TARA preparation guide

The TARA Problem Solving module

Problem Solving is one of three compulsory TARA modules: 22 multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes, sat on a computer with no calculator. It is not a maths test. The specification assumes only basic maths (fractions, place value, percentages, the four rules of number, averages, and time, money and measures) and puts the difficulty somewhere else entirely: deciding what matters in a block of information, building a workable method with no formula supplied, and recognising that two things presented differently are the same underneath. This page sets out the three official question types and how to attack each of them, the maths the specification actually requires, and how to pace 22 questions in 40 minutes.
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TARA Problem Solving at a Glance
Module format
22 multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes, on screen, no calculator or dictionary
Score scale
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are each reported on a scale from 1 (low) to 9 (high) to one decimal place, with no pass mark
Marking
One mark per question, with no marks deducted for a wrong answer, so a blank is strictly worse than a guess
Maths required
Basic maths only; complex fraction and decimal work is not required, and no subject knowledge is tested
Official material
No past papers; just the Content Specification, the Question Guide and two practice tests

No benchmark exists: UAT-UK has never published a score distribution, a percentile table or a cut-off for the TARA, and the test was first sat in October 2025 and no paper has been released.

01

What the Problem Solving module is

Problem Solving is one of three compulsory TARA modules, sat alongside Critical Thinking and the Writing Task, and every candidate takes all three. Each module is timed separately at 40 minutes, so the test runs to 120 minutes in total, and time does not carry over: finishing Problem Solving early buys you nothing anywhere else.

22

Multiple-choice questions in the module

40 minutes

Separately timed, module by module

120 minutes

Total across the three compulsory modules

1 to 9

The scale for Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, to one decimal place

Format

Computer-based

An erasable booklet is provided for working

Calculator and dictionary

Neither may be used

Working goes on the erasable booklet provided

Subject knowledge

None required

No part of the TARA tests subject content

Marks per question

One mark, no penalty for a wrong answer

Which makes a blank strictly worse than a guess

Carry-over

None

Minutes saved in one module never reach the next

Pass mark

None

And no fail mark either

Scores are reported module by module. UAT-UK states on its TARA page: "You will receive a separate score for Critical Thinking and Problem Solving." Both sit on a scale from 1 (low) to 9 (high), reported to one decimal place.
It has to be said just as plainly that there is no benchmark either. UAT-UK has never published a score distribution, a percentile table or a cut-off for the TARA, and nothing from the first sitting in October 2025 has been released, so a "competitive" Problem Solving score is not a fact anybody currently possesses. That leaves a clean target: answer as many of the 22 as you can, correctly, inside 40 minutes. The rest of this page is about where those 40 minutes actually go, because it is almost never the arithmetic.
02

The maths the specification actually requires

The specification answers this directly, and the list is short. Problem Solving assumes only the basic maths set out below; nothing beyond that list is assumed, so there is no advanced syllabus to revise for this module.

The four rules of number

Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division

With no calculator available, all of it by hand

Fractions and place value

Basic level only

The specification says complex fraction and decimal calculation is not required

Percentages and averages

Both listed explicitly

Assumed knowledge rather than taught content

Time, money and measures

All expected

Convert to a single unit before step one

Unit relationships

km, m, cm, mm; kg and g

These two groups are as far as the list goes

Subject knowledge

Not needed

No part of the TARA calls for subject-specific knowledge

That boundary should change what your preparation looks like: re-working GCSE or A-level topics is largely wasted effort here. Three things do pay.
01First

Fluency in the elementary operations without a calculator

Percentages, ratios and unit conversions should come out at reading speed rather than being reconstructed each time.

02Second

Estimation and order of magnitude

This is a multiple-choice module, so judging roughly where the answer must lie before computing anything can rule options out early.

03Third

Habitual unit discipline

Convert time, money, length and mass to a single unit before you start, not halfway through.

There is a useful diagnostic in all this. Since complex fraction and decimal work is not required and no calculator is permitted, arithmetic that is turning ugly usually signals that you have taken a longer route than the question intended. Stopping to re-read the stem beats grinding the numbers out: the difficulty of this module lies in extraction and modelling under time pressure, not in calculation.
03

Relevant Selection: deciding what actually bears on the question

UAT-UK's Question Guide states: "There are three kinds of Problem Solving question in the TARA." They are Relevant Selection, Finding Procedures and Identifying Similarity. The first is about deciding which parts of the material bear on the question at all: you are given more than you need, or what you need sits among what you do not, and the work is telling the two apart.

