Durham and UCL TMUA requirements for 2027 entry

Durham recommends the TMUA for four Mathematics degrees. It does not require it for anything.

Here's how that breaks down:

Durham's own wording is that applicants are "strongly encouraged to sit one of the optional tests", and that "achievement of a high enough score may also entitle you to a reduced offer".

The tests Durham will consider are the TMUA, STEP, or other evidence of mathematical ability such as the Advanced Extension Award, Mathematics Challenges and Olympiads.

This is the clearest, most actionable published statement about TMUA scores from any university, and it is the reason a Durham applicant would sit a recommended test.

Durham converts a score into a grade. Before the numbers, one thing you need to know about which year they describe.

There is a second, narrower mechanic for the AS Further Maths group. For those applicants a TMUA of 5.0 or above is required to be considered for an offer of A* in A level Maths, AA in two other A levels, and a in AS Further Maths.

This is what makes Durham the cleanest illustration in the cluster of what "recommended" can mean. A recommended test that is worth a grade is not the same thing as an optional one you can ignore.

Compare it with LSE, where nine courses recommend the test and no equivalent mechanic is published, so the value of sitting cannot be calculated at all. See LSE TMUA requirements.

Durham publishes the single most useful sentence anyone has written about the 2024 scoring change, and it applies far beyond Durham.

In Durham's words, in 2024 the scoring system changed such that:

Durham adds the crucial clarification:

"This is a change to the scoring scale, and not a change to the standard we're looking for."

So the standard Durham looks for stayed where it was, and only the numbering changed.

The practical consequence reaches every page you will read about TMUA scores. Any benchmark taken from 2023 or earlier is overstated by roughly a point and a half at the top of the useful range.

A forum post saying "you need 6.5 for Durham" was correct in 2023 and describes 5.0 today.

Our guide to TMUA scoring and results covers why the scale works this way, and what is a good TMUA score handles the benchmark question across all universities.

UCL requires the TMUA for two degrees. Both are Economics, both are compulsory, and no other UCL course uses the test.

Here's how that breaks down:

One note on the code. UCL uses L101 for its Economics with Study Abroad degree, and LSE uses L101 for BSc Economics.

Both are correct:

UCAS course codes are unique within an institution rather than across all of them, so the same code can appear at two universities for different degrees. Apply with the code shown on the course page you are applying to.

This is the most important thing on the UCL half of the page, and it is the error that sends people to the wrong exam for months.

UCL uses three different admissions tests across its courses. Here is the full picture.

Here's how that breaks down:

So six UCL courses use TARA and only two use the TMUA.

TARA is the Test of Academic Reasoning and Attributes, UAT-UK's third test, first offered in October 2025.

It has three 40-minute modules:

Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and a Writing Task. The two multiple-choice modules are scored separately on the same 1.0 to 9.0 scale, and the Writing Task is not scored at all.

It contains no mathematics in the TMUA sense. Preparing for the TMUA when your course needs TARA means preparing for the wrong subject entirely.

The Computer Science applicant who has to sit both

There is a group of applicants this catches badly, and almost nothing written about the TMUA mentions them.

Computer Science is a five-choice subject like any other, and the tests do not line up across universities.

So an applicant putting UCL alongside Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial or Warwick for Computer Science needs two different admissions tests in the same autumn: the TARA for UCL and the TMUA for the others.

Three practical consequences.

1. Two bookings, two fees. Each test is booked separately through UAT-UK and each carries its own fee. A UK bursary covers both if you are eligible, but you apply for it per test.

2. They are in the same window. Both run in the October and January sittings, and Oxford and Cambridge applicants must sit in October. Sitting two different tests in the same week is possible but worth booking early to get slots you can manage.

3. The preparation barely overlaps. The TMUA is two maths papers. TARA is Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and an unscored Writing Task, with no mathematics in the TMUA sense. Time spent on one does very little for the other, so budget for both rather than assuming one covers you.

Worth stating the obvious trap as well: do not assume that because one of your five Computer Science choices needs the TMUA, they all do.

UCL is the counter-example, and it is a common enough combination that getting it wrong means preparing for months for a test your firm choice does not ask for.

UCL publishes no threshold, no minimum and no score data at all, so any figure you find quoted for UCL is unsourced.

That puts UCL with the majority. Of the seven TMUA universities only Durham and Warwick publish a figure, and only Imperial publishes distributions of what applicants scored.

Cambridge, Oxford, LSE and UCL publish nothing.

There is one useful comparison, though, and it is closer to home than the national cohort.

Cambridge Economics is the nearest published equivalent: a compulsory TMUA for a single-subject Economics degree at a highly selective university.

Cambridge released its figures under Freedom of Information for the 2025 apply year, and offer holders averaged 5.99 against applicants at 4.66.

That is not a UCL number and should not be read as one. UCL selects differently, interviews differently and publishes nothing to check it against.

What it does give you is a sense of scale for what a strong application to a compulsory-TMUA Economics course has tended to look like, which is more useful than a national median for a course this selective.

For the benchmark question across every university, see what is a good TMUA score.

Neither Durham nor UCL restricts you to one window, unlike Oxford and Cambridge. Durham does say it strongly encourages the first sitting where possible.

Across two consecutive cycles the January cohort has scored roughly 0.9 points lower on an October-anchored scale. The cause is not established and that group self-selects, so treat it as a pattern rather than a sign that the January paper is harder.

Both universities receive your score automatically.

Durham describes the process directly:

UAT-UK and Pearson VUE work with UCAS to match your score to your application using the details supplied at booking, and once matched, Durham can access it without you doing anything.

That also means you cannot choose who sees it, and there is no appeal. Full dates and deadlines are in TMUA dates, registration and booking.

If you are applying to Durham

You are weighing an optional test against a concrete grade reduction, which is a rare position to be in and worth taking seriously.

1. Work out what the grade is worth to you. A*AA instead of A*A*A is a meaningful difference on results day, and 5.0 sat around the 70th percentile of the 2026 entry cohort, which had a median of 4.1 and a 75th percentile of 5.3. Aim comfortably above it rather than at it, since the 2027 figure is not published.

2. Sit a free past paper under time before you book. If you land near or above 5.0 cold, the test is clearly worth the fee. If you land at 2.5, the honest question is whether preparation will close that gap by October.

3. Remember there is a floor, not a cliff. Durham says a score below 5.0 down to the annual threshold is still positive evidence, so a middling score is not wasted.

If you are applying to UCL Economics

You have no decision to make. The test is compulsory, UCL publishes no threshold and no data, so the only sensible target is to do as well as you can.

Check first that your course is one of the two Economics degrees rather than one of the six that use TARA. That check takes thirty seconds and saves months.

For both

Start with the official TMUA past papers from 2016 to 2023. They are free, every released paper comes with worked answers from UAT-UK, and the content specification has not changed since.

That is eight sittings and 320 questions.

Then read our guide to Paper 2, because roughly 38% of it tests logic and proof reasoning that no A-level maths course formally teaches, which makes it the part of the test where preparation moves you most.

The complete TMUA guide covers the test end to end if you are starting from scratch.