TARA test UCL: which courses need it, and how UCL uses your score

Six UCL undergraduate courses require TARA for 2027 entry (the applications cycle running through the October 2026 and January 2027 sittings), and every one of them is computing or engineering:

Computer Science, Computer Science and Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, and Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. There is no social science course on the list.

That is a change from the previous cycle, when UCL's list was considerably longer and included Sociology, Social Sciences and the Social and Political Studies routes.

Oxford's list runs the other way entirely: ten courses, all humanities and social sciences — no engineering, no computer science.

If you want the full picture of how TARA works before you drill into UCL specifically, our complete TARA guide covers format, timing, and the full course list for both universities in one place.

UCL also gives applicants a choice Oxford doesn't: you can sit TARA in the October 2026 window or wait for the January 2027 sitting, depending on which fits your application timeline — our full dates and registration guide walks through that distinction in detail.

The fee is confirmed directly by UAT-UK's own registration page as £78 for UK and Republic of Ireland candidates and £133 for candidates elsewhere, though it's worth double-checking the live figure before you register since fees can change between cycles.

Bursary vouchers are available for UK candidates in financial need, covering the fee in full — see our bursary voucher guide for how to apply.

If you'd rather see the question types than read about them first, register free and try a real TARA question before you keep reading.

Here is the full list, with the UCAS codes and qualification routes exactly as they appear in UAT-UK's own Course List for 2027 Entry, the official document that sets out which courses require which admissions test.

Always cross-check the specific course page for your application year against it, since requirements can and do change between cycles. For the equivalent list at the other TARA university, see our breakdown of Oxford's ten TARA courses.

Here's how that breaks down:

A few things worth noting about the list itself.

First, the BSc and MEng routes are listed as separate UCAS codes but both require TARA — Computer Science needs it whether you're applying to the three-year BSc (G400) or the four-year MEng (G402), and UCL's own Computer Science TARA admissions test page sets out the requirement for its Computer Science courses.

Don't assume the integrated master's variant is treated differently. If Computer Science is your course, our Problem Solving question-type breakdown is worth reading closely, since that module carries real weight for technical applicants.

Second, both Mechanical Engineering routes are on the list, the BEng (H300) and the MEng (H301), so the course length doesn't get you out of it.

Third, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence is offered as an MEng only, which fits its position as a specialised engineering route rather than a general Computer Science degree.

The obvious question about UCL's list is why a subject-neutral reasoning test at all.

These are courses with hard quantitative entry requirements — UCL asks A*A*A for Computer Science — so the applicant pool already arrives with strong maths grades, and an admissions tutor can see them.

Oxford's ten TARA courses run the opposite way:

Economics and Management, History and Economics, History and Politics, Human Sciences, both PPE routes, Experimental Psychology, and the three philosophy, psychology and linguistics joint courses all sit in humanities and social sciences.

Two universities, one test, and lists at opposite ends of the subject spectrum.

The plausible answer is the same in both cases, for opposite reasons. Grades stop separating people once nearly everyone has top ones, and a test that doesn't reward curriculum content gives a tutor a comparable read on how an applicant actually reasons.

The reason that's plausible, even though UCL hasn't published an explicit rationale for the spread, comes down to what TARA actually measures.

UAT-UK's own TARA page lays out the module structure directly:

Critical Thinking tests whether you can pull an argument apart into its reasons, its conclusion, and its unstated assumptions, regardless of subject matter — our full walkthrough of all seven Critical Thinking question types goes through this in detail with real worked examples.

Problem Solving tests numerical and logical reasoning — working with percentages, averages, proportions, and structured data — without requiring any content beyond what's covered at GCSE level, which our Problem Solving maths checklist covers in full.

Neither module is actually about essay-writing or about advanced mathematics specifically.

Both are about a kind of general reasoning under time pressure that shows up in all six of UCL's listed courses: a Robotics and Artificial Intelligence student has to judge whether a design justification actually holds up, and a Computer Science student has to work out which part of a specification is load-bearing, neither of which is a calculation.

