TARA preparation guide

There are no TARA past papers

Search for a TARA past paper and you will find nothing official, because nothing exists. The Test of Academic Reasoning for Admissions is new: UAT-UK has never released a past paper, and the test has not yet been sat. That is inconvenient, but it is not a dead end. UAT-UK has published a content specification, a question guide and two practice tests on the Pearson VUE landing page, and it points candidates towards two large archives of older reasoning papers. This page sets out exactly what exists, what genuinely transfers from those archives, what does not transfer at all, and a sensible order to work through it.
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01

The honest answer: no TARA past paper exists

Start with the plain fact: no TARA past paper has ever been released. UAT-UK has published no retired paper, no full sample paper beyond its own practice tests, and no bank of retired questions. The test has not yet been sat, so there is nothing to retire.
Two further absences follow from the same fact, and both matter when you plan revision.
First, there is no published score data. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are each reported on a scale from 1 (low) to 9 (high) to one decimal place, while UAT-UK states on its TARA page that the Writing Task "is not scored by UAT-UK"; a copy of your response is sent to the universities where you applied. No score distribution, percentile table or cut-off has ever been published for the TARA, and there is no pass or fail mark. Anyone quoting you a competitive TARA score is inventing it.
Second, there is no published breakdown of how many questions of each type appear. The official question guide names seven Critical Thinking types and three Problem Solving types, and it says explicitly that a Problem Solving question can fall into more than one category. What it does not do is tell you the mix in a live paper.
What you do know is the shape of the test, and that shape is fixed: three modules, each separately timed at 40 minutes, 120 minutes in total. Critical Thinking is 22 multiple-choice questions. Problem Solving is 22 multiple-choice questions. The Writing Task is one response, chosen from three prompts, with a 750-word limit. All three modules are compulsory. Every question is worth one mark and nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so a blank is simply a mark thrown away.
That skeleton, plus the official descriptions of each question type, is enough to build a real preparation plan. It is not enough to guess a target score, so do not try.
02

What official material actually exists

Official TARA material is exactly three things. Work through them in this order.
  1. The TARA Content Specification. This tells you what the test covers and what it does not. The key line for most candidates is that no subject-specific knowledge is needed. Problem Solving assumes only basic maths: fractions, place value, percentages, the four rules of number, averages, time, money and measures, and the relationships between km, m, cm and mm and between kg and g. Complex fraction and decimal calculation is not required. The test is computer-based, calculators and dictionaries may not be used, and candidates get an erasable booklet for working.
  2. The TARA Question Guide. This document sets out the question types. UAT-UK's guide states that there are "seven types of Critical Thinking question": Identifying the Main Conclusion, Drawing a Conclusion, Identifying an Assumption, Assessing the Impact of Additional Evidence, Detecting Reasoning Errors, Matching Arguments and Applying Principles. Problem Solving has three kinds, Relevant Selection, Finding Procedures and Identifying Similarity, and the guide notes that some questions fit into more than one. The guide also sets out the Writing Task, including its fixed three-part instruction and official advice on planning, engaging with the wording, arguing both sides and expressing your own view.
  3. Two practice tests on the Pearson VUE landing page. These are the only material that shows you the live software. UAT-UK describes them as mirroring "the exact format and software used for our live tests". Because there are only two, do not burn them early. Use one once you understand the question types, and save the other for a full dress rehearsal close to your test date.
There is no fourth item. Anything else described to you as official TARA material is not.
03

BMAT Section 1 and the TSA: the archives UAT-UK points you to

UAT-UK does something unusual here: it tells you where to look for older material, and it explains why. Its preparation page states that the Critical Thinking and Problem Solving components "share a common history with" the Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT) Section 1 and the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA). On that basis it hosts, as PDFs, BMAT Section 1 papers from 2003 to 2023 and TSA Section 1 papers from 2008 to 2023.
That is two decades of reasoning questions, published by the organiser of the TARA itself, and far more material than any candidate will get through. It works because the underlying skills are the same family: reading a short argument and finding what it actually concludes, spotting the unstated step, judging whether a new piece of evidence strengthens or weakens a case, deciding which information in a wordy scenario is relevant, and finding a workable procedure rather than a clever one.
Use the archives for two things specifically.
  • Type recognition. Read the question guide's definition of a type first, then work through archive questions with that single type in mind. Naming what is being asked before you answer is most of the skill.
  • Timing under pressure. 22 questions in 40 minutes is a shade under two minutes each. That pace has to become automatic, and old papers are the cheapest way to build it.
Two cautions. The archives belong to separate tests with their own conventions, so their instructions, question counts and mix will not match a TARA module. And they are Section 1 papers from tests structured differently from the TARA. Treat them as a question pool rather than as mock exams. Practising the questions is worthwhile; simulating a TARA sitting with them is not, for the reasons set out next.
04

