TMUA 2024: No Past Paper in the Official Resources, and What to Practise

The official UAT-UK preparation resources hold no TMUA 2024 paper to work through: UAT-UK provides the test specification and the sample tests (specimen and practice), not the questions from the October 2024 or January 2025 sittings, and the results document UAT-UK put out for that cycle, the Explanation of Results, contains no questions. 2024 was also the first year under a new delivery body, with the test moving on screen at Pearson VUE centres and results moving from per-paper reporting to a single overall score. This page sets out the format and marking rules for that year, how to read the official score scale, why scores from 2024 onwards cannot be compared with 2023 and earlier, and what you can realistically practise in place of that year's questions.
TMUA 2024 at a Glance
Is there a 2024 past paper
Not in the official resources. UAT-UK provides the test specification and sample tests, not the questions from those sittings; the results document UAT-UK put out for that cycle is the Explanation of Results.
Sittings
October 2024 and January 2025, the first cycle delivered by UAT-UK
Format
2 hours 30 minutes in total: Paper 1 and Paper 2, 20 multiple-choice questions and 75 minutes each, sat on screen, no calculator or dictionary
How results are reported
A single overall score from 1.0 (low) to 9.0 (high), reported to one decimal place, with the two papers equated and scaled together
Where the scale sits
Typical candidates score around 4.5 and approximately 10% score above 7.0; low scores are capped at 1.0 and high scores at 9.0
Comparable with earlier years
No. The scaling was revised for 2024/25 and scores should not be compared directly with TMUA scores from earlier years

These figures come from the official Explanation of Results published by UAT-UK for the October 2024 and January 2025 sittings, together with the current TMUA pages on the UAT-UK website. UAT-UK states on its current results page that it does not provide grade boundaries or a pass mark and does not accept appeals of test scores. FrontierVUE has no affiliation with UAT-UK, Cambridge Assessment or the University of Cambridge; always check the official site before registering.

01

What the TMUA looked like in 2024 and how results were reported

2024 was the year the TMUA changed hands. The test was delivered by UAT-UK, sat on screen for the first time in October 2024 and offered through roughly 5500 Pearson VUE centres worldwide. From that year the TMUA has run twice a year, in October and in January. Oxford was still using the MAT at this point and only moved to the TMUA from the October 2026 sitting. Reporting changed too: the two papers are equated and scaled together, and only one overall score comes out.

Delivery body

UAT-UK (University Admissions Tests UK)

Established in 2023 as a joint venture between Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge

How it is sat

Computer-based multiple choice at Pearson VUE centres

Delivered through roughly 5500 test centres worldwide

Total length

2 hours 30 minutes

Two papers back to back, 75 minutes each

Questions

20 multiple-choice questions on each paper

Marks are given for correct answers and nothing is deducted for wrong ones, so every question is worth attempting

Aids allowed

No calculator and no dictionary

Fee for this cycle

75 GBP in the UK and Ireland, 130 GBP elsewhere

The current fees are 78 GBP and 133 GBP; check the official site before registering

Where the score goes

Sent automatically to the institutions in your UCAS application whose courses require the test

Candidates cannot choose which institutions can see the score

Paper 1Paper 2
Paper titleApplications of Mathematical KnowledgeMathematical Reasoning
Questions20 multiple choice20 multiple choice
Time75 minutes75 minutes
MarkingCorrect answers score, wrong answers cost nothingCorrect answers score, wrong answers cost nothing

The two papers are sat back to back for a total of 2 hours 30 minutes. From 2024 they are equated and scaled together, so the result is a single overall score rather than a score per paper. Source: the UAT-UK TMUA page and the official Explanation of Results.

Two rules are worth fixing in your head before test day. First, no calculator and no dictionary, so every piece of arithmetic is done by hand and your practice should be done the same way. Second, there is no negative marking: in the official wording, “You do not lose marks for wrong answers, so it's worth attempting all questions.” Running short on time is never a reason to leave a question blank.
02

How to read a TMUA 2024 score

From 2024 the TMUA reports a single overall score on a scale running from 1.0 (low) to 9.0 (high), given to one decimal place. Paper 1 and Paper 2 are equated and scaled together using a Rasch model, so neither paper shows up separately on the result. The scale is anchored on the October cohort: the median is fixed at 4.5 and the 90th percentile at 7.0, with the January sitting mapped onto the same ruler.
Where typical candidates land
The official wording is that the scale is designed so that typical candidates score around 4.5, approximately 10% of candidates score above 7.0, low scores are capped at 1.0 and high scores at 9.0. Those three anchors are the positioning the Explanation of Results gives; the document reports no candidate counts by band.
Why there is only one score
From 2024 the two papers are equated and scaled into one overall score. The CAAT-era practice of reporting a score for each paper alongside the total stopped that year.
Is there a boundary or a pass mark
No. UAT-UK states on its current results page that it does not provide any grade boundaries or a pass mark. Whether a score is enough depends on how the course you are applying to uses it that year, so check the latest requirements on each university's course pages.
Who sees the score, and can it be appealed
Results are matched through UCAS and sent automatically to any institution in your application whose course requires the test; candidates cannot choose which institutions see the score. UAT-UK does not accept appeals of test scores.
What the official distribution chart shows
The Explanation of Results contains one bar chart of overall scores combining the October 2024 and January 2025 sittings, with the axis running from 1.0 to 9.0 in steps of 0.5. The document pairs no table of counts or percentages by band with that chart, so any precise claim about how many candidates fall in a given band does not come from it and should not be treated as a target.
The official wording is explicit: “This scaling process has been revised for 2024/25, and scores should not be compared directly with TMUA scores from earlier years.” Scores from 2024 onwards and scores from 2023 and earlier, under CAAT, are two different rulers. Reading them as one continuous trend gives the wrong answer.
2023 and earlier (CAAT era)2024 onwards (UAT-UK era)
What is reportedAn overall score plus separate scores for Paper 1 and Paper 2A single overall score, with the two papers equated and scaled together
Scale anchorsFor each year from 2017 to 2022 the official wording was that about one third of candidates scored above 6.5Typical candidates around 4.5, with approximately 10% above 7.0
Sittings per yearOne autumn sitting each yearTwo sittings, October and January
Delivery bodyCambridge Assessment Admissions TestingUAT-UK

The two columns do not mean the same thing: they cannot be compared directly and must not be joined into a trend. The scaling was revised for 2024/25 and official guidance says scores from 2024 onwards should not be compared directly with TMUA scores from earlier years. This table sets the two regimes side by side to show how they differ, not to offer a conversion.

03

Is there a TMUA 2024 past paper to practise

Not in the official resources. The preparation materials UAT-UK provides are the test specification and the sample tests (specimen and practice), and the questions from the October 2024 and January 2025 sittings are not among them. The results document UAT-UK put out for that cycle, the Explanation of Results, contains no questions either, and FrontierVUE holds no paper for this year. UAT-UK also states that sharing test content during or after the admissions cycle is strictly prohibited, so treat any source claiming to offer a complete TMUA 2024 paper with caution.
Why: from 2024 the TMUA has been sat on screen at Pearson VUE centres, and the results document UAT-UK put out for the October 2024 and January 2025 cycle is the Explanation of Results, which covers the score scale and shows one distribution chart but contains no questions. The most recent past-paper year in the FrontierVUE catalogue is 2023, the final sitting under CAAT. That does not leave you short of practice: the format has been stable since 2017 at two papers of 20 questions and 75 minutes each, 2 hours 30 minutes in total, so papers from 2023 and earlier still match the question types and the pacing.
01Option A

Work through the papers up to 2023

The FrontierVUE catalogue holds 16 TMUA past papers (FrontierVUE catalogue figure, past papers only), the most recent year being 2023, alongside 1102 TMUA questions in total (FrontierVUE catalogue figure, including mock papers and the topic bank). Sitting one paper under a 75 minute clock is the closest thing to the real pacing.

02Option B

Drill by topic

Use topic practice to work a weak area on its own before returning to full papers. Past papers are a limited resource, so save them for full mocks and let topic drills do the day-to-day repair work.

03Option C

Top up with mock papers

Once the real papers run out, mock papers in the practice centre keep the volume up; what is available at any time is whatever the site currently lists.

04Option D

Fill in method with the guides

The guides under /exams/tmua/guides/ break the method down paper by paper and question type by question type, and are built to pair with the papers.

Not having a 2024 paper to work from does not stop you preparing under the rules that have applied since 2024. Practise to the format and marking rules in the first section, read scores by the second, and treat the missing item as the specific questions from one year, which is not the part that decides how well you do.
04

How to practise for the 2024-era TMUA on FrontierVUE

01First

Open the TMUA past paper list

Go to /papers/tmua.

