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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01

What the Problem Solving module is

Problem Solving is one of three compulsory TARA modules, sat alongside Critical Thinking and the Writing Task. Every candidate takes all three. Each module is separately timed at 40 minutes, so the test runs to 120 minutes in total, and time does not carry over: finishing Problem Solving early does not give you longer on anything else.
The mechanics are worth fixing before you plan any revision:
  • 22 multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes.
  • Computer-based, with an erasable booklet provided for working.
  • No calculator and no dictionary may be used.
  • No subject-specific knowledge is required anywhere in the TARA.
  • One mark per question, with no marks deducted for a wrong answer, so a blank is strictly worse than a guess.
Scores are reported 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. There is no pass mark and no fail mark.
There is also no benchmark, and you should be wary of anyone who offers one. UAT-UK has never published a score distribution, a percentile table or a cut-off for the TARA. The test has not yet been sat, 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 basic maths:
  • fractions and place value
  • percentages
  • the four rules of number (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
  • averages
  • time, money and measures
  • the relationships between km, m, cm and mm, and between kg and g
The specification also states that complex fraction and decimal calculation is not required, and that no subject-specific knowledge is needed for any part of the TARA. Nothing beyond that list is assumed, so there is no advanced syllabus to revise for this module.
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:
  1. 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.
  2. Estimation and order of magnitude. In a multiple-choice module, aim to judge roughly where the answer must lie before you compute anything, which can let you rule options out early.
  3. 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 is usually a signal 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 of them is about deciding which parts of the material bear on the question at all.
Relevant Selection is what its name says. The material you are given contains more than you need, or the part you need sits among parts you do not, and the work is deciding which is which. Aim to put your effort into the selection rather than into the calculation that follows: the selection is the question.
How to attack it:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Mark, then compute. Identify on the erasable booklet which pieces you intend to use, confirm the set is complete, and only then do arithmetic.
  4. 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.
  5. 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, re-reading the stem to confirm you picked the right figures is usually a better use of a spare thirty seconds 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.
Approaches that hold up under time pressure:
  1. Write the goal down first, in words, on the erasable booklet. A procedure is much easier to build once the destination is fixed and cannot drift.
  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.
  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.
  4. Prefer systematic listing to cleverness. Aim to 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.
  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.
  6. 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, treat 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.
How to attack it:
  1. Choose one representation and convert everything into it before comparing anything. Aim not to switch back and forth between two forms of the same information, which is an easy place to slip.
  2. Compare structure, not wording. Surface vocabulary, context and packaging are exactly what varies. What you are matching is the relationship between the parts.
  3. Use invariants. Totals, orderings, ratios and units survive a change of presentation, which makes them dependable things to check.
  4. One decisive difference is enough. To eliminate an option you do not need to prove it differs in every respect, only in one that matters. 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: 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 for the clock:
  1. Work in two passes. Take the secure marks first, flag anything that stalls, come back. Four minutes spent on one question costs you the two or three you never reach.
  2. Never leave a blank. One mark per question, nothing deducted for a wrong answer. In the last thirty seconds, fill in everything unanswered.
  3. Time does not carry over. A module's unused minutes do not carry into the next one, so spend any surplus on checking.
  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.
FrontierVUE writes 18 original parallel TARA papers (45 questions each: 22 Critical Thinking, 22 Problem Solving, 1 Writing Task, 120 minutes) plus a 350-question topic bank, 1,160 questions in total, each with a worked solution and a Chinese translation, with papers 1 and 2 free to attempt. These are original papers we write ourselves, not official past papers, and no official past papers exist. Of those 1,160 questions, 603 are Problem Solving; 559 are sub-classified as Finding Procedures 365, Relevant Selection 103 and Identifying Similarity 91, with 44 not yet sub-classified. That is our bank's coverage, not a claim about 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 has not yet been sat. Any specific number quoted as competitive is a guess, not a published fact.
SOURCES

Official sources

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