The three kinds of Problem Solving question

The three type names come from UAT-UK's Question Guide; the notes under each are ours

Relevant SelectionDeciding what actually bears on the question
  • You are given more than you need
  • What you need sits among what you do not
  • The selection is the question
Finding ProceduresBuilding the method yourself
  • Nothing tells you which operations to perform, or in what order
  • Nor how many steps there are
  • Constructing that sequence is the question
Identifying SimilaritySeeing that two things are the same underneath
  • Different on the surface, identical underneath
  • The presentation changes; the structure does not
  • Or picking the case that matches a given one in the respect that matters

Tap a branch to unfold

Read what is being asked before you read the material
Going the other way round means processing everything with equal weight, and 40 minutes does not allow that.
State the target quantity in words first
Once the thing you are looking for is fixed in a sentence, the rest of the material sorts itself into relevant and irrelevant.
Mark, then compute
Identify on the erasable booklet which pieces you intend to use, confirm the set is complete, and only then do arithmetic.
Accept leftovers
Not everything provided has to be used. Surplus information is a design feature of this question type, not evidence that you have misread.
Separate your error types when reviewing
Correct arithmetic on the wrong quantity and a slip in the arithmetic itself are different faults with different fixes.
Because the arithmetic here is elementary by design, a spare thirty seconds is usually better spent re-reading the stem to confirm you picked the right figures than re-checking the sum. Practising harder sums will not help much; practising faster, more disciplined reading will.
04

Finding Procedures: building the method yourself

Finding Procedures questions hand you a goal and leave the method entirely to you. Nothing on the screen tells you which operations to perform, in what order, or how many steps there are; constructing that sequence is the question. These are the approaches that hold up under time pressure.
01Step 1

Write the goal down first

Put it in words on the erasable booklet. A procedure is much easier to build once the destination is fixed and cannot drift.

02Step 2

Work backwards

Ask what you would need in order to produce the goal, then what you would need to produce that. Two or three backward steps usually meet the given information somewhere in the middle.

03Step 3

Use the options

This is multiple choice. Testing a candidate answer against the stated conditions and rejecting the ones that fail is a legitimate procedure, and is frequently faster than deriving the answer forwards.

04Step 4

Prefer systematic listing to cleverness

Reach for ordered enumeration, or trial and improvement from a sensible starting guess, rather than hunting for an elegant general method, which can swallow far more of the clock.

05Step 5

Label your working line by line

Unlabelled scribble cannot be audited, and when a step goes wrong you need to find it without redoing everything.

Treat ugly arithmetic as a warning. The specification does not require complex fraction or decimal calculation, and there is no calculator. If the numbers are becoming unwieldy, take that as a cue to go back and look for a shorter route rather than grinding on.
One small habit saves disproportionate time: convert every quantity to a single unit before step one, so no step in your procedure is quietly mixing minutes with hours or grams with kilograms.
05

Identifying Similarity, and why the three types overlap

Identifying Similarity asks you to see that two things which look different are, underneath, the same, or to pick the case that matches a given one in the respect that matters. The presentation changes; the structure does not, so your comparison has to rest on the side that stays put.

Convert everything into one representation

Rewrite into a single form before comparing

Switching back and forth between two forms is an easy place to slip

Compare structure, not wording

Match the relationship between the parts

Surface vocabulary, context and packaging are exactly what varies

Use invariants

Totals, orderings, ratios and units

They survive a change of presentation, which makes them dependable to check

One decisive difference is enough

One mismatch that matters eliminates an option

You need not prove it differs in every respect, and under time pressure that is usually faster than running a full comparison

One caveat has to be stated plainly, because it is official. The Question Guide says: "Although most questions fall into one category, some questions fit into one or more of the categories." The three kinds are not a tidy, mutually exclusive partition, and should not be presented as one.
The practical consequence is direct: do not classify questions in the exam. Classification is a revision tool, not a solving step. When you review a set of practice questions, tagging which skill failed tells you whether your weakness is selection, method-building or structural matching, and those three need different drills. In the exam itself, the only question worth asking is what this particular question wants.
06

Pacing 22 questions in 40 minutes, and how to practise

Twenty-two questions in 40 minutes is an average of about 1 minute 49 seconds each. Treat it as an average, not a target: some questions resolve on a first read, and the time they release is what pays for the ones that need a method built from scratch. Four rules govern the clock.
01Rule 1

Work in two passes

Take the secure marks first, flag anything that stalls, come back later. Four minutes spent on one question costs you the two or three you never reach.

