TARA preparation guide
TARA candidate numbers: the official 2,626, taken apart
The TARA ran for the first time in the 2026 admissions cycle. UAT-UK's annual report prints booking and delivery counts for all three of its tests, broken down by sitting and by geography, and the TARA line reads: 2,806 booked, 2,626 delivered, 8.0% of everything sat that year, and comfortably the smallest of the three. This page takes those figures apart in four layers, how many, when, from where and who, then spends a closing section on what they cannot support. Scale is the floor you stand on when you judge a field, but it is not the field itself: the report holds no admissions data at all.
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Quick answer
- Tests delivered, whole cycle
- 2,626 (2,806 booked)
- Share of UAT-UK tests
- 8.0% of tests delivered, the smallest of the three
- Split across the two sittings
- 976 in October 2025, 1,650 in January 2026
- Access arrangements
- 102 TARA candidates, 3.9%
In short
- TARA's first cycle drew 2,806 bookings and 2,626 delivered tests, 8.0% of everything UAT-UK sat that year, against 43.1% for ESAT and 48.9% for TMUA.
- TARA is the only one of the three whose January sitting was the bigger one: 976 in October against 1,650 in January, in a cycle where 63.1% of all tests were delivered in October.
- The technical report supplies the reason rather than leaving it open: the TARA was not used by the University of Cambridge this cycle, so every candidate could choose either event, and nobody may sit it twice in one cycle.
- TARA is also the only one of the three where overseas bookings outnumbered UK bookings in both sittings: 508 against 537 in October, 874 against 887 in January.
- In the year-on-year column, both TARA rows are printed as n/a, because 2026 entry was its first year. Any claim that TARA bookings surged by some percentage has no basis in either report.
01
Scale: 2,626 tests, the smallest of UAT-UK's three
Table 1 of the annual report sets bookings and delivered tests side by side for all three tests, and it is the fastest way to size the TARA up. The two are different counts: 2,806 and 2,626. A footnote on the booking column records that it takes in candidates who never cancelled and never turned up, and for whom no score is reported. The difference between the two columns is therefore not a clean cancellation total, and this page quotes both rather than subtracting one from the other.
2,626
TARA tests actually delivered in the 2026 admissions cycle
8.0%
TARA's share of all tests delivered, against 43.1% for ESAT and 48.9% for TMUA
34,475
Candidates who booked a UAT-UK test for 2026 entry, all three tests combined
129
Countries in which the tests were taken in 2025-26, all three tests combined
| ESAT | TARA | TMUA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total booked | 14,781 | 2,806 | 16,888 |
| Share of all bookings | 42.9% | 8.1% | 49.0% |
| Total delivered | 14,193 | 2,626 | 16,092 |
| Share of tests delivered | 43.1% | 8.0% | 48.9% |
| Test structure | Five modules, 40 minutes each | Three modules (two scored), 40 minutes each | Two papers, up to 75 minutes each |
02
Two sittings: TARA is the only test whose January was bigger
TARA, 2026 admissions cycle
2,806 booked, 2,626 delivered
October 20251045 booked, 976 delivered
- 4.8% of that sitting's bookings
- Bookings: UK 508, overseas 537
January 20261761 booked, 1,650 delivered
- 13.7% of that sitting's bookings
- Bookings: UK 874, overseas 887
One sitting per cycleThe two events are a choice, not two attempts
- The TARA was not used by the University of Cambridge this cycle
- So candidates were free to pick either October or January
Tap a branch to unfold
| October 2025 | January 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| TARA tests delivered | 976 | 1,650 |
| TARA's share of that sitting's bookings | 4.8% | 13.7% |
| ESAT tests delivered | 10,116 | 4077 |
| TMUA tests delivered | 9685 | 6407 |
| All tests delivered in that sitting | 20,777 | 12,134 |
| Increase from 2024-25 | ESAT +11%, TMUA +8%, all tests +15%; TARA printed as n/a | ESAT +47%, TMUA +32%, all tests +59%; TARA printed as n/a |
The technical report explains the inversion rather than leaving it to guesswork: the TARA was not used by the University of Cambridge in this cycle, so every candidate could choose October or January freely, and no one may sit it more than once per cycle. Hold that against the cycle as a whole, where 63.1% of all tests were delivered between the 12th and 16th of October 2025, and the January weighting stands out sharply. What it accounts for is the make-up of the cohort, not any difference in how hard the two papers were; for what the sittings mean for scores, see the sitting comparison page.
