UCL Announces New TARA Admissions Test

Introduction to the TARA

In March 2025, University College London (UCL) announced that it will be introducing a new admissions test, the Test of Academic Reasoning for Admissions (TARA), to assess candidates for 2026 entry for ten specific courses. The TARA has been developed by University Admissions Testing (UAT), the test provider which also produces the TMUA and ESAT.

Although precise details on how the test will work and what it will consist of are still thin on the ground, in this article we will discuss what we know about it so far, and what we can infer from the available information released by UCL and UAT. We will update this page with more information as soon as it is available.

Which Universities Will Use the TARA Admissions Test?

So far, only UCL has announced that it will be using the TARA. Candidates applying to UCL for 10 courses in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Social Sciences will be required to take it – more on these in a moment. However, though this is unconfirmed, there is reason to believe that other competitive universities may also use the test. Announcing the TARA, UAT stated that it ‘will be delivering a new admissions test for universities’ – that plural ‘universities’ may be revealing.

The most likely other candidate is Cambridge University. This is partly because we know that there will be two windows available for taking the test – one in October and one in January. The existence of the October window suggests that either Oxford or Cambridge, whose application deadlines are in mid-October, will use the TARA admissions test. However, as we will shortly see, the test seems like it will assess similar skills to the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) which Oxford is continuing to use for 2026 entry. That means that Cambridge is the only university with an October deadline which has a thinking skills / reasoning assessment ‘gap’, which the TARA could fill.

Secondly, the test is delivered by UAT, which also produces the TMUA and ESAT – tests which Cambridge (but not Oxford) uses to assess applicants for other courses. Its existing relationship with UAT is another reason to think that Cambridge may also use the TARA.

Other possible candidates to use the test are LSE and Imperial College London. Like Cambridge, LSE already partners with the UAT for the TMUA. It also specialises in Social Sciences, and we have already seen that UCL intends to use the TARA admissions test to assess applicants for a number of Social Sciences courses.

Imperial is perhaps a little less likely. Though it uses the existing UAT tests, the ESAT and the TMUA, it does not have any Social Sciences courses. It does have a number of Mathematics and Computer Science courses, but these currently use the TMUA to assess candidates and there is no indication that Imperial intends to change this.

Who Needs to Take the TARA Admissions Test?

Applicants for 10 courses at UCL (in Maths, Computer Science, and Social Sciences) will need to take the TARA for 2026 entry.

UCL Courses Which Require the TARA

As we have discussed, the test may also be used by universities like Cambridge, LSE, and Imperial, but this is yet to be confirmed.

What Does the TARA Test?

There is limited information about what exactly the TARA will test.

UAT have said, “The TARA will test non-subject specific skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving and effective communication.” UCL, meanwhile, have similarly stated that “it is a non-subject-specific test designed to assess essential skills required for undergraduate study.”

The table above provides a few more clues about what the test will involve. The fact that it is being used for a range of courses, from Computer Science to Mathematics to Social Sciences, suggests that it will be relatively broad in scope. It may even be that there are different sections of the TARA admissions test, and that applicants only need to take certain ones, depending on the subject they are applying for – this is the case with another UAT test, the ESAT.

We may also be able to learn something from the tests which the TARA is replacing. Firstly, it is replacing the STAT for Computer Science. UCL Computer Science applicants previously had to sit the first, multiple-choice section of the STAT, which consists of two sub-sections, Critical Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning:

• Critical Reasoning focuses on interpreting and understanding a passage of text, identifying its main ideas, paraphrasing, and inferring and analysing its meaning.
• Quantitative Reasoning tests applicants’ ability to comprehend and apply scientific and mathematical information, as presented in various formats including numeric, spatial, and graphical.

For European / International Social and Political Studies applicants, meanwhile, the TARA is replacing the TST. The TST itself was UCL’s own replacement for the first section of the (old format) TSA, after it ceased to be administered by Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing. It assesses problem-solving abilities, including numerical and spatial reasoning, as well as critical thinking skills, such as interpreting arguments and reasoning with everyday language.

From this, we can see that the STAT and TST cover fairly similar areas, and we can be reasonably confident that the TARA will test the same set of skills. These descriptions of the STAT and TST may also remind us of the first section of the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) used at Oxford. At Dukes Plus, our educated guess is that the TARA will be most similar to the TSA.

However, other reasoning tests which it may resemble are the LNAT and the reasoning sections of the UCAT.

Taking the Test

Dates

The first sitting of the test will be on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th October. The second sitting will be on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th January.

Fees

UCL has confirmed that there will be a fee for the test, though the amount has not been announced. The other UAT tests cost £75 for UK & Ireland applicants and £130 for overseas students.

Location

The TARA admissions test will be a computerised assessment, like other UAT tests. It is likely that it will need to be taken at an official Pearson-VUE test centre. You will select your preferred test centre when registering.

Registration

We can assume that registration for the test will follow the same process as other UAT tests.

1. Create a UAT account with Pearson VUE (available from June)
2. Set up your log-in details
3. Select your preferred test centre and test dates
4. Pay for your test

How to Prepare for the TARA Admissions Test

As the TARA is a new admissions test, official prep materials have not yet been released. Official TARA practice tests will be available here from May 2025. For the time being, though, the amount of effective preparation you can do is limited.

While we wait for more information from UAT, there are a few things you can do which will likely help get you ready – mainly to improve your academic reasoning skills, in both critical and quantitative reasoning.

1. Practice with past papers and sample questions the TSA. Our own TSA practice test is available for free.
2. Practice with past papers and prep materials for the LNAT and UCAT reasoning sections. Our LNAT and UCAT practice tests are free, too.
3. Familiarise yourself with the UAT’s online test platform, by looking at the specimen and practice tests for the TMUA and ESAT here.

For the highest quality of preparation, book in with one of our admissions test tutors. All our tutors are Oxbridge graduates with extensive experience with the TSA and other tests similar to the TARA. Our students improve their admissions test scores by an average of 20% after just 4 hours of tutoring.

Other Important UCL Admissions Test Changes

With the announcement of the TARA and the ensuing speculation, it would be easy to miss that UCL have made a couple of other important updates to their admissions testing requirements.

1. The TMUA is now required for UCL’s Economics (BSc) course
2. The ESAT is now required for UCL’s Electronic and Electrical Engineering (BEng) course.

Read our full guides to the TMUA and ESAT for more information on those tests.

If you’re applying for these courses and want to take your prep to the next level, book in with one of our specialist admissions test tutors.