02Second

Pick a year, starting at 2023

FrontierVUE holds no 2024 paper; the most recent year in the catalogue is 2023, so start with the years closest to the current shape of the test.

03Third

Sit it against the clock

One paper is 20 questions in 75 minutes; time single papers first, and use 2 hours 30 minutes when you sit both back to back. Keep the calculator closed.

04Fourth

Review question by question

Read the worked explanations, file each mistake under a topic, then drill that topic on its own in topic practice.

05Fifth

Do not read practice accuracy as a scale score

The site reports accuracy in practice terms, not an official score on the 1.0 to 9.0 scale. UAT-UK anchors that scale on each year's candidate distribution, so the two are different rulers and should not be converted into one another.

16 papers

TMUA past papers held, 320 questions across the 16, plus 2 official specimen papers (FrontierVUE catalogue)

1102 questions

TMUA questions on the site in total, including mock papers and the topic bank, not the past-paper count (FrontierVUE catalogue)

2023

The most recent year with a TMUA past paper in the FrontierVUE catalogue; FrontierVUE holds no 2024 paper

TMUA guides

/exams/tmua/guides/

scoringThe 1.0 to 9.0 scale and how to read a result
paper-1What Applications of Mathematical Knowledge asks of you
paper-2What Mathematical Reasoning asks of you
syllabusThe syllabus and where its boundaries sit
time-managementPacing 20 questions across 75 minutes
common-mistakesThe recurring ways marks get lost
test-dayWhat test day itself looks like on screen

Tap a branch to unfold

Build two rules into how you practise: never open a calculator, because you will not have one, and always commit to an answer before moving on, because wrong answers cost nothing while blanks give marks away. Neither depends on which year's questions you are working from, so the sooner they become habit the better.
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Where can I download the TMUA 2024 past paper?
Not from UAT-UK. The official UAT-UK preparation resources are the test specification and the sample tests, not the questions from the October 2024 or January 2025 sittings. The official results document for that cycle is the Explanation of Results, which covers the score scale and shows one distribution chart but contains no questions. UAT-UK states that sharing test content during or after the admissions cycle is strictly prohibited, so treat any site or file claiming to offer a complete TMUA 2024 paper with caution. To work on real papers, start from 2023 and earlier.
What counts as a good TMUA 2024 score?
UAT-UK states on its current results page that it does not provide grade boundaries or a pass mark, so there is no universal line to clear. The positioning UAT-UK does give is the scale anchors: typical candidates score around 4.5, approximately 10% score above 7.0, and the scale is capped at 1.0 and 9.0. Whether your score is enough depends on how the course you are applying to uses it that year, so check the latest requirements on each university's course pages.
Can a TMUA 2024 score be compared with a 2023 score?
No. Official guidance states that the scaling was revised for 2024/25 and that scores should not be compared directly with TMUA scores from earlier years. The reporting differs as well: up to 2023 candidates received separate scores for Paper 1 and Paper 2 alongside the overall score, while from 2024 the papers are equated into a single overall score. Treating the two eras as one trend line leads to the wrong conclusion.
With no 2024 paper, what should I practise instead?
Work the papers from 2023 and earlier. The format has been two papers of 20 questions and 75 minutes each, 2 hours 30 minutes in total, since 2017, so the question types and the pacing still match the current test. Add topic practice to repair weak areas and mock papers to keep the volume up. The FrontierVUE catalogue holds 16 TMUA past papers (FrontierVUE figure, past papers only), the most recent year being 2023, alongside 1102 TMUA questions in total (FrontierVUE figure, including mock papers and the topic bank).
Sources

Official sources

By year

Other TMUA years

TMUA 2025TMUA 2023TMUA 2022TMUA 2021TMUA 2020TMUA 2019TMUA 2018TMUA 2017TMUA 2016

FrontierVUE is an independent practice platform. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by UAT-UK, Pearson, OCR, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, or any official admissions-test owner.

FrontierVUE 是独立的备考练习平台，与 UAT-UK、Pearson、OCR、剑桥大学、 帝国理工学院或任何官方入学考试主办方均无隶属或背书关系。

No TMUA 2024 paper exists: here is what to practise instead

Practise the years that were released, plus mock papers and topic drills, all in a timed interface with worked solutions.

Practise TMUA papersAll TMUA past papers