TARA preparation guide

TARA timing and pacing: reading the official clock data

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving carry identical loads: 22 multiple-choice items in 40 minutes each. Yet UAT-UK's technical report shows the two clocks behave very differently. The median time on one module is 00:39:49; on the other it is 00:40:00, the limit exactly. On one module 1% of candidates left an item unreached; on the other, 8%. This page does one job: set out the printed test-time, unreached-item and low-time statistics, then turn them into a pacing rule you can actually rehearse. No figure here is estimated off a chart image, and wherever the page steps from data across to advice it says so.

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Quick answer: how tight is the TARA clock

Limit per module: 00:40:00. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are 22 multiple-choice items each; the Writing Task is one prompt from three, 750-word limit
Median time used: 00:39:49 on Critical Thinking; 00:40:00 on Problem Solving, exactly the limit
Left an item unreached: 33 candidates (1%) on Critical Thinking; 217 (8%) on Problem Solving
Rushed by the clock: Unreached or answered in five seconds or less: 116 candidates (4%) on Critical Thinking, 742 (28%) on Problem Solving

Every figure here comes from a printed table or sentence in UAT-UK's 2025/26 TARA technical report. Nothing is read off a chart image and nothing is derived across tables. FrontierVue is an independent preparation platform and is not affiliated with UAT-UK or any university.

In short

Using the full 40 minutes is normal, not a warning sign: over 85% of candidates spent between 35 and 40 minutes. The metric that matters is not whether you filled the clock but whether you finished.
Identical item counts and identical limits, different distributions. Critical Thinking has a median of 00:39:49 and an SD of 00:02:57. Problem Solving has a median of 00:40:00 and an SD of 00:01:25, which puts at least half of that cohort on the limit itself.
On Problem Solving 217 candidates (8%) left an item unreached against 33 (1%) on Critical Thinking. Counting items answered in five seconds or less as well, Problem Solving rises to 742 candidates (28%) and Critical Thinking to 116 (4%).
The damage is concentrated in a handful of items: the mean number unreached is 1.67 on Critical Thinking and 2.76 on Problem Solving, or 2.23 and 2.55 once low-time items are included. That is what tells you how early an abandon rule has to fire.
The report excludes candidates whose module time exceeded 00:40:04 (91 on Critical Thinking, 94 on Problem Solving, around 3% and 4%) on the assumption that they held an access arrangement. The figures therefore describe candidates working to the standard limit.

The clock, structurally: three modules, 40 minutes each

The TARA 2025/26 clock

Three modules, 40 minutes each, a limit of 00:40:00

Critical Thinking22 multiple-choice items, scored

Median time 00:39:49
1% left an item unreached

Problem Solving22 multiple-choice items, scored

Median time 00:40:00
8% left an item unreached

Writing TaskOne prompt from three, 750-word limit

Also 40 minutes
The test-time table lists only the two scored modules

Tap a branch to unfold

Two things shape how that clock feels. A number of forms of each module run during the testing window so that candidates can sit on different days, and the report says every effort is made to keep those forms comparable in content and difficulty. You and a classmate may simply not have taken the same paper. The second thing is post-equating: both scored modules are equated only after the window closes, so no score appears on the day. Nothing in the room will tell you whether you were too slow, which is why the pacing decision has to be made and rehearsed beforehand.

The official test times: the two clocks are not equally tight

Median time: Critical Thinking / Problem Solving

00:02:57 / 00:01:25

SD of time: Critical Thinking is far more spread out, Problem Solving bunches at the limit

00:15:23 / 00:06:04

Shortest time recorded: some candidates did finish far early, but that is the tail of the distribution, not a strategy to copy

	Critical Thinking	Problem Solving
Items and limit	22 items / 00:40:00	22 items / 00:40:00
Candidates in the timing analysis	2,535	2,532
Mean time	00:38:44	00:39:43
Median time	00:39:49	00:40:00 (the limit)
SD of time	00:02:57	00:01:25
Shortest time	00:15:23	00:06:04
Longest time under the standard limit	00:40:01	00:40:01

Two rows carry the argument. Medians first: 00:39:49 on Critical Thinking against exactly 00:40:00 on Problem Solving, which puts at least half of that cohort on the limit rather than finishing early. Then the standard deviations. An SD of 00:02:57 describes a genuinely spread-out distribution with real early finishers in it; 00:01:25 describes a cohort packed against the buzzer. The report reaches the same verdict in more than one place, in its executive summary as well as in the timing analysis: Problem Solving is more speeded than Critical Thinking.

