TMUA 2026 Dates, Registration & Fees: The Complete Timeline

Missing a TMUA deadline cannot be undone: there is no late entry, and most applicants get exactly one shot at the October sitting. This guide walks you through every date, fee, and booking step for the October 2026 TMUA (the sitting used for September 2027 university entry), so the only thing left to worry about is the maths itself.

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took over from Cambridge Assessment in 2024, so older guides that mention Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing are out of date.)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 each cycle, and the difference matters:

• The October sitting is the main one. It is mandatory for Cambridge and Oxford applicants, who cannot use the January sitting under any circumstances. The vast majority of applