Understanding the TMUA
Short, honest explanations of how the test works — written for students sitting it, not for search engines. Where something varies by university or by year, we say so and point you at the official source rather than guessing.
The Test of Mathematics for University Admission explained: two 75-minute papers, 40 multiple-choice questions, no calculator, and what it is actually testing.
4 min readPaper 1 applies familiar A-level mathematics to unfamiliar problems; Paper 2 tests mathematical reasoning, logic and proof. How they differ and how to prepare for each.
5 min readHow 40 raw marks become a score from 1.0 to 9.0, why there is no negative marking, and why raw-to-scaled conversion changes every year.
4 min readWhich UK universities and courses ask for the TMUA, how they use the score, and why you must always check the university's own page rather than trust a list.
4 min readA realistic preparation plan built around the eighteen official past papers: what to do first, how to review mistakes, and when to start sitting papers under timed conditions.
6 min readEvery official past paper is free on QED, and the Season Pass lets you sit them online — timed, marked instantly, with the worked solution for each question.