TMUA - January or october?

[Placestogo]

DS would like to apply to LSE, warwick and imperial and they all ask for the TMUA.
we did not know about this so he is only starting to work on this jow.
there are two options: sitting the exam in October or in January.
i am aware he needs to apply for uni end of October
what are the pros and cons of sitting the exam in Jan rather than in October?

As far as I know, the deadline for vet, medicine, dentistry and Oxbridge is October 15th - other subjects and unis have a January 14th deadline.
I assume the October TMUA is for the students with the October deadline?

This is what i don’t know. DS Would like to do finance and maths
i am under the impression that he needs to apply tonuni in October on the Ucas website but as you say maybe it depends on the subject?

Deadline for non Oxbridge unis is Jan.
If he takes the TMUA in October there are two advantages.

One, the student can use the summer to study for it and get it out of the way in October enabling the student to fully focus on A Levels.

Two, the results are received in November, so the student can tailor their uni choices and then submit applications. Higher TMUA apply to all Warwick Imperial and LSE, lower TMUA then maybe only one of those .

The TMUA is really tough and is designed to differentiate between extremely talented mathematicians, so having the results after the October sitting can support making informed and realistic choices.

I cannot see any advantages to the Jan sitting, I'm sure somewhere I read it is more for overseas students (I could be wrong!).

Dd chose the Oct option and did work through the summer in preparation. Seemed to work for her and she didn’t have the added stress of trying to revise during mocks also.

When did your DD start working on it? July of that year? Earlier than that?

Prob start August. There was a post here in this chat with free resources and she worked her way through those. It was very helpful. I think some schools might offer coaching sessions etc, but she was in the local comp and there was nothing like that offered.

October is better for the reasons given by @Mapletreelane

My DS started work for it in September and got a mid range score plenty high enough for Warwick etc maths and to get a reduced officer from Durham.

I'm not sure it's the sort of exam for which a few more weeks work will elevate you from, say, a 4 to a 7. You need to be a very talented mathematician to get the top scores - DS got an A star in FM, so he's good at maths, but the top scorers in TMUA, MAT, STEP etc are on another level which I'm not sure is achievable with a few weeks work over the summer.

So best to do practice papers, give it a go, and then tailor applications according to the results.

NB you need to be "on it" when booking opens as convenient centres can sell out v quickly.

Like @NeedingCoffee said the booking system is mad. You have to be logged on and ready to book as soon as the site goes live. For us it crashed and was a nightmare particularly for Oct.

My DS managed to book Oct but in the end moved it to Jan as he was not ready. I think doing it in Jan was fine and got a test centre round the corner, but he did find it hard to revise for as school didn't do any sort of prep for it and it's not really much like a level maths.

He submitted his UCAS in November and had offers from Warwick before he had taken the test. Just different grade requirements depending on his tmua score.

Thank you that is all very helpful. My DS has an EHCP and we have submitted a request for access arrangements two weeks ago and still have not heard back… we will need to wait for this to be confirmed before we book i suppose.

Just some more info for you...DS went to normal state comp, no coaching or support (well a day off before the actual exam ) and started probably August for the October exam. He just practiced past papers, practiced practiced practiced . He said the questions are all doable....but the speed you need to complete them is so fast so he was always timing himself. He is now at Imperial studying Maths and CS. He thinks Imperial definitely takes into account the differences between home, private, state and overseas students when looking at TMUA scores . He has the lowest TMUA apart from a contextual student in his cohort but is only one of a few from non selective state school.

Good luck with everything.

My d also had access arrangements and an EHCP. It did limit us to centres where she could take the test. DH had to drive her an hour away the morning of and she got car sick and vomited three times! She also just did practice papers on repeat.

She has an offer from Warwick for econ. Her TMUA was not the strongest, so it took a long while to get an offer. She also got an offer from UCL and Bristol. She’s an A* student but as a pp said, these tests really are there to further seperate those working at an A Astar level.

@Imipwell done to your daughter! Sitting this exam after being sick in the morning…. What resilience!
Did she get extra time and a quiet room? I have no idea what accommodations he will get but this is usually what he usually has for exams. He is in a local comprehensive school. He had A A and A for his mocks early May.
when you say her TMUA was not the stringest what do you mean if you dont mind sharing? Around 6? DS would like a minimum of 7.5 but not sure how achievable this is…. Lets see
@Mapletreelane this is really encouraging to hear that they are looking at the difference between private/state schools. I know different courses have different requirements but i have no idea how the scores are distributed (on a gaussian level!).
Is 6 low? 7 average, 8 good and 9 excellent? How many people get 8-9s? How achievable is a 7.5? Most people get 6-7s or 7-8s?
so many questions!!! Thanks a lot!

https://uat-wp.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/14082812/TMUA_Explanation_of_Results-October2025.pdf

this is the grade distribution for October 2025. Do remember that almost everyone sitting this is an A star single maths / A or A star further maths student. Your DS should consider he's done well if he gets over the 4.5 average.

@Placestogo

Da took TMUA 2 years ago and scored 6.2. He had offers from all his unis apart from Cambridge (rejected post Interview), so Warwick, Imperial Durham and Bath for CS and Maths. He got a reduced offer from Warwick because he got over 5.

7.5 is really really high! But I think the scores may slightly differ year to year, key is where he is in the distribution curve that year.

@NeedingCoffee has shared distribution so average is 4.5, and also made a really good point....all those taking the papers are talented mathematicians and every year there are kids that are disappointed at their score, when in reality they are taking it with some of the most talented mathematicians globally in their age group.

As I mentioned key for my son was just practice, as many papers as possible and timed.

I completely agree with @Mapletreelane. The only possible advantage to the January sitting is that your DC has a few extra weeks to prepare.

However, in our experience Y13 only gets busier and busier as it goes on. By the Christmas holidays my DC were revising hard for mocks (in all subjects) and TMUA would have been an added pressure at that point.

Bear in mind that you may also be trying to fit in university visits/open days so the more stuff you can get out of the way in October the better.

Start now with the TMUA revision and past papers ready for October would be my advice.

Just as an aside, prepare your DC for the fact that it is a slightly odd environment when they have been used to school exams sitting in rows with absolute silence. DD said it was a bit like the driving theory test - sitting in a booth, a white board for notes rather than paper and background noise with people coming and going at different times. I think they send you a video of what to expect - definitely worth watching properly.

He only needs to apply in October for medicine, vet med and Oxbridge, otherwise it is January.

Don’t underestimate the TMUA. It’s really hard and hard to prepare for as it’s trying to see how you deal with problems under pressure. A 6 is really good and anything above is in the minority. The last set of exams had a most common score of 3.5 according to uni admissions.

Yes, extra time and a small room. She got 3.4 in her TMUA. It took a long time for her to get her offers, which probably reflected the fact that they started offers to higher marks.

Thank you all - i can see we totally underestimated the difficulty of it!! He will try his best and we’ll see what happens!

Have you managed to get TMUA booked with the access arrangements? It seems such a ridiculous process compared to everyone else who can book online!

@MissMogs we have only submitted the evidence three days ago and this morning they were still reviewing….
Does your child also has access arrangements? Have you booked? Is it tricky? Im hoping that in London, we’ll have a good choice of centres….

Just to say that as Londoners, and booking early - the only access arrangement centre we could book was in Colchester!

Have you had the call already? The email said within 3 working days but we didn’t get a call, and only later in the week got one about buying a voucher and that we’d get another email to send it to - but that email hasn’t come either!