Mindset5/13/2026
Is Rejection Redirection?
I always hated that phrase. It felt like something people tell themselves when they can't admit they fell shor...
Archive
Everything we know about getting in.
Exam strategy, study systems, and product notes from the Lab45 team.
ESATStudy5/10/2026
Why Smart Students Underperform on the ESAT
We have seen IB 45 scorers average 5 points on the ESAT. We have seen students who performed well enough on th...
ProductMindset5/10/2026
What Your Score Isn't Telling You
When I was preparing for the ESAT the second time, I tried to track my own performance properly. After each mo...
MindsetInterview5/5/2026
What Good Interview Prep Feels Like
I applied to Cambridge twice. First to Christ's, then to St. John's.In my first interview, they asked about ca...
InterviewStudy5/5/2026
A Problem From My Engineering Interview
Last winter, I had my interview online, sitting at a blank white meeting room that I rented in a study cafe in...
MindsetProduct5/5/2026
On Trying Again
The email came while I was tutoring. It started with "Thank you," which felt like a bad sign. I skimmed to the...
ESATStudy5/5/2026
Which Past Papers Should I Use for ESAT?
Cambridge does not release ESAT past papers. There is no official practice material from the actual exam.For m...
ESATMindset5/5/2026
The First 30 Seconds of an ESAT Question
Time on the ESAT doesn't disappear all at once. It goes question by question, thirty seconds at a time, in dec...
ESATProduct5/5/2026
How We Write a Tier 3 Question
Most prep questions are written forwards. You start with a concept, you construct a scenario around it, you ch...
ESATStudy5/4/2026
How to Review an ESAT Mock Without Wasting It
Most students finish a mock, check their score, look at the questions they got wrong, and move on. Then they s...
StudyTMUA5/4/2026
The Question That Wasn't Hard
TMUA 2023 — Paper 2, Question 17Here is the question: During six months of beta testing, this was one of the q...
ProductStudy5/4/2026
Why We Built the Archive
There's a version of this that's simple to explain. We built a blog because platforms have blogs, and useful c...