How to prepare for TARA

What the three modules ask of you

TARA doesn't test any school subject. Everyone sits the same three modules, each 40 minutes long. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving have 22 multiple-choice questions each, and a wrong answer doesn't lose you a mark. The Writing Task gives you three essay-style questions and you answer one, in up to 750 words. Calculators and dictionaries aren't allowed.

UAT-UK gives a separate score from 1.0 to 9.0 for Critical Thinking and for Problem Solving. It doesn't score the Writing Task. Your response is sent to the universities on your application where the test is relevant, and each one decides how to use it.

That changes how you prepare. There's no content to revise in the usual sense. Your marks improve when you read arguments more accurately and set out problems more clearly, and your essay improves when you can plan a clear argument and write it in 40 minutes.

Start with the official guide and specimen tests

Read the TARA specification and the TARA Question Guide on the UAT-UK website before you buy books or plan a timetable. They describe the types of question in each module and what each type asks you to do. Then try the Pearson specimen and practice tests on a computer, so moving between questions, reading on screen and the accessibility settings are familiar before the day.

Next, make a list of skills to check. For Critical Thinking: finding the conclusion, spotting assumptions and flaws, and judging how new information affects an argument. For Problem Solving: picking out what's relevant, drawing the problem as a diagram or table, working through cases and keeping track of conditions. For writing: choosing a prompt, planning, structuring the argument, qualifying your claims, controlling paragraphs and editing. Tick a skill off only when timed practice shows you can do it.

Reading an argument in Critical Thinking

Before you judge an argument, find what it's trying to prove. Separate the conclusion from the reasons, examples, background and any objections it mentions. Then ask what has to be true for the reasons to lead to the conclusion.

Here's a made-up example: 'Towns that have built cycle lanes report fewer road accidents. So if our town builds cycle lanes, it will have fewer accidents.' The conclusion is the second sentence. The argument assumes the cycle lanes caused the fall in accidents. But towns that build cycle lanes might also have lowered speed limits, or had less traffic to begin with. A question could ask for the flaw (it treats a link as a cause), the assumption (that nothing else explains the fall) or the fact that would most weaken it (most of those towns cut their speed limits in the same year).

Many wrong options sound relevant. They might be true, or even a fair criticism, but they answer a slightly different question from the one asked. If the question wants the flaw in this argument, a general complaint about cycle lanes is wrong however sensible it sounds.

When you go over your mistakes, give each one a name you can reuse: mixing up a reason and the conclusion, picking a general weakness instead of the flaw asked for, reversing an 'if... then', treating a link as a cause, missing another explanation, or choosing a fact that's relevant but doesn't change the argument. Once a mistake has a name, you can practise avoiding it on purpose, which 'I misread it' never lets you do.

Setting out a problem in Problem Solving

When a problem feels tangled, you usually need a better way of writing it down. A small table can sort out a timetable, and a diagram can make positions or distances clear. A list keeps track of cases, and working backwards can cut out options you don't need. Decide how to set the information out before you do any arithmetic. Without a calculator, keeping things small and tidy is part of the method.

Questions with data need the same care. Say a table shows a shop's sales for each month and asks which month had the largest percentage rise. The month with the biggest jump in sales isn't necessarily the answer: a rise from 40 to 60 is 50%, while a rise from 200 to 250 is only 25%. Writing a rough fraction for each month is quicker than working out every percentage.

After each question, note which way of setting it out worked and what in the question should have pointed you to it. Over a few weeks you'll build your own list: things being shared out suggest a table, movement suggests a diagram, and a known end result after several steps suggests working backwards. Look again at correct answers that took too long. Often the arithmetic was fine and a better layout would have saved the time.

Choosing a prompt and planning the essay

You get three prompts and answer one. Don't pick the one that sounds cleverest. Pick the one where you can say clearly what the question is about, take a position you can defend, and give two or three separate reasons with examples you actually know.

Say one prompt asks whether it's ever right to break a promise. Before you write anything, put your answer in one sentence, for example: yes, when keeping it would seriously harm someone who never agreed to it. Then note your two strongest reasons with an example for each, the best objection you can think of (if promises can be broken, people may stop trusting them), and how you'll answer it. Decide the order of your paragraphs. Give yourself a fixed amount of planning time and keep to it; your practice essays will show you how long you need.

A good response has a clear position, reasons in a sensible order, relevant examples, a fair answer to a serious objection, and a conclusion that follows from what you've written. 750 words is the most you can write, and writing up to the limit for the sake of it won't help.

Because UAT-UK doesn't score the Writing Task, no practice mark is an official or university mark. The writing feedback on this site reads your essay against the published criteria of the older tests TARA grew out of. It isn't a mark from UAT-UK or a university.

