TMUA January 2027: Dates, Deadline & How to Book

The October 2026 TMUA sitting has finished, so the next chance to sit the test is the January 2027 sitting. It belongs to the same admissions cycle (entry to university in September 2027), it is open to every applicant whose universities accept it, and for anyone who did not sit in October it is the last TMUA sitting for 2027 entry. This guide covers every January date, fee and booking step, and what the end of the October sitting means for you.

Who runs the TMUA, and which sitting you need

The TMUA is administered by UAT-UK, the admissions-testing joint venture between the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, and the test is delivered on screen at Pearson VUE test centres. (UAT-UK took over from Cambridge Assessment in 2024, so older guides that mention Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing are out of date.)

There are two sittings in each cycle, and you can sit only one of them:

• The October sitting ran from 12 to 16 October 2026 and has finished. It was the one Cambridge and Oxford applicants needed: the only exception is applicants to a Cambridge mature college (Hughes Hall, St Edmund's or Wolfson) applying in its January round.
• The January sitting runs from 4 to 8 January 2027 and is open to everyone else. Imperial, LSE, Warwick, Durham and UCL all accept a January score, and LSE and Warwick both state that there is no advantage to either sitting. It is not a niche option: in the last full cycle, 40% of TMUA candidates sat in January (6,407 of 16,092, according to UAT-UK's 2025-26 technical report).

If you are deciding between January and waiting a year, our guide to October vs January walks through each situation.

Note the cycle labelling, because it trips people up every year: the January 2027 test is for entry to university in September 2027, the same cycle as the October 2026 test. When a university page talks about "2027 entry," it means both sittings.

TMUA January 2027 dates: the full timeline

Here is every date you need, in order. Put the booking deadline in your calendar twice.

When does TMUA booking open for January?

Booking for the January 2027 sitting opened on 28 October 2026 at 3pm GMT, so you can book now. Requests for access arrangements and bursaries reopened on 5 October, and anything that has to be approved must be approved before you book, so start those first.

Two more things to read off that table carefully:

• The access-arrangements deadline (7 December) and the bursary deadline (14 December) are separate from, and earlier than, the booking deadline. You must apply for both before you select a test, and they must be approved before you can book; UAT-UK says reviews can take up to 10 working days for access arrangements and five for bursaries. If you need extra time, rest breaks, or any other adjustment, start the conversation with your school or exams officer well before the deadline.
• The test runs across five days (4 to 8 January 2027), not a single fixed morning. You choose a slot inside that window when you book, and the window falls in the first week of spring term in most UK schools, so check for clashes with school commitments or travel first. One exception: candidates sitting in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau can only take the TMUA on Friday 8 January.

TMUA January booking deadline: 21 December 2026

If you remember one date from this guide, make it this one. The booking deadline is 21 December 2026 at 6pm GMT, and it is hard. UAT-UK does not accept bookings after the deadline, and there is no late window. For 2027 entry there is no sitting after January, so missing this deadline means no TMUA score this cycle.

Do not aim for the deadline itself. It falls in the last days before Christmas, when most UK schools have broken up and plans get busy, and the convenient centres and slots go first. Book as soon as you can, and treat 21 December as the absolute last resort.

TMUA fees: what it costs

The entry fee depends on where you sit the test:

• £78 at test centres in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
• £133 at test centres anywhere else.

The fee follows the location of the test centre, not your nationality or where you live, and it is the same for both sittings. You pay it as part of booking your seat.

If the fee is a barrier and you are a UK candidate, UAT-UK runs a bursary scheme for students in financial need, and an approved bursary covers the full cost. You must apply and be approved before you book: UAT-UK cannot apply a bursary to a test you have already paid for. The January bursary deadline is 14 December 2026. Eligibility rules are set by UAT-UK and can change, so check them at source and speak to your school; our TMUA fees and bursary guide covers the detail.

You can cancel or reschedule a booking up to 48 hours before your test with no penalty. Cancel later than that, or miss the appointment, and you lose the fee. One more catch: if you cancel after the 21 December booking deadline, you cannot book another slot.