What that means practically is worth spelling out, because it cuts against the instinct a lot of applicants have.

Here's the detail:

The practical upshot is that the module you're least worried about is usually the one worth the most of your remaining time. Register free and try a few questions from both modules to see which way round that is for you, rather than assuming.

This matters more than it sounds, because a lot of the TARA advice online is still describing the previous list. UCL's TARA requirement now applies only to computing and engineering courses.

The social science courses that previously appeared — Sociology, Social Sciences, and the European and International Social and Political Studies routes among them — are not on UAT-UK's 2027 entry list.

Two practical implications. First, if you're applying to one of those social science courses and you'd braced for an admissions test, check your own course page before you book anything: you may not need TARA at all.

Second, if you're applying to Mechanical Engineering, UCL's own course page has described its TARA requirement as a new requirement, so last year's advice from an older sibling, a teacher, or a forum thread may not mention it.

Our dates and registration guide is worth bookmarking either way.

It's also a useful reminder that UCL's list isn't fixed. It moved substantially in one cycle, so treat the list on this page as accurate as of the date at the top, and re-verify against UCL's own admissions pages before you rely on it for an application.

The two modules being tested don't change even if the course list does — you can start practicing the actual Critical Thinking and Problem Solving question types free regardless of which course ends up on next year's list.

This is one of the more practically useful differences between UCL and Oxford, and it's easy to miss if you've read general TARA guidance that's written with Oxford's rules in mind.

Oxford's own admissions tests page confirms all its TARA candidates sit in the October 2026 sitting only — there's no January option for Oxford applicants at all, a rule our Oxford TARA guide covers in more depth, including exactly why Oxford runs a single sitting.

UCL doesn't work that way:

UCL applicants can sit TARA in either the October 2026 sitting or the January 2027 sitting.

What that flexibility means in practice depends on why you'd want to use it.

Sitting in October means you get the test out of the way earlier, well clear of mock exams and the bulk of coursework deadlines for most students, and you'll have your result back well before the UCAS January deadline for most courses.

Sitting in January instead gives you more preparation time — useful if you want another term to work through practice material, or if October clashes badly with other commitments — though it does mean sitting TARA much closer to, or after, the main UCAS deadline for many courses, so it's essential to check your specific course's UCAS deadline and confirm with UCL admissions that a January sitting will actually arrive in time to be considered for your application.

This is exactly the kind of detail that's worth confirming directly with UCL rather than assuming either sitting works identically for every course on the list — our breakdown of the September deadlines lays out the full booking sequence for both sittings.

If you're choosing between the two, the practical questions are: when is the UCAS deadline for your specific course, how much preparation time do you realistically want before sitting, and does your school's timetable make one sitting noticeably easier to prepare for than the other.

There isn't a universally "better" choice — it depends on your own timeline.

Fees and deadlines are exactly the sort of detail that's worth citing from source rather than repeating secondhand, so here's the current confirmed position, with the primary source linked in each case.

Fees.

UAT-UK's own registration page confirms the current TARA fee directly:

£78 for UK and Republic of Ireland candidates, and £133 for candidates elsewhere. That's the figure to budget for, though it's worth checking the live page again before you actually register, since fees can be revised between cycles.

Bursary vouchers are available for UK candidates in financial need and cover the test free of charge — UAT-UK's own page confirms bursary applications for the October 2026 and January 2027 sittings open on 1 June, and our bursary guide walks through eligibility and how to apply — if cost is a barrier, that's worth looking into before you register rather than after.

Registration windows. Booking for UCL's two sittings runs 20 July–28 September 2026 for the October sitting, and 26 October–21 December 2026 for the January sitting, each closing at 6pm on the final day.

Those are UAT-UK's central dates, published on their deadlines page, and they apply to every university using the test — Oxford's own booking deadline, published directly on ox.ac.uk, is the same 28 September 2026.

