The ten TARA question types

The TARA lasts 120 minutes and is built from three separately timed 40-minute modules: Critical Thinking (22 multiple-choice questions), Problem Solving (22 multiple-choice questions) and the Writing Task (one task chosen from three prompts, 750-word limit). All three are compulsory for every candidate, and time does not carry over between modules if you finish one early.

Beneath the two multiple-choice modules sits a published taxonomy. UAT-UK's Question Guide states: "In the TARA there are seven types of Critical Thinking question based on these skills." Problem Solving is divided into three kinds. That is ten official multiple-choice question types in total, and it is the map this page sets out.

Two cautions before you use it. First, the official guide is explicit that the categories overlap: most questions fall into one category, but some fit into more than one. Treat the type names as a vocabulary for describing questions and diagnosing your own errors, not as a set of watertight boxes. Second, the taxonomy tells you what kinds of thinking are tested. It does not tell you how many of each type appear in a live paper, and UAT-UK has never published a breakdown by type.

Nothing in either module requires subject knowledge. 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, you are given an erasable booklet for working, and calculators and dictionaries may not be used. Each question is worth one mark with no deduction for a wrong answer, so never leave one blank, and there is no pass mark.

These are the seven Critical Thinking types in the order the Question Guide uses. Learning them in that order pays off, because it gives you a precise label for every mistake you make in practice.

Types 1, 3 and 5 are about taking an argument apart. Types 2 and 4 are about how far the evidence carries. Types 6 and 7 ask you to transfer a structure or a rule to new material, and many students find them unfamiliar, because school essay work rarely asks for that move explicitly. The Question Guide is the primary reference for all seven, and it is free to download.

Problem Solving has a much simpler taxonomy. The Question Guide names three kinds: Relevant Selection, Finding Procedures and Identifying Similarity.

The official guide is explicit that a question can belong to more than one of these categories: although most questions fall into one category, some fit into more than one. A single question can require you to strip out irrelevant data and then build a procedure from what is left. So do not expect a live paper to sort itself into three tidy piles, and do not treat a disagreement over labelling as evidence that someone has got it wrong.

What makes Problem Solving hard is not the arithmetic. The specification restricts the maths to basics: fractions, place value, percentages, the four rules of number, averages, time, money and measures, and unit relationships. Complex fraction and decimal calculation is not required, and no calculator is allowed, which tells you the numbers are meant to stay manageable. The difficulty is reading the situation quickly, discarding what does not matter and committing to a route, at an average of about 109 seconds per question.

We cannot tell you how a live paper is distributed, because nobody outside UAT-UK can and UAT-UK has not said. What we can do is publish exactly what our own material contains, so you know what you would be drilling.

Our TARA bank holds 1,160 questions: 18 original parallel papers of 45 questions each (22 Critical Thinking, 22 Problem Solving, 1 Writing Task), plus a 350-question topic bank for working on one type at a time. Measured on 16 August 2026, the type-by-type counts are:

By module that is 539 Critical Thinking, 603 Problem Solving (559 sub-classified plus 44 still to be labelled) and 18 Writing Tasks.

Read this as our coverage, not as the exam's shape. Turning these figures into a claim about the live test would be dishonest. What they do tell you is where your practice time will actually go if you work through our material. Finding Procedures is by far the largest single group, roughly a third of everything we have written, and it is the type we would put under the clock first: it is where the gap between "I could do this given ten minutes" and "I did this in under two" shows up. These are original parallel papers we write ourselves. They are not official past papers, and no official TARA past papers exist.

The Writing Task is one of the three modules, and it does not have question types in the same sense. It is one 40-minute task chosen from three prompts, with a 750-word limit, and every prompt has the same three-part shape in the same fixed order: explain what you think the statement means, give a reasoned argument against it, then say to what extent you agree with it. Detailed subject knowledge is not expected.

Its place in the process is unusual and worth stating precisely. UAT-UK states on its TARA page: "The Writing Task is not scored by UAT-UK." Instead a copy of your response is sent to the universities you applied to. There is no number attached to it. What is passed on is a copy of the response itself.

The official recommendations are specific enough to use as a checklist. Plan for five to ten minutes before writing, grouping ideas around the three parts. Address all three parts clearly and fully. Engage closely with the wording of the statement and take a broad, nuanced view of general or abstract terms, rather than drifting into unfocused discussion of the topic area. Argue both sides, use targeted concrete examples, and avoid arguments that rest on an example alone or on examples with no context. Strengthen the counter-argument by covering different angles rather than repeating one point, and cut irrelevant background. When you give your own view, express it in enough depth and support it by reference to the arguments you have already made, instead of summarising them again.

Two Oxford courses state that the Writing Task will not be used by Oxford in admissions selection for that course: Economics and Management (LN12) and History and Economics (LV11). No other Oxford course using the TARA carries that line, and in every case all three modules must still be sat.

A taxonomy is only useful if it changes what you do on a Tuesday evening. Three suggestions.

Label every question you get wrong. The value of the ten names is diagnostic. "I keep missing Identifying an Assumption" is an actionable finding; "I am bad at critical thinking" is not. Because the official categories overlap by design, do not agonise over borderline cases, just record the label that describes what you actually failed to do.

Practise the largest groups against the clock. Both multiple-choice modules give you 22 questions in 40 minutes, about 109 seconds each, and time does not carry over from a module you finish early. Untimed accuracy on Finding Procedures items is not the skill being tested; timed selection of a workable method is.

Use the official material first, then the legitimate archives. 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, which UAT-UK says mirror the exact format and software used for its live tests. Beyond that, UAT-UK itself notes that the Critical Thinking and Problem Solving components share a common history with BMAT Section 1 and the TSA, and on that basis hosts BMAT Section 1 papers from 2003 to 2023 and TSA Section 1 papers from 2008 to 2023, as PDFs you can download free.

Our own 18 papers and 350-question topic bank sit alongside that as supplementary drilling. Papers 1 and 2 are free to attempt, and every question has a worked solution and a Chinese translation. They are original parallel papers written to the published specification, not official past papers, and no official past papers exist.