03
UK and overseas: the only test where overseas bookings led
TARA, October 2025 bookings
UK 508 / overseas 537
In the same sitting, ESAT ran UK 5423 to overseas 5079 and TMUA UK 5684 to overseas 4425
TARA, January 2026 bookings
UK 874 / overseas 887
In the same sitting, ESAT ran UK 2257 to overseas 2022 and TMUA UK 3897 to overseas 2882
Area of residence, delivered tests
UK 45% / Other 46% / EU 9%
1,189 / 1,210 / 227 candidates, from Table 7 of the technical report
First language
English 50% / other 50%
1,300 against 1,326, an almost exact split
Table 4 of the annual report breaks overseas candidates down by continent: Asia 8745, Europe 1,789, North America 650, Africa 173, Oceania 135, South America 36, and the text adds that the largest year-on-year increases came from African markets (+42%), followed closely by Asian markets (+39%). That table covers all three tests together; the report does not split it by test, so reading 8745 as TARA's Asian cohort is simply wrong. Country-level figures exist only inside the Figure 1 chart image, with no per-country numbers printed in the text, and this page does not estimate values off a chart.
The report names the same key markets outside the UK as the year before: China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the United States, the UAE, Türkiye, Spain and France. Delivery runs on Pearson's network of over 5500 professional test centres across 180 or more countries and territories, and in 2025-26 the tests were taken in 129 different countries. For how overseas candidates actually scored, see the international candidates page.
04
Who the 2,626 were, and what sitting the test costs
UK school type (groups of at least 100)
FE or sixth form college 512 (43%), grammar school 247 (21%), private fee-paying 218 (18%), academy or secondary school 197 (17%). The report flags that grammar school candidates made up 21% of UK TARA candidates, against a national picture in which around 5% of state-funded secondary pupils attend grammar schools. That group is far denser in the test centre than in the population.
Ethnicity among UK candidates
Asian 600 (50%), White 277 (23%), Mixed 121 (10%), Black 109 (9%), Other 82 (7%). The report only tabulates groups with at least 50 candidates, so smaller groups are not broken out.
Parent or guardian higher education
Yes 2,083 (79%), No 346 (13%), I don't know 96 (4%), I prefer not to say 101 (4%). This question covers the whole cohort, not only UK candidates.
Free school meals (UK candidates only)
150 UK candidates (13%) said they receive free school meals and 931 (78%) said they do not, with 9% choosing I don't know or I prefer not to say. The report's national comparator is that almost 25% of pupils nationally are eligible, so low-income households are thinner on the ground here than in the country at large.
Learning difficulty or chronic health condition
2,276 candidates (87%) answered no, 169 (6%) answered yes, with 100 (4%) choosing I don't know and 81 (3%) preferring not to say. This is a different question from whether a candidate applied for access arrangements, and the counts do not line up, so do not treat one as a proxy for the other.
£75 / £130
The fee for candidates in the UK and Republic of Ireland, and for candidates sitting anywhere else
2379
Bursaries issued this year, 12.8% of UK candidates, all three tests combined
94.1%
Share of bursary applications approved across both sittings
102
TARA candidates with access arrangements, 3.9% of the TARA cohort
Table 15 of the technical report lists the arrangements by type: extra time 66, extra time plus pause-the-clock 28, pause-the-clock 7, other 7, separate room 4. The text says the most common request was extra time and/or pause-the-clock, from 101 candidates. On the annual report's wider count, 1453 candidates across all three tests booked with access arrangements (4.2%), 801 in October and 652 in January, of whom 775 and 617 respectively attended and sat with those arrangements in place.
05
What these numbers cannot tell you
The most common misuse is to read candidate volume as competitive pressure. Neither report carries admissions data: nothing on how many applications a university received, nothing on how many offers it made, and no score thresholds anywhere. Dividing 2,626 by some imagined number of places therefore yields no acceptance rate, and this page does not attempt one. The annual report does record that six institutions used the tests for 2026 entry, but that counts users of the tests, not places on a course.