Two earlier deadlines sit inside the October window and are the ones worth diarising: access arrangements close 14 September 2026 and bursary requests 21 September 2026. Our full 2026/27 timeline lays both sittings out side by side.

Deadlines like these are still the sort of detail that gets updated centrally and can shift slightly from one cycle to the next, so confirm the live figure at the point you actually book.

UCL hasn't published an exact formula for how a TARA score combines with the rest of an application, and it would be overreaching to claim otherwise.

What follows is a reasonable, hedged reading of how it's likely to work, not a confirmed policy — treat it as informed inference rather than fact, and check your specific department's admissions page for anything more concrete.

The pattern that fits both how UCL frames TARA on its admissions pages and how Oxford has historically described the equivalent TSA score is that it functions as one input among several, rather than a standalone cutoff or a simple pass/fail hurdle.

Predicted and achieved grades, the personal statement, and (for some of these courses) interview performance all still matter, and TARA appears designed to add information those other elements can't easily capture: how you reason under time pressure, on material that isn't drawn from your specific A-level syllabus, compared directly against every other applicant on a shared scale.

That's plausible, but it isn't confirmed, and it's exactly the kind of detail that can vary by department — a Computer Science admissions tutor and a Mechanical Engineering admissions tutor are not obliged to weigh the same score the same way, and neither has published a breakdown that would let you calculate an outcome.

What that means for how you should treat your own score: don't chase a single number as a hard bar to clear, and don't assume a slightly below-average score is disqualifying on its own, since it sits alongside everything else in your application.

Equally, don't assume a strong score guarantees an offer regardless of the rest of your application.

The more useful frame is that TARA gives your application one more genuinely comparable data point — our guide to reading your own TARA score goes further into how to interpret it without overclaiming — and the way to influence it is straightforward: practice with material that mirrors the actual format under real timing, since that's the only lever you have direct control over.

Here's where the key numbers sit:

TARA scores Critical Thinking and Problem Solving separately, on a scale from 1.0 to 9.0 in one decimal place, capped at those endpoints.

UAT-UK has stated directly that the scale is designed so a typical candidate scores around 4.5, and that roughly the top 10% of candidates score above 7.0.

That gives you a rough anchor: a score meaningfully above 4.5 puts you above the typical candidate, and anything above 7.0 sits in genuinely rare territory on either module.

Because the two modules are scored and reported independently, it's entirely normal to be stronger on one than the other — and, as covered above, which one that is often correlates loosely with your academic background rather than with anything fixed about you.

A Mechanical Engineering applicant scoring strongly on Problem Solving but only around average on Critical Thinking is a common shape, not a warning sign, and the reverse happens just as often.

For the fuller breakdown of how the October 2025 and January 2026 sittings actually scored, including how the histograms are shaped, see our TARA scoring guide, and our companion breakdown of the Problem Solving good-score benchmarks and Critical Thinking good-score benchmarks module by module.

Whichever of the six courses you're applying to, the two modules reward the same underlying thing: familiarity with the actual question types under real time pressure, rather than general cleverness on the day.

Because every course on UCL's list is technical, the single highest-value thing most applicants here can do is spend deliberate time on Critical Thinking's argument-analysis question types rather than assuming a quantitative background covers them.

Refreshing the Problem Solving maths appendix — percentages, averages, and reading data from tables and charts — is quick by comparison, and worth doing under a clock rather than untimed.

Either way, working through full-length, correctly timed modules matters more than reading about the test in the abstract, and you can register free and start on a real module today rather than waiting until closer to your sitting.

For a broader run-through of the whole test — format, timing, both MCQ modules, and the Writing Task — start with our TARA basics guide.

TARA also includes a third, unscored module that's still read directly by admissions tutors; our guide to structuring a 750-word Writing Task response covers it in full, worth reading even though it doesn't feed into the 1.0–9.0 scale.

If you're applying to one of Oxford's ten TARA courses as well, or comparing the two universities' approaches, our TARA at Oxford guide covers Oxford's course list, its October-only sitting, and its specific dates in full.