TMUA 2026: Key Dates, Registration and the 28 September Deadline

Registration for TMUA 2026 opens on 20 July 2026 at 3pm BST and closes on 28 September 2026 at 6pm BST. The test itself runs from 12 to 16 October, computer-based at Pearson VUE centres, and results land on 16 November. Nobody chases you to register. Booking is entirely your job.

Table of contents

• The full 2026 timeline
• How registration works on UAT-UK
• Access arrangements: start earlier than you think
• Picking a date inside the 12-16 October window
• What happens after results on 16 November
• A month-by-month prep timeline
• Frequently asked questions

Intro

The TMUA calendar is unforgiving in one specific way: every date matters and none of them move. The test window sits in the same fortnight as most schools' first round of mocks and the run-up to the 15 October Oxbridge UCAS deadline, which means October is already the busiest month of your application. The students who handle it well are the ones who treat the admin as a July task and the prep as a June-to-October project, not the ones who discover the 28 September deadline on 25 September. This post covers the full timeline, the registration mechanics, the access arrangements trap, and a month-by-month plan back-calculated from the 12-16 October window.

The full 2026 timeline

Date	What happens
20 July 2026, 3pm BST	Registration opens via UAT-UK
28 September 2026, 6pm BST	Registration deadline
12-16 October 2026	Test window (computer-based, Pearson VUE centres)
16 November 2026	Results released

Two structural points worth absorbing. First, the test sits before any interview at Cambridge and before shortlisting decisions elsewhere, so your score is part of the file from the start. Second, results arrive a month after you sit the test, which means you apply through UCAS without knowing your score. You cannot wait for the number before deciding where to apply. That is by design.

The test itself is two papers, sat in one sitting: Paper 1 covers applications of mathematical knowledge, Paper 2 covers mathematical reasoning and logic. Each is 75 minutes, 20 questions, no calculator.

How registration works on UAT-UK

The TMUA is run by UAT-UK and delivered by Pearson VUE. The flow has two halves: registering with UAT-UK, then booking a physical seat with Pearson VUE. In broad terms:

1. Create an account on the UAT-UK candidate portal once registration opens on 20 July.
2. Enter your personal details, including your UCAS ID, so your score reaches the universities that use it.
3. Book a test slot through Pearson VUE: pick a centre, pick a day inside the 12-16 October window.
4. Pay the test fee. Check the current fee and any bursary support for eligible UK students on the UAT-UK site rather than relying on last year's numbers.

UAT-UK publishes a step-by-step guide each cycle and the exact flow can shift year to year, so read their version when it goes live. The one piece of advice that does not change: register in July, not September. Pearson VUE centres have finite seats. Booking on day one gets you a choice of centre and day. Booking in late September gets you whatever is left, which can mean a 90-minute trip to a centre two towns over on the one day you did not want.

Access arrangements: start earlier than you think

If you get extra time, rest breaks, a separate room or any other adjustment at school, you need the equivalent formally arranged for the TMUA. This does not happen automatically and your school cannot grant it on the day.

The nuance that catches people: the deadline for requesting access arrangements is not guaranteed to be the same as the 28 September registration deadline. Processing adjustments takes time on UAT-UK's side, and historically test providers have closed access requests earlier than standard entries. Check the UAT-UK access arrangements page on the day registration opens, and have your school's SENCo evidence ready in July, not September. If your evidence is sitting in a teacher's inbox over the summer holidays, you have a problem that no amount of maths prep fixes.

Picking a date inside the 12-16 October window

You sit the TMUA once, on one day inside the window. Things to weigh:

• School clashes. Many sixth forms run mocks or assessments in mid-October. Check your school calendar before booking.
• Earlier is not better by default. There is no advantage to sitting on the 12th versus the 16th beyond your own schedule. The papers differ across the window but are designed to be comparable.
• Morning versus afternoon. Book the slot that matches when you have been doing your timed practice. If every mock you sat was at 9am, do not book a 4pm slot out of convenience.
• Travel. A familiar centre 20 minutes away beats a marginally more convenient time at a centre you have never been to.

What happens after results on 16 November

Your score arrives on the candidate portal on 16 November, on the 1.0 to 9.0 scale, and goes to the universities you flagged at registration. For calibration: the most common score in October 2025 was 4.5, and roughly 6.0-6.5 or above is broadly competitive for Cambridge and Imperial. You can see how raw marks map onto the scale with our free score converter, and the full mechanics of that mapping, including why there is no fixed pass mark, are in TMUA Score Conversion: Raw Marks to the 1.0-9.0 Scale.

Then nothing happens for a while, which is the part nobody warns you about. Universities fold the score into their existing processes: Cambridge alongside interviews in December, others during shortlisting and offer decisions through the winter. There is no appeal route that turns a 5.1 into a 6.1, and no resit until the following year. If the score comes in below what your target course wants, the productive move is to look honestly at where the rest of your application stands. We wrote a separate post on what score each university actually expects, including the honest answer that none of them publish hard cutoffs.

A month-by-month prep timeline

Back-calculated from the 12-16 October window. This assumes you are starting around now (June) with solid AS-level maths; compress or stretch as needed.

June: find your baseline. Sit a free diagnostic before you open a single textbook. You cannot plan a 16-week campaign without knowing whether your problem is content gaps, speed, or Paper 2's logic style. Most students guess wrong about which one it is.

July: register, then audit. Register on 20 July, ideally that week. Spend the rest of the month closing the content gaps your diagnostic exposed. The 2024 and 2025 papers shifted style, wordier and more applied, so do not calibrate purely against pre-2023 past papers.

August: build Paper 1 depth, start Paper 2. Paper 2's logic content (necessary versus sufficient, contrapositive, counterexamples) is genuinely new to most A-level students and needs weeks, not days. Our Logic course is free and covers it from first principles.

September: timed mocks, weekly. This is where scores actually move. Full 75-minute papers under exam conditions, with a proper review of every error. The TMUA Pro question bank and six auto-marked mocks exist for exactly this phase. Also: registration closes 28 September at 6pm BST. If you have not booked by 1 September, stop reading and book.

October: taper. Light, familiar practice in the final week. No new topics after the 5th. If something specific still is not clicking, a couple of targeted 1-1 sessions with a Cambridge student tutor beats another week of unguided grinding.

For the full week-by-week version of this plan, with hours budgets and the mock schedule spelled out, see How to Prepare for the TMUA in 16 Weeks.

Related reading

• How to Prepare for the TMUA in 16 Weeks (a Realistic Plan)
• What TMUA Score Do You Need for Cambridge, Imperial and LSE?
• TMUA vs MAT: Which Test, and Can You Sit Both?
• Is the TMUA Hard? An Honest Difficulty Breakdown

Closing

The TMUA 2026 admin is simple if you do it early: register on 20 July, book a sensible slot, sort access arrangements in July if you need them, and never go near the 28 September deadline. That frees the actual scarce resource, your time between now and 12 October, for the thing that moves the score. If you want the free starting point, the diagnostic and the free PDF guides are where most of our students begin.

Frequently asked questions

When is the TMUA in 2026? The TMUA 2026 test window runs from 12 to 16 October 2026. It is computer-based and sat at Pearson VUE test centres. You sit both papers on a single day within that window.

When does TMUA 2026 registration open and close? Registration opens on 20 July 2026 at 3pm BST and closes on 28 September 2026 at 6pm BST. You register through UAT-UK and book your test slot with Pearson VUE.

When are TMUA 2026 results released? Results are released on 16 November 2026. Scores are reported on a scale from 1.0 to 9.0.

What happens if I miss the 28 September deadline? Do not plan around a late entry route. Universities that use the TMUA will not chase you to register, and an unregistered applicant to a course that requires the test is in a very weak position. Register in July.

Do I need access arrangements sorted before I register? Start the access arrangements process as early as possible. The deadline for arranging adjustments is not guaranteed to match the standard 28 September registration deadline, so check the UAT-UK guidance the day registration opens and gather school evidence before that.

Which universities use the TMUA? Cambridge, Imperial, LSE, UCL, Warwick and Durham use the TMUA for various maths, computer science and economics courses, alongside several others. Each university lists on the course page whether the test is required or optional, so check the specific course.

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Sources: UAT-UK published TMUA 2026 dates; Pearson VUE test delivery information. Last updated 2026-06-10.