02Rule 2

Never leave a blank

One mark per question, nothing deducted for a wrong answer. In the last thirty seconds, fill in everything unanswered.

03Rule 3

Time does not carry over

A module's unused minutes do not carry into the next one, so spend any surplus on checking.

04Rule 4

Practise in full 40-minute blocks on screen

Paper practice does not rehearse on-screen navigation or flagging. UAT-UK provides two official practice tests on the Pearson VUE landing page, which it says "mirror the exact format and software used for our live tests".

On source material, the honest position: UAT-UK has never released a TARA past paper. Official material is exactly three things, the Content Specification, the Question Guide, and those two practice tests. UAT-UK also hosts BMAT Section 1 papers (2003 to 2023) and TSA Section 1 papers (2008 to 2023) on the basis that TARA's Critical Thinking and Problem Solving components share a common history with them. That shared history is UAT-UK's own stated reason for hosting those papers, and it is the whole of what is claimed for them.
With no official past papers in existence, FrontierVUE writes its own original parallel TARA papers and a topic bank. Here is what they cover.

Original parallel papers

18 papers

45 questions each: 22 Critical Thinking, 22 Problem Solving, 1 Writing Task, in 120 minutes

Topic bank

350 questions

1,160 questions in total with the papers, each with a worked solution and a Chinese translation

Free to attempt

Papers 1 and 2

The first two of the eighteen parallel papers

Problem Solving questions

603

559 of them sub-classified by type, with 44 not yet sub-classified

Sub-classified split

Finding Procedures 365, Relevant Selection 103, Identifying Similarity 91

Our bank's coverage, not a claim about the real exam

Two disclaimers belong with the numbers above. These are original papers we write ourselves, not official past papers, and no official past papers exist. And the breakdown describes our bank's coverage rather than the real exam: no official breakdown by question type has ever been published.
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What maths do you need for the TARA Problem Solving module?
Only basic maths. The specification lists 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. It also states that complex fraction and decimal calculation is not required, and that no subject-specific knowledge is needed anywhere in the TARA. Nothing beyond that list is assumed, so there is no advanced maths syllabus to revise for this module.
Can you use a calculator in the TARA?
No. Calculators may not be used, and neither may dictionaries. The test is computer-based and candidates are given an erasable booklet for working. This is consistent with the content boundary: because complex fraction and decimal calculation is not required, arithmetic that becomes unwieldy is usually a sign you have taken a longer route than the question intended.
How many Problem Solving questions are there, and how long do you get?
Twenty-two multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes, an average of about 1 minute 49 seconds each. Problem Solving is one of three separately timed 40-minute modules, making 120 minutes in total, and all three are compulsory. Time does not carry over between modules, so finishing one module early gives you no extra time on the others.
Is there negative marking in the TARA?
No. Each question is worth one mark and no marks are deducted for a wrong answer, so leaving a question blank is strictly worse than guessing. Build the habit into your timing: in the final thirty seconds of the module, fill in every question you have not answered, including the ones you never had time to read.
Are there any TARA Problem Solving past papers?
No. UAT-UK has never released a TARA past paper. The official material is exactly three things: the Content Specification, the Question Guide, and two practice tests on the Pearson VUE landing page. UAT-UK additionally hosts BMAT Section 1 papers (2003 to 2023) and TSA Section 1 papers (2008 to 2023) because the Critical Thinking and Problem Solving components share a common history with them. FrontierVUE's own TARA papers are original parallel papers we write, not official past papers.
What is a good score in TARA Problem Solving?
Nobody can answer that yet. 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. UAT-UK has never published a score distribution, a percentile table or a cut-off for the TARA, and the test was first sat in October 2025 and no paper has been released. Any specific number quoted as competitive is a guess, not a published fact.
SOURCES

Official sources

MORE GUIDES

Other TARA preparation guides

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Problem Solving: the overview

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The student version of this guide: one sitting to read, checked as soon as you finish.

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