One timed attempt at each module

Early on, sit each module once under test conditions: 40 minutes without a break, no calculator or dictionary, and on a computer if you can. For the two multiple-choice modules, record your score, your time, your flags and your guesses. For the essay, record how long you spent choosing, planning, writing and checking. Then judge it on how clear and well organised it is, and ignore how many long words you used.

Keep the three modules apart when you plan what to do next. Critical Thinking might need more accurate naming of argument types, Problem Solving might need quicker ways of setting things out, and Writing might need a narrower position or a shorter planning stage. 'I'm weak at TARA' isn't something you can practise. UAT-UK reports Critical Thinking and Problem Solving as separate scores too.

Pacing 22 questions in 40 minutes

That's about 109 seconds a question, but passages and problems vary a lot in length. A useful first-pass rule: if more reading or working isn't making the argument or the problem any clearer, choose the best-supported option, flag it and move on. Wrong answers aren't penalised, so make sure every question has an answer by the end.

Use your mocks to set checkpoints. As a first try, check where you are at about 10 minutes and 25 minutes, and keep a few minutes at the end for flags. Go back first to the questions you'd narrowed to two options or had already drawn out. If you've spent three minutes on a long Critical Thinking passage, that time is gone whatever you do next, so it isn't a reason to spend two more.

Older papers and how far to trust them

UAT-UK publishes current TARA specimen and practice tests. It also says Critical Thinking and Problem Solving share their history with BMAT Section 1 and the Thinking Skills Assessment, and it links archives of those as extra material. They're good practice for the same kinds of reasoning, but the format and the balance of questions differ, so read them alongside the current specification and Question Guide.

Keep at least one current-format practice test unseen until near the end, so you can check how far you've come. In between, original questions give you more practice without using up the official material. Noetra's mocks are original and written to the public specification. They don't reproduce real past-paper questions, and we're not affiliated with UAT-UK, Pearson VUE, Oxford, UCL or any other university.

Eight weeks before your TARA

Weeks one and two: read the specification and Question Guide, get used to the Pearson software and do one timed attempt at each module. Weeks three and four: name your Critical Thinking mistakes, build your list of ways to set out problems, and write two planned essays that you go over carefully afterwards. Keep the modules separate so you can see whether each change is working.

Weeks five and six: do more mixed timed work, and practise choosing a prompt and writing the whole essay in 40 minutes. Week seven: sit all three modules in one 120-minute session and notice where tiredness shows. Week eight: go back over repeated mistakes, do shorter timed sets, write one last essay under time and sort out your test-day arrangements. If you have longer than eight weeks, give the extra time to weeks three to six and save the official material for later.

• Weeks 1–2: official guidance, the test software and one attempt at each module.
• Weeks 3–4: naming argument mistakes, ways of setting out problems and essay structure.
• Weeks 5–6: mixed timed practice and choosing a prompt quickly.
• Week 7: a full three-module sitting.
• Week 8: repeated mistakes, short sets, one final essay and test-day arrangements.

How to tell you're improving

Doing more passages doesn't by itself mean you're getting better. In Critical Thinking, look for the same named mistake coming up less often and for finding the conclusion sooner. In Problem Solving, look for choosing a good layout earlier and dropping unhelpful arithmetic sooner. In writing, look for a clearer position, paragraphs that each make one point, sensible qualifications, and time at the end to check that the essay says what you meant.

Keep your scores and timings alongside short notes. Any 1.0–9.0 figure from a practice site, ours included, is that site's own estimate and not an official conversion. The most useful thing a practice session can give you is a clear next step: a type of mistake to work on, a pacing rule to try, or a writing habit to use in your next essay.

Questions students ask

What is the TARA format in 2026?

There are three modules of 40 minutes each, and everyone sits all three: 22 Critical Thinking questions, 22 Problem Solving questions, and a Writing Task where you answer one of three prompts.

Is the TARA Writing Task scored?

UAT-UK doesn't score it. A copy goes to the universities on your application where the test is relevant, and each one decides how to use it.

What is the word limit for the TARA Writing Task?

You can write up to 750 words. You choose one essay-style question from three and have 40 minutes.

Do I need subject knowledge for TARA?

No. UAT-UK describes TARA as non-subject-specific. It tests general thinking skills and how clearly you can write.

Official sources

Current details were checked against these primary sources on the date shown above.

• UAT-UK: TARA format and official guidance
• UAT-UK: TARA preparation materials
• UAT-UK: preparation and sample-test guidance
• Oxford: courses using TARA for 2027 entry