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Which past papers should you actually use?

Use the specimen to learn the question language, save the timed practice/sample test for a dress rehearsal, then mine the official 2016–2023 NSAA and ENGAA archives by module. Do not convert a legacy-paper mark into an ESAT score. No official table allows it.

Download the PDFChecked August 2026About 9 minutes to read

There are two official practice sets, not two past papers

The ESAT first ran in October 2024, but UAT-UK has not released those live forms as past papers. Pearson currently provides two official practice versions for each module:

a specimen test with explained answers;
a sample or practice test in the Pearson player, intended for timed use and followed by correct/incorrect feedback.

Calling them “the two ESAT past papers” is understandable search language, but it hides their job. They show format, style, navigation and some accessibility features. They do not produce a scaled score, and UAT-UK warns that practice-test performance need not indicate performance under exam conditions.

The honest module map

UAT-UK itself hosts the 2016–2023 ENGAA and NSAA archives and marks questions that are outside the ESAT specification. Use that annotation. The archive is evidence of useful question ancestry, not proof that every legacy item belongs in your plan.

ESAT module	Best official legacy source	Honest use
Mathematics 1	NSAA Part A Mathematics; ENGAA Part A mathematics	Closest archive match for short, no-calculator mathematics. Filter against the current M1 list.
Mathematics 2	ENGAA Part B Advanced Mathematics	Only direct legacy source for the advanced strand; skip every marked off-spec item.
Physics	NSAA Physics; ENGAA Part A Physics; selected ENGAA Part B Advanced Physics	Deepest archive. Part B is valuable for transfer but most likely to wander beyond today's boundary.
Chemistry	NSAA Chemistry	Eight years of useful principles and quantities; audit every set against the current Chemistry list.
Biology	NSAA Biology	Best legacy source, but diagrams and data presentation do not recreate the Pearson screen.

What transfers, and what misleads

Transfers well	Misleads if left uncorrected
Multiple-choice elimination and distractor reading	Paper annotation instead of screen-to-noteboard working
No-calculator algebra and numerical estimation	Legacy section totals treated as an ESAT score
Roughly the same pace: $40/60=90$ seconds per legacy Section 1 item versus $2400/27\approx88.9$ seconds per ESAT item	Off-specification Advanced Mathematics or Advanced Physics mistaken for required knowledge
Applying school science in unfamiliar arrangements	A whole-paper order that does not match separately timed ESAT modules
Force, particle, graph and proportional reasoning	Confidence from a familiar archive set mistaken for readiness for a new live form

The near-identical average pace is the strongest reason to use the archive. The different delivery and module boundaries are the strongest reasons not to simulate your final score from it.

Worked transfer: keep the principle, change the wrapper

Worked example A spring question that survives the exam change

A spring of stiffness $k$ is compressed by $x$ and releases a block of mass $m$ on a frictionless surface. A second launch uses a spring of stiffness $4k$ , compressed by $x/2$ , with a block of mass $2m$ . Find $v_2/v_1$ .

For the first launch,

\frac12kx^2=\frac12mv_1^2\quad\Longrightarrow\quad v_1=x\sqrt{\frac{k}{m}}.

For the second, compare energies before expanding everything:

\frac{E_2}{E_1}=\frac{(4k)(x/2)^2}{kx^2}=1.

The stored energies are equal, but the second mass is doubled. Since $E\propto mv^2$ ,

\frac{v_2}{v_1}=\sqrt{\frac{m}{2m}}=\boxed{\frac1{\sqrt2}}.

Correct: energy conservation and proportional reasoning transfer perfectly from legacy physics to ESAT.

Trap: $v_2/v_1=2$ notices only the fourfold stiffness; it ignores the halved compression being squared and the doubled mass.

The topic is current ESAT Physics. The useful legacy habit is spotting the invariant before calculating. The unhelpful habit would be copying a paper-only diagram, using a legacy score table, or revising a neighbouring topic merely because an old Part B question contained it.

The order that gets maximum value from scarce material

Read the current specification. It is the filter for everything else.
Use the specimen early and untimed. Learn the stem language, options, navigation and explained answers.
Build topic sets from the archive. Start untimed, then use nine questions in 13 minutes and 27 in 40.
Keep delivery honest. Put the PDF on a monitor and work on a separate sheet. Do not annotate the screen capture.
Save the Pearson practice/sample test. Sit it on desktop, timed, in one uninterrupted dress rehearsal after your core gaps are fixed.
Do not chase a conversion. Record raw accuracy, reach and error causes; no published legacy-to-ESAT scale exists.

Sources

Pearson VUE for UAT-UK: one specimen and one sample/practice version per ESAT module, their feedback differences, desktop delivery and the live test-player context.

UAT-UK, Prepare: what specimen and sample tests are for, why they do not produce scaled scores, and the warning against treating practice performance as a live prediction.

UAT-UK, ESAT Preparation Materials: the official 2016–2023 ENGAA and NSAA archives and UAT-UK's statement that off-specification questions are marked.

UAT-UK ESAT Content Specification: the current boundary against which every legacy question should be filtered.

No live ESAT form or recalled question is reproduced here. The worked example is original. UniGenius is independent.

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