Booked is not delivered
TARA booked 2,806 and delivered 2,626; ESAT 14,781 and 14,193; TMUA 16,888 and 16,092. The annual report's own footnote states that the booking column includes candidates who did not cancel, did not attend, and for whom no score is reported. The gap between the columns therefore mixes absence with everything else, which is exactly why it is not a comparable no-show rate, and why this page prints both counts instead of the difference.
TARA has no year-on-year comparison
In the year-on-year column, ESAT and TMUA both carry figures (+11% and +8% in October, +47% and +32% in January) while both TARA rows read n/a, because the test was new for 2026 entry and has no prior cycle to compare with. Any claim about TARA's growth rate can therefore be ruled out as coming from this report.
Continent and country data cover all three tests
Neither the continent counts in Table 4 nor the country distribution in Figure 1 is split by test, and Figure 1's country values live only inside the chart image with nothing printed in the text. Between them the two reports therefore yield no count of TARA candidates in mainland China, and this page will not read one off a chart.
Volume says nothing about score thresholds
UAT-UK publishes no pass mark and no university publishes a fixed cut-off score; the technical report gives distributions only. It also states that scaling is fixed independently for each admissions cycle, so this cycle's scaled scores cannot be compared directly with future ones, and the counts on this page describe the 2026 cycle and nothing beyond it.
Once the scale is clear, the next move is to place yourself inside the distribution. The score statistics page sets out the full percentiles for both scored modules, and the timing and pacing page gives the official figures on time used and items left unreached. Volume tells you how many people are in the room; the distribution tells you where you need to stand.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How many people sat the TARA?
In the 2026 admissions cycle 2,806 candidates booked the TARA and 2,626 tests were delivered, 8.0% of everything UAT-UK sat that year: 976 in the October 2025 event and 1,650 in the January 2026 event. This was TARA's first cycle, so neither figure has a prior year to be compared against.
TARA is much smaller than ESAT and TMUA. Does that make it an easier route?
Volume describes the size of a test, not the outcome of an application. Neither report carries admissions data, so no acceptance rate follows from these figures, and no score threshold either. The one piece of context that is documented is that the TARA was introduced as a new test for 2026 entry, which makes 2,626 a first-cycle count with no earlier year behind it.
Why was the January sitting bigger than October?
The technical report gives the reason: the TARA was not used by the University of Cambridge this cycle, so candidates could pick either event freely, and nobody may sit it more than once in a cycle, which makes the two events a choice rather than two chances. Across the cycle 63.1% of tests were delivered in October, yet TARA ran 976 in October against 1,650 in January.
What share of TARA candidates sat in mainland China?
Neither of these two reports publishes that number. The annual report's continent table (Asia 8745 and so on) covers overseas candidates across all three tests and is not split by test, while the country-level picture appears only inside the Figure 1 chart with no per-country values in the text. What is documented is TARA's own residence profile: UK 1,189 (45%), Other 1,210 (46%), EU 227 (9%), and a first-language split of 1,300 English to 1,326 other.
SOURCES
Official sources
- UAT-UK Annual Report 2025-26, Tables 1 to 3: bookings and deliveries by test, by sitting and by geography
- Same annual report, Tables 4 to 8: overseas candidates by continent, bursaries and access arrangements
- Same annual report, narrative: total bookings, countries covered, fees and institutional users
- UAT-UK TARA Technical Report 2025-26, Tables 4 to 14: cohort size and the composition of each reported group
- Same technical report, Table 15 and section 4.2: TARA access arrangement types and the registration questions
- UAT-UK Annual Reports index (public entry point for the 2025-26 reports)
MORE GUIDES
Other TARA preparation guides
- TARA Critical Thinking
- The TARA Problem Solving module
- The TARA Writing Task
- The ten TARA question types
- How TARA scoring works
- There are no TARA past papers
- TARA score statistics: what the first cycle really looked like
- October or January: reading the official TARA sitting data
- TARA international candidates: what the official tables show
- TARA timing and pacing: reading the official clock data
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