There is no official “good” TMUA score: UAT-UK sets no pass mark and no grade boundaries. Scores run from 1.0 to 9.0, and UAT-UK says typical candidates score around 4.5 and approximately 10% score higher than 7.0. What counts as good depends on the course: Warwick and Durham each cite 5.0 for particular purposes.
By Archie Dyer, founder of Cognivia Tutoring · Last checked 11 October 2026
Scale of 1.0 to 9.0One overall score, to one decimal place.
Typical score: around 4.5UAT-UK’s wording, for the October 2025 and January 2026 sittings.
About 10% score above 7.0Also UAT-UK’s wording.
No pass markAnd no marks lost for wrong answers.
It depends on the courseMost universities publish no threshold.
What counts as a good TMUA score?
A good TMUA score is one that is strong for the course you are applying to; there is no official definition. UAT-UK, which runs the test, states: “UAT-UK does not provide any grade boundaries or a pass mark.” What it does publish is where scores fall, summarised below.
What UAT-UK publishes about TMUA scores, checked on 11 October 2026
Score
What UAT-UK says
Where it says it
1.0
The lowest reported score. “Low scores are capped at 1.0”.
Explanation of Results, October 2025 and January 2026
Around 4.5
“The scale has been designed so that typical candidates will score around 4.5.”
Explanation of Results, October 2025 and January 2026
Above 7.0
“Approximately 10% of candidates will achieve scores higher than 7.0.”
Explanation of Results, October 2025 and January 2026
9.0
The highest reported score. “High scores are capped at 9.0.”
Explanation of Results, October 2025 and January 2026
Pass mark
None. “There is no pass or fail for the TMUA.”
About the TMUA page; Test Scores page
So a score above 4.5 is above the typical candidate, and a score above 7.0 is in roughly the top tenth of everyone who sat the test. Whether either is enough is decided by each university, and most of them weigh the score with the rest of the application.
The TMUA gives one overall score from 1.0 to 9.0, to one decimal place, based on the number of questions answered correctly across both papers. UAT-UK states: “You do not lose marks for wrong answers, so it’s worth attempting all questions.”
One score, two papers
“For the TMUA, Papers 1 and 2 are equated and scaled together to produce a single overall score.” There is no separate score for each paper.
Statistical model
Responses are analysed with “the Rasch item response theory (IRT) model”, which places all questions on one scale of difficulty and all candidates on one scale of ability.
Equating
There are several forms of each test. UAT-UK says small differences in difficulty between them are “removed through a process of equating”.
Both sittings
UAT-UK describes the scale by reference to the October candidates, and says “scores from the January sitting are mapped to the same scale”.
UAT-UK’s own pages disagree on one number. Its Prepare page, and one section of its Test Scores page, say the scale has “the median fixed at 4.5 and the 90th percentile fixed at 7.0”. A different section of the same Test Scores page, “How our Tests are Scored”, says the scale has “the 50th percentile of the October candidate score distribution at 4.5 and the 90th percentile at 9.0”.
Both statements were on the site on 11 October 2026. The Explanation of Results says approximately 10% of candidates score higher than 7.0. I am reporting the conflict as it stands; if the figure matters to you, ask UAT-UK.
UAT-UK does not publish a mean score, but it says the scale is designed so that “typical candidates will score around 4.5”. That is the closest thing to an official average, and it is fixed by design: it does not move with how hard a particular paper felt.
UAT-UK also publishes a bar chart of scores from the October 2025 and January 2026 sittings. Read from that chart, the tallest bars are at 3.5, 4.0 and 4.5, and the bars become short above 7.0. It publishes the chart without a table of figures, so I have not turned it into percentages.
UAT-UK is direct about why scores feel low: “Candidates should not expect to score as highly on these tests as they have in their school exams.”
What TMUA score do you need for Cambridge, Imperial, LSE and Warwick?
Of the seven universities that use the TMUA, only Warwick and Durham put a number on the pages I checked; the Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, LSE and UCL pages give no threshold. The table reports only what each university’s own website said on 11 October 2026. It leaves out figures from tutoring companies and forums.
What each university officially publishes about TMUA scores, checked on 11 October 2026
Publishes no threshold. “There’s no pass or fail mark for the tests, but a strong performance is usually needed to get through to interview.” Colleges then look at the score with the rest of the application.
Publishes no threshold. “There is no ‘pass’ mark for the TMUA”. It shortlists “around three applicants per place” for interview, using the score with the UCAS application and school background.
