves the route. Remember too that time saved in Physics does not carry into the next module, so there is no cross-module reward for finishing early. Use the full forty minutes.

Which courses actually require the Physics module

Four universities use the ESAT: Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and UCL. In some of their courses Physics is fixed, and in others it is one option out of four. The two situations lead to completely different revision decisions.

University	Course	Status of Physics
Cambridge	Engineering (H100)	Specified: Mathematics 1 + Mathematics 2 + Physics
Cambridge	Natural Sciences (BCF0), Veterinary Medicine (D100), Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (H810)	Optional: Mathematics 1 plus any two of Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics 2
Oxford	Engineering Science, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Information and Mechanical Engineering, Physics (F303), Physics and Philosophy (VF53), and the Foundation Year variants of these	Specified: Mathematics 1 + Mathematics 2 + Physics
Oxford	Biomedical Sciences (BC98)	Optional: Mathematics 1 plus any two of Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics 2
Imperial	Aeronautics, Civil and Environmental, Electrical and Electronic, Mechanical, Physics	Specified: Mathematics 1 + Mathematics 2 + Physics
Imperial	Chemical Engineering	No Physics: Mathematics 1 + Mathematics 2 + Chemistry
Imperial	Life Sciences	No Physics: Mathematics 1 + Chemistry + Biology
Imperial	Dyson School of Design Engineering (MEng Design Engineering, 28G3)	Two modules only: Mathematics 1 + Mathematics 2
UCL	Electronic and Electrical Engineering BEng/MEng, from September 2027 entry (or September 2028 deferred entry)	Optional: Mathematics 1 plus any two of Mathematics 2, Physics, Chemistry and Biology

Two rules catch people out. Module choices cannot be changed once made without cancelling and re-booking the test, so every target course has to be checked before you book, not after. And if you are applying to two or more courses that require the ESAT, one with a free choice of modules and one with compulsory modules listed, your selection must be dictated by the course with compulsory modules; register without them and your application to that course may be invalid. For the very common combination of Cambridge or Oxford engineering with an Imperial engineering department alongside it, the answer to that rule is Mathematics 1, Mathematics 2 and Physics.

Dates a Physics candidate needs in the diary

For 2027 entry there are two sittings: 12 to 16 October 2026 and 4 to 8 January 2027. Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau have their own restricted days, and the ESAT runs there only on Monday 12 or Tuesday 13 October and on Wednesday 6 January. UAT-UK gives the reason plainly: following reports in October 2024 of candidates attempting to obtain and sell test content without authorisation, the number of test days in those territories was cut to two in October and one in January. If you are sitting in China, that is your entire choice, so book the moment booking opens.

Booking windows: the October sitting opens on 20 July 2026 at 15.00 UK time and closes on 28 September 2026 at 18.00; the January sitting opens on 26 October 2026 at 15.00 and closes on 21 December 2026 at 18.00. Account creation, access arrangements and bursary applications open on 1 June 2026 at 3pm BST. The fee depends on the location of your test centre rather than on your nationality or where you live: £78 in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, £133 elsewhere.

One hard rule governs which sitting you take. Applicants to Cambridge or Oxford are normally required to sit in October, the exceptions being mature applicants to a Cambridge mature college with a January admissions deadline, and applicants to Oxford's Astrophoria Foundation Year. Applicants to other institutions may choose, and UAT-UK states there is no advantage to either sitting, but you may only sit once per admissions cycle and a second registration, including one made under a second account, counts as misconduct. Results follow about four weeks later, on 16 November 2026 and 8 February 2027 respectively. They are matched course by course against your UCAS application and sent automatically to the institutions whose courses require the test, so you cannot choose who sees them, and there is no appeal against a score.

A revision order you can actually run

Compressed into a route, it is six steps.

Lock the module combination. Check every target course, register against the strictest requirement among them, and remember the choice cannot be changed afterwards.
Audit all seven topics against the specification. For each one, ask whether you could settle a question from it inside 90 seconds without a calculator, and list the ones where the answer is no. Thermal physics and radioactivity will almost certainly be on that list.
Fix prefixes and units. The eight prefixes from nano to giga with their powers of ten, negative-index notation, and the squaring and cubing rule for areas and volumes. Half an hour, immediate payback.
Fold Mathematics 1 into your physics practice. Units, Number and Ratio and proportion should not get a separate revision lane; drill them inside physics questions.
Work bare-handed. No calculator from today onwards, and an order-of-magnitude line on the scrap sheet every single time.
Drill full 40-minute timed sets. What you train here is not knowledge but execution: the sweep-then-return rhythm, and the reflex of putting an answer down before you flag anything.

Two notes on materials. UAT-UK states that it is not connected to and does not endorse commercial preparation services, and that all necessary preparatory materials are available free of charge to all candidates, so the official specification and the official preparation materials should be your first stop. Separately, sharing or discussing test content is prohibited, so any channel claiming to sell real questions should be avoided outright and the risk of engaging with it lands squarely on the candidate. What we build at FrontierVUE is modular timed practice with error analysis, meant to turn those six steps into daily work rather than to replace the official materials.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What topics are on the ESAT Physics module?

The specification lists seven topics: Electricity, Magnetism, Mechanics, Thermal physics, Matter, Waves and Radioactivity, with no weighting published between them. It also states that every module assumes knowledge of the content of Mathematics 1, so units, number, ratio and proportion and algebra are effectively in scope too. For the detail beneath each heading, use the specification PDF; the current version applies to the October 2026 and January 2027 sittings.

Can I use a calculator in ESAT Physics?

No. The ESAT is a computer-based test and neither calculators nor dictionaries are permitted; the centre provides erasable materials for rough work, and you can raise your hand for fresh sheets at any point during the test. It also means your own practice has to be done bare-handed or it transfers poorly.

Does the ESAT really test thermal physics and radioactivity?

Yes. They are two of the seven official topics, listed alongside Mechanics, and nothing in the specification marks any topic as minor. The reason they get skipped is that A level and IB revision priorities put them last, not that the test leaves them out. Allocating effort by school revision habits simply removes your ability to answer questions from those two topics.

Do I need to take the ESAT Physics module?

It depends on the course. Cambridge Engineering, every Oxford engineering and physics course that requires the ESAT, and Imperial's Aeronautics, Civil and Environmental, Electrical and Electronic, Mechanical and Physics departments all write Physics into the specified combination. Cambridge Natural Sciences, Veterinary Medicine and Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Oxford Biomedical Sciences and UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering instead take Mathematics 1 plus any two modules, where Physics is one option among four. If you apply to more than one course requiring the ESAT, register for the modules the course with compulsory modules demands, or that application may be invalid.

What counts as a good ESAT Physics score?

There is no official answer. UAT-UK states there is no pass or fail score for the ESAT, publishes no grade boundaries, and does not accept appeals against scores. What is certain is the reporting: each module is reported separately on a scale from 1 (low) to 9 (high) to one decimal place, equated and scaled separately, with no combined total. Any specific threshold circulating online has no official source, and treating it as a revision target only blurs your priorities.

I am predicted an A* in A level Physics. Do I still need to prepare?

Yes. The specification says outright that the test is designed to be challenging in order to differentiate effectively between able applicants, including those who might have achieved the highest possible grades in school examinations. The gap is not depth of knowledge but three other things: no calculator, under 90 seconds per question, and a seven-topic specification that does not line up with A level revision priorities. School grades guarantee you understand the question, not that you finish it in time.

Are the ESAT test dates different in China?

Yes. In mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau the ESAT runs only on 12 or 13 October 2026 and on 6 January 2027, whereas elsewhere the full 12 to 16 October and 4 to 8 January windows apply. UAT-UK attributes the restriction to reports in October 2024 of candidates attempting to obtain and sell test content without authorisation. That leaves two days in October and one in January, so book your seat as soon as the booking window opens.

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