ESAT for Cambridge Engineering - how much harder is it than A-level Further Maths?
I'm applying for Engineering at Cambridge this autumn and just found out ESAT replaced the ENGAA starting in 2023. There's not a ton of prep material out there yet compared to those older tests and I'm trying to figure out how much additional preparation I need beyond my A-level Further Maths and Physics.
From the syllabus, it looks like Part 1 is Mathematics and then you pick one science section for Part 2 - Physics for Engineering. The Maths section covers calculus, vectors, and mechanics which I know reasonably well, but the question difficulty supposedly goes well beyond A-level in some areas. I've been scoring around 72% on the released specimen papers.
I'm putting in about 2 hours most evenings and trying to get through one full timed paper every weekend. The 40-minute time limit per section is tight and I definitely can't afford to spend 5 minutes on any single question. Calculator-free maths at that level is genuinely humbling.
What additional resources are people using? I've exhausted the official specimen papers and I'm now going back to old ENGAA and STEP I papers for extra practice. Does STEP preparation actually transfer well to ESAT difficulty or is the format too different?
STEP preparation transfers well for the harder end of ESAT Maths but the format is completely different - ESAT is multiple choice, STEP is proof-based. The mental agility from STEP practice helps with speed though. I used STEP I for difficulty calibration and old ENGAA papers for format practice.
Don't ignore basic algebra speed in Part 1 Maths. I was strong on the hard topics but kept losing time on polynomial manipulation because I wasn't fast enough. Warm up with 30-40 quick drill questions before every timed practice run.
I scored 6.8 on my ESAT last October which I think is around the 75th percentile. Further Maths A-level gives you most of the content you need - the challenge is speed and unfamiliar problem framing rather than new material. Do timed sections religiously.
The Physics Part 2 was harder than I expected compared to A-level. A lot of multi-step problems where getting step 1 wrong cascades badly. BPhO intermediate papers are the right difficulty level for extra physics practice.