Publishes no threshold. “There aren’t any grade boundaries or pass marks for the ESAT or TMUA.” It offers an interactive dashboard of mean scores and score ranges by department, and says those scores “should not be taken as indicative of requirements”.
Publishes no threshold. The test is mandatory for two programmes; for the others, “a good score may make an application more competitive”. LSE accepts only the first sitting in a cycle.
“In the last admissions cycle, the majority of offers were made to applicants with a TMUA score of 5.0 and above. Some offers were made to applicants with a score below 5.0 after a holistic assessment of their overall profile.” The final threshold “is set in around April”.
“The last admissions cycle”; the page does not name the year
Publishes no threshold. “The exact requirement in TMUA will be set once all results have been received. We cannot advise on the TMUA requirement at this stage.”
The test is optional. “If you achieve a score of 5.0 or above in TMUA you’re automatically eligible to be considered for reduced offer”. A score below 5.0, down to a threshold that “can be between 3.2 and 3.5”, still counts as positive evidence.
The page still listed the October 2025 and January 2026 sittings
Publishes no threshold. Applications are assessed on “strong academic performance, TMUA score, and a personal statement”.
2027 cycle
Treat last year’s figures as history, not as targets. Warwick sets its threshold afresh each cycle, and Imperial says of its own data that scores and outcomes “can vary from year to year”. A university’s course page is the only authority on what it wants this year.
No: UAT-UK publishes no table that converts a number of correct answers into a score from 1.0 to 9.0. Its specimen and practice tests show which answers were right, but in its words “the tests do not award a score upon completion”, because “the score scale in any particular year is based on the ability distribution of the cohort”.
Two consequences follow. A conversion table from an older paper cannot tell you what this year’s mark will become. And older scores are not comparable: Durham says the scoring system changed in 2024, such that “a score of 6.5 from 2023 will equate to a score of 5.0 from 2024 onwards”, calling it “a change to the scoring scale, and not a change to the standard we’re looking for”.
UAT-UK adds that “performance on a practice test will not necessarily be indicative of performance under exam conditions”. Be cautious of any predicted score.
How Cognivia can help
Cognivia Tutoring is independent, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by UAT-UK, Pearson VUE or any university. I am Archie Dyer, a second-year Theoretical Physics student at UCL and the only tutor at Cognivia, and I sat the TMUA myself. I teach it one to one in one-hour lessons, working through the official papers with a student: £45 online on Google Meet or £55 in person around Marylebone, London. A 5-pack of five lessons saves £15, at £210 online or £260 in person, and a 30-minute online trial is free with no card needed. None of this is a promise about a score.
There is no official definition. UAT-UK says it does not provide any grade boundaries or a pass mark. It says the scale is designed so that typical candidates score around 4.5 and approximately 10% of candidates score higher than 7.0. Whether a score is good enough depends on the course you apply to.
UAT-UK does not publish a mean. Its Explanation of Results for the October 2025 and January 2026 sittings says the scale has been designed so that typical candidates will score around 4.5.
The TMUA gives one overall score from 1.0 to 9.0, to one decimal place. UAT-UK says Papers 1 and 2 are equated and scaled together to produce a single overall score, that final scores are based on the number of correct answers, and that no marks are lost for wrong answers.
No. UAT-UK states that there is no pass or fail for the TMUA and that it does not provide any grade boundaries or a pass mark. Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial each say the same on their own pages.
Cambridge publishes no threshold. Its admissions tests page for 2027 entry says there is no pass or fail mark, but a strong performance is usually needed to get through to interview, and that the score is then looked at together with the rest of the application.
Warwick sets its threshold each cycle and says the final one is set in around April. Its BSc Mathematics page says that in the last admissions cycle the majority of offers were made to applicants with a TMUA score of 5.0 and above, with some offers below 5.0 after a holistic assessment.
Neither publishes a threshold. Imperial says there are no grade boundaries or pass marks and that a low score does not mean an application will be unsuccessful; it offers a dashboard of 2025 entry score data by department. LSE says a good score may make an application more competitive.
Not officially. UAT-UK says its specimen and practice tests do not award a score, because the score scale in any particular year is based on the ability distribution of the cohort. It also says performance on a practice test will not necessarily indicate performance under exam conditions.
Where to go next
The pages below cover preparing for the test, the dates and the tutoring.