What the archives cannot teach you

Three things about the TARA have no equivalent in the BMAT and TSA archives, and each one can only be rehearsed under full timed conditions.
The 40 + 40 + 40 module structure. The TARA is three separately timed 40-minute modules totalling 120 minutes. Older papers were not built this way, so working an archive paper end to end trains a rhythm the real test does not have. Practise against a 40-minute clock, in 22-question blocks, from the start.
The module switch, and the fact that time does not carry over. If you finish a module in 34 minutes, those six minutes are gone. A module's unused minutes do not carry into the next one. That changes the correct strategy inside a module: since every question is worth one mark and nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, spare minutes are best spent revisiting questions you were unsure about in the same module, and any question you cannot crack still gets an answer rather than a blank. No archive paper teaches this, because there is no module boundary to teach it with.
The Writing Task. The archives UAT-UK hosts are Section 1 papers, containing no writing component at all. The TARA Writing Task is highly specific: one task chosen from three prompts, 40 minutes, a 750-word limit, and a fixed three-part instruction asking you to explain what you think the statement means, give a reasoned argument against it, and then say to what extent you agree. Detailed subject knowledge is neither expected nor required. UAT-UK does not score it; a copy of your response is sent to each participating university you applied to.
Then there is the software. The test is computer-based, and the only material reflecting that environment is the pair of Pearson VUE practice tests. That is another reason to hold one back rather than opening both in the first week.
05

A practice plan that puts official material first

Order matters more than volume. A workable sequence, assuming you have several weeks:
  1. Read the Content Specification once, properly. Twenty minutes. It stops you spending revision time on content the test does not assess.
  2. Work through the Question Guide type by type. Take one type at a time, read the official description, and only then attempt questions of that type. Ten types in total: seven in Critical Thinking, three in Problem Solving. Keep the guide's own caveat in mind, that a Problem Solving question can sit in more than one category, so do not force every question into a single label.
  3. Drill one type at a time using the BMAT Section 1 and TSA Section 1 archives. Untimed at first. The goal is accuracy and, more importantly, being able to say what the question was testing once you have finished it.
  4. Add the clock. 22 questions, 40 minutes, no calculator, no dictionary. Do this in single-module blocks, not full papers.
  5. Plan and write Writing Task responses. Spend 5 to 10 minutes planning, as UAT-UK recommends, grouping your ideas around the three required parts, then write to the 750-word limit in the time that remains. Two or three timed attempts teach you more than a dozen unwritten plans.
  6. Sit the first Pearson VUE practice test once the question types feel familiar, so that you have met the software.
  7. Sit full 120-minute papers to rehearse the module switch. This is where FrontierVUE fits: our 18 TARA papers are original parallel papers we write ourselves, each with 22 Critical Thinking questions, 22 Problem Solving questions and one Writing Task, at full length and full timing, with a worked solution and a Chinese translation for every question, and papers 1 and 2 free to attempt. They are not official past papers, and no official past papers exist.
  8. Save the second Pearson VUE practice test for the week before your sitting.
If you only have a fortnight, keep steps 1, 2, 4 and 6 and cut the rest.
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Are there any TARA past papers?
No. UAT-UK has never released a TARA past paper, and the test has not yet been sat, so there is nothing to retire. Official material is limited to three things: the TARA Content Specification, the TARA Question Guide, and two practice tests on the Pearson VUE landing page. Anything advertised to you as a TARA past paper PDF is not one.
Is BMAT Section 1 good practice for the TARA?
For the underlying reasoning skills, yes. UAT-UK itself says the Critical Thinking and Problem Solving components "share a common history with" BMAT Section 1 and the TSA, and it hosts BMAT Section 1 papers from 2003 to 2023 and TSA Section 1 papers from 2008 to 2023. The structure is different, though: those papers have no 40-minute module boundaries and no writing component. Use them as a question pool, worked in 22-question, 40-minute blocks, not as TARA mock exams.
Where can I find a TARA practice test?
There are two practice tests on the Pearson VUE landing page, reached from UAT-UK's TARA preparation materials page. UAT-UK describes them as mirroring "the exact format and software used for our live tests", which makes them the only material that shows you the real exam software. Since there are only two, do not open both in the first week: use one after you understand the question types, and keep the other for the week before your sitting.
Which BMAT and TSA papers does UAT-UK host?
BMAT Section 1 papers from 2003 to 2023 and TSA Section 1 papers from 2008 to 2023, all as PDFs on the TARA preparation materials page. That is two decades of reasoning questions, far more than any candidate will get through, and it comes from the organiser of the TARA itself. Note that what is hosted is Section 1 material only, so it contains no writing component.
Do BMAT and TSA papers help with the TARA Writing Task?
No. The archives UAT-UK hosts are Section 1 papers, which contain no writing component. Prepare for the Writing Task from the official question guide instead: one task chosen from three prompts, 40 minutes, a 750-word limit, and a fixed three-part instruction asking you to explain what you think the statement means, give a reasoned argument against it, and say to what extent you agree. No detailed subject knowledge is expected. UAT-UK recommends planning for 5 to 10 minutes around those three parts before writing. UAT-UK does not score it; a copy of your response goes to each participating university you applied to.
What TARA score should I aim for if there are no past papers?
There is no official benchmark to aim at. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are each reported on a scale from 1 (low) to 9 (high) to one decimal place, and there is no pass or fail mark. Because the test has not yet been sat, UAT-UK has never published a score distribution, a percentile table or a cut-off for the TARA. Rather than chase a number nobody has published, work on the two things you control: how reliably you recognise what a question is testing, and whether you can hold the pace of 22 questions in 40 minutes.
SOURCES

Official sources

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Other TARA preparation guides

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