How to register for the January sitting, step by step

You register yourself online (unlike some older school-coordinated admissions tests). The process looks like this:

1. Create or sign in to your UAT-UK account. If you made an account in an earlier year, or for the October sitting, use that one rather than creating a new one. Your full name must exactly match the photo ID you will bring on test day, and your details should match your UCAS application.
2. Request access arrangements or a bursary first, if you need them. Apply before you select a test; both must be approved before you can book (deadlines 7 December and 14 December 2026). If you had either approved in a previous year, you need to apply again.
3. Select the TMUA. A test card appears on your dashboard, and clicking it takes you into the Pearson VUE booking system.
4. Choose a Pearson VUE test centre and a slot inside the 4 to 8 January window, then pay the fee (£78 in the UK and Ireland, £133 elsewhere) to confirm. In the UK, if you cannot find a test within 40 miles of your postcode, Pearson customer services can help you find the nearest available appointment.
5. Save your confirmation and note exactly where the centre is, how long it takes to get there, and what photo ID you are required to bring. Centres are strict on identification, and turning up without the right ID can mean being turned away, so check the requirements the day you book rather than the night before.

Add your UCAS Personal ID to your UAT-UK profile before you submit your UCAS application. UAT-UK uses it to match your score to your application and send it to the universities that use the test.

The single most important habit here is to book early. In the first days after booking opens you have the widest choice of centres and slots; leave it until late December and you may be travelling further than you would like, on a less convenient day, with the deadline close. If you can sit somewhere near home, you remove a whole category of test-day stress (traffic, trains, getting lost) before it can touch your score.

Different universities require the TMUA for different courses, and they update those requirements year to year, so confirm on that university's own admissions page that your specific course needs the test and accepts the January sitting before you book.

The October 2026 sitting has finished

The October sitting ran from 12 to 16 October 2026, and booking for it closed on 28 September. What that means depends on where you stand:

• If you sat in October, your result is released on 16 November 2026 in your UAT-UK account and sent automatically to the universities on your UCAS application that use the test. You cannot sit again in January: UAT-UK allows one sitting per admissions cycle, and Imperial, LSE and Warwick each use only one score. Our results day guide covers what to expect.
• If you are applying to Cambridge or Oxford for standard entry and did not sit in October, January does not replace it. The only Oxbridge route that can use a January TMUA is a Cambridge mature college (Hughes Hall, St Edmund's or Wolfson) applying in its January round; Oxford has none.
• If you are applying elsewhere and did not sit in October, January is open to you, and everything above applies.

What test day looks like

Knowing the shape of the day removes a lot of nerves. The TMUA is sat entirely on screen at your chosen Pearson VUE centre and consists of two papers of 75 minutes each, with 20 multiple-choice questions per paper. That is 40 questions and two and a half hours of testing in total.

The conditions are strict and worth rehearsing now:

• No calculator is allowed, and there is no formula booklet. Every bit of arithmetic and every identity has to come from you.
• Both papers are multiple choice, answered on the computer. There is no negative marking, so you should attempt every question and never leave a blank.
• Your performance is converted to a single overall score on the 1.0 to 9.0 scale, with January results released on 8 February 2027.

Because it is calculator-free and tightly timed, fluency matters as much as knowledge: you need to do clean algebra and mental arithmetic at speed, and you need to recognise the question types instantly. The best preparation for an on-screen, no-calculator test is to practise in exactly those conditions, repeatedly, until they feel normal.

One timing point for January candidates: results arrive after the UCAS equal consideration deadline (13 January 2027 at 6pm UK time, for most courses), so you submit your application first and the score follows. That is the normal pattern for the January sitting.

Looking ahead: TMUA 2027

Searches for "TMUA 2027" usually mean one of two things. If you are applying for 2027 entry and have not sat the test, your sitting is January 2027, covered by this guide. If you will apply in autumn 2027 (for 2028 entry), your sitting is October 2027, or January 2028 if none of your universities needs October. UAT-UK has not yet published those dates. This cycle it opened accounts on 1 June and booking on 20 July 2026, with the test in mid-October, so expect a similar pattern and confirm it on the official deadlines page. There is no point sitting in January 2027 as a trial run, because scores do not carry over from one admissions cycle to the next. The syllabus is stable year to year, so preparation you start now carries over fully.

Your next step

Registration mechanics are the easy part once you know the dates: book soon now that seats are open, treat 21 December 2026 as your hard deadline, and confirm your course accepts the January sitting. The hard part, and the part that decides your score, is the preparation.

So once you have booked your test, prepare for it properly. Build a plan with our step-by-step TMUA preparation guide, then start drilling on CrackTMUA: a 770+ question bank that makes every official past paper interactive and adds 410+ original, trap-based questions, each with a full worked solution, filterable by paper, topic, and difficulty, plus 36+ full mock papers in a pixel-accurate Pearson VUE replica, spaced repetition and a predicted band. You practise free every day (10 questions plus a full specimen mock); CrackTMUA Premium unlocks everything for a one-time £69 covering 12 months, with no subscription. Get the logistics done early, then use the weeks before January to be genuinely ready.

Frequently asked questions