Do not read "most people used the whole clock" as "there is nowhere near enough time". The report supplies its own reason: TARA attracts very able candidates, the questions are built to stretch even the strongest of them, and on that basis it says it expects the test to be slightly speeded for the majority. It adds that admissions exams of this type are typically slightly speeded and calls this a trade-off that comes with targeting a wide ability range. Over 85% of candidates spending between 35 and 40 minutes is what that design looks like in the data. What separates candidates is not whether the clock ran out but whether all 22 items were seen before it did, and the next section measures exactly that.

The metric that matters: unreached items and five-second answers

Critical Thinking, unreached items

33 candidates (1%)

Out of 2,626; mean 1.67 items unreached, range 1 to 6

Problem Solving, unreached items

217 candidates (8%)

Out of 2,626; mean 2.76 items unreached, range 1 to 12

Critical Thinking, unreached or five-second items

116 candidates (4%)

Mean 2.23 such items, range 1 to 9

Problem Solving, unreached or five-second items

742 candidates (28%)

Mean 2.55 such items, range 1 to 12

Why measure five-second answers at all, when unreached items are already counted? Because there is no negative marking on this test. A candidate running out of time is likely to click through the last few items and guess, and the unreached-item count cannot see that happening: those items register as answered. Adding the five-second measure moves the affected share on Problem Solving from 8% to 28%, and on Critical Thinking from 1% to 4%. Put another way, more than one Problem Solving candidate in four left a visible mark of having been caught by the clock.

How big is the loss: two or three items on average

Among the affected candidates, the mean number of unreached items is 1.67 on Critical Thinking and 2.76 on Problem Solving; including five-second items, 2.23 and 2.55. The widest range is Problem Solving, from 1 to 12 items. The typical failure is therefore not a collapsed paper but the last two or three items being swallowed, which is why an abandon rule has to bite in the middle of the module rather than in the final five minutes.

Item 10 is where the plot starts, not a checkpoint the report endorses

The report renders the share of candidates with unreached items by item ordinal as a chart that begins at Item 10. No value is quoted off it here, because eyeballing a figure is not data. Nor does the report attach any significance to Item 10 itself: where a plot starts is a drafting decision. What is usable is the position. Item 10 sits roughly midway through 22, which makes it a serviceable single checkpoint and far cheaper in attention than timing every question. That recommendation is this page’s, not the report’s.

Unreached items cluster at the end, though navigation is free

This is where the report corrects a natural misreading. TARA navigation is non-linear: within a module you may take the items in whatever order you like. The report merely expects most candidates to work through them in order anyway, which is why it reads an unreached item as evidence of running out of time (or of ending the module early), and assumes that whoever never reached one item never saw the ones after it. Two things follow. Unreached items are not scattered through the paper, they run from one point to the end, so every extra minute spent early is charged to the last few questions. And because the navigation really is free, skipping an item and returning to it is a supported move on this test rather than an improvised one.

One diagnostic is worth carrying away from this page. A score alone will not tell you what went wrong in a mock, so log two more numbers beside it: items you never saw, and items you clicked through in under five seconds. Anything other than zero on either count points at pacing rather than at content, and has to be fixed there. For reading the score itself, see TARA score statistics.

Turning the data into a pacing and abandon rule

0122 items / 40 minutes

Rehearse in 40-minute blocks, not per item

Since the median candidate is stopped by the 00:40:00 limit, the smallest useful practice unit is a whole module, all 22 items in one sitting. Drilling in ten-item chunks never exposes you to the real pressure on the last two or three items.

02Item 10

Set exactly one mid-module checkpoint

Item 10 sits roughly halfway through 22. Make it your only checkpoint: if you are clearly behind when you arrive there, switch into triage on the spot rather than discovering the problem at Item 18. One check is enough. Timing every question burns the attention the questions themselves need.

038% against 1%

Run two different rules for two different modules

On Problem Solving 8% did not finish and 28% carry a mark of being rushed, so the abandon rule has to be enforced hard. On Critical Thinking the figures are 1% and 4%, with an SD of 00:02:57, which says this module leaves you room to linger on a hard item.

04Mean 2.76 items

Size the abandon rule against two or three items

Among affected candidates the mean unreached count is only 1.67 and 2.76 items, so what you are protecting is the last two or three questions. On Problem Solving, any item that makes you think "two more minutes and I might get it" has already earned a skip, and because navigation inside a module is non-linear you can come back to it.

05The five-second rule

Come back early, not at the buzzer

The report groups "five seconds or less" with "unreached" precisely because a burst of clicking in the final minute means the item was no more genuinely handled than one never seen. The target is to drive both counts to zero, not to paper over the gaps in the last few seconds.

One piece of this has to be personalised: the skip threshold. Calibrate it from a single full-module mock by logging the time you spend on each item, then isolating the items you sank a long time into and still got wrong. The median of those times is your threshold, and from then on anything that crosses it is skipped without further argument. The Problem Solving item types are where a hard rule like that pays for itself.

Denominators, access arrangements and the limits of this data

	Critical Thinking	Problem Solving
Denominator for test-time statistics	2,535	2,532
Excluded, over 00:40:04, assumed to hold extra time	91 (3%)	94 (4%)
Denominator for unreached and low-time statistics	2,626	2,626

Candidates with access arrangements

102

Around 4% of the 2,626 candidates

Time-related arrangements

101

Extra time and/or pause-the-clock, the most common request by far

By arrangement type

66 / 28 / 7

66 extra time, 28 extra time plus pause-the-clock, 7 pause-the-clock alone. The report notes a candidate may apply for more than one arrangement, so these count arrangements, not heads

Everything else

4 / 7

4 separate room and 7 other, again counted as arrangements; extra time has to be requested in advance through the official process

The report never links test time to score

The timing work is confined to one section: means, medians, standard deviations and extremes, plus the unreached and low-time counts. Not one figure in it attaches a score consequence to any of them, and the score tables in turn carry no timing column. There is therefore nothing in this document to support converting unreached items into lost scaled score, which is why this page talks about pacing and stops there.

The Writing Task is not in the test-time table

The test-time table has exactly two rows, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. The Writing Task also runs to 40 minutes with a 750-word limit, but it is not placed on the 1.0 to 9.0 scale and does not appear in these timing statistics. The pacing conclusions on this page therefore cover the two scored modules only.

Do not compare these figures across cycles

This is the report on TARA’s first admissions cycle, and the timing and unreached-item statistics all rest on the same 2,626 candidates from it. The report is explicit that the scaling is fixed independently for each cycle and cannot be compared directly across cycles. Treat these clock figures the same way: they describe this cohort, and are not a benchmark to hold a future year against.

One more caveat worth carrying: the report also renders parts of the timing picture as charts, including the distribution of candidates by module time and the share of unreached items by item ordinal. This page quotes only figures printed in prose or in tables and states nothing that could only be eyeballed off a chart, the height of that unreached curve included. For the shapes themselves, open the report.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How long is each TARA module and how many questions?

Each module runs 40 minutes, recorded as a limit of 00:40:00. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are 22 multiple-choice items each; the Writing Task is one prompt chosen from three with a 750-word limit, also in 40 minutes. Several forms of each module run during the testing window, and the report says every effort is made to keep them comparable in content and difficulty.

Do most candidates use the whole time?

Close to it, and that is normal. Over 85% of candidates spent between 35 and 40 minutes; the median is 00:39:49 on Critical Thinking and 00:40:00 on Problem Solving. Filling the clock is not itself a warning sign. The warning signs are items left unreached and items answered in five seconds or less.

Which module is tighter on time?

Problem Solving, and the report says so in its executive summary as well as in the timing analysis. In numbers: its median time equals the limit exactly, its SD is just 00:01:25, 217 candidates (8%) left an item unreached and 742 (28%) left an unreached or five-second item, against 33 (1%) and 116 (4%) on Critical Thinking.

If I run out of time, how many items typically go?

Among affected candidates the mean is 1.67 items on Critical Thinking and 2.76 on Problem Solving, or 2.23 and 2.55 once five-second items are counted. The ranges run to 6 items on Critical Thinking (9 including low-time items) and to 12 on Problem Solving. The typical case is the last two or three questions, not a collapsed paper.

How many candidates had extra time, and does that skew the figures?

Across the cycle 102 candidates held access arrangements, around 4% of the candidate population, and 101 of them had asked for extra time and/or pause-the-clock. The report separately lists arrangements by type, 66 extra time, 28 extra time plus pause-the-clock, 7 pause-the-clock alone, 4 separate room and 7 other, while noting that one candidate may apply for more than one. Those are counts of arrangements, not a breakdown of the 102 people. The timing table excludes anyone over 00:40:04 (91 on Critical Thinking, 94 on Problem Solving), so it describes candidates on the standard limit, while the unreached-item statistics still use all 2,626 candidates as their denominator.

SOURCES

Official sources

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