ESAT Past Paper Collection

Are you looking for ESAT past papers? You’ve come to the right place!

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NSAA Section 1 Past Papers (2016 - 2023)

You can access all of these past papers, plus 1200+ more practice questions when you sign up for a free Esat.Ninja account!

NSAA Section 2 Past Papers (2016 - 2021)

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ENGAA Section 1 Past Papers (2016 - 2023)

You can access all of these past papers, plus 900+ more practice questions when you sign up for a free ESAT.Ninja account!

ENGAA Section 2 Past Papers (2016 - 2021)

When you upgrade your ESAT.Ninja account, you’ll have access to worked solutions to every question in every paper, plus 900+ more practice questions!

NSAA Specimen Papers

You can take all of the past papers in realistic exam conditions when you sign up to ESAT.Ninja today!

NSAA Specifications

You can study from expert guides covering every part of the ESAT specification when you upgrade your ESAT.Ninja account today!

ENGAA Specimen Papers

You can take all of these papers in realistic exam conditions when you sign up to ESAT.Ninja today!

ENGAA Specifications

You can study from expert guides covering every part of the ESAT specification when you upgrade your ESAT.Ninja account today!

Why use Past Papers?

Past papers are inherently the most realistic materials available for ESAT preparation, as they are real papers from the exam! NSAA and ENGAA past papers are the best way of taking mock exams, as they will provide you with questions that are likely to be in the ESAT.

Once you’ve been preparing for a while, you’re more than likely going to want to give the exam a go, which is exactly why past papers are so helpful. Not only are you taking an accurate mock exam, but you’ll also have access to the answer to every question to make marking easy for you.

Plus, you can go a step further and view worked solutions for every paper to get a better understanding of how each question is solved. You can access these when you upgrade your ESAT.Ninja account!

History of the ESAT

The ESAT is a new admissions test introduced jointly by the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London to assess applicants for engineering and sciences courses. It was officially announced in 2023 and was first used for the 2024–25 undergraduate admissions cycle (for entry in October 2025).

ESAT Format

Taken on a computer (plain paper provided for working out).
Split into 5 subtests:
- Mathematics 1 (Compulsory for all)
- Mathematics 2 (Required for Engineering)
- Physics (Required for Engineering)
- Chemistry
- Biology
Each subtest has 27 questions and lasts for 40 minutes.
Applicants take Mathematics 1 as well as two additional subtests for a total duration of 120 minutes and 81 questions.

ESAT replaced two earlier admissions tests: the NSAA and the ENGAA, both previously used by Cambridge. It was designed to streamline the admissions process and provide a more unified and robust assessment for applicants to science and engineering-related courses.

Imperial College London had previously used the MAT and internal assessments, but with the introduction of ESAT, both institutions aimed to implement a consistent and specialised testing format tailored to their STEM programmes.

ESAT Past Paper Tips

Here are a few tips and tricks to help you optimise your ESAT Preparation with these past papers:

Ensure that you’ve used the ESAT Specification as much as possible when revising, as this document details literally everything you need to know. It’s important to know this by heart so you don’t miss any topics or revise something that won’t be covered in the exam. Also be sure that you're using the most recent specification, as this will be the most up to date version.
These past papers are a great way of understanding the ESAT format and question types, so you should look through one towards the start of your preparation. That way, you’ll have a better understanding of the actual assessment and will have more context to work with when revising.
Don’t rush through all the past papers at once! You’ve got a lot to go through, but you should save most of them for later on in your preparation schedule. Ideally, you should build up your content knowledge and try some practice questions before taking on full mock exams. Once you’re more confident in your abilities, you will have a good chance of doing well in the past papers.
You should hopefully have specialised during your ESAT revision, so be sure to focus your past paper practice on the parts that you will be attempting in the real thing.
Remember that you can’t use a calculator in the ESAT, so stick to these rules for the past papers. The less you use your calculator, the better you will be at solving these questions by hand.
Be as strict as possible with yourself in regard to exam conditions. There are no cheats in the real exam, so push through and do as well as you can when practising. Any mistakes made here can be worked on afterwards!
Marking is super easy for NSAA / ENGAA mock exams, all you need to do is check the answer key to see which questions you got right! Just make sure you’re marking from the right part of the mark scheme! Keeping track of your scores is a great way to monitor your progress.

Here on Exams.Ninja, you’ll find amazingly in-depth guides to show you through every section of the exam, along with guides to help you with your planning and revision. Check out one of our Definitive Guides below!

Get the most out of your ESAT Past Papers with ESAT.Ninja

Your ESAT.Ninja account gives you access to every NSAA & ENGAA past paper and tonnes of practice questions. You can even upgrade your account to access worked solutions and other amazing features. To access your past papers, just follow these simple steps:

STEP 1

STEP 2

Enter the Exam Arena on the home page.

STEP 3

Choose the past paper that you want to try.

STEP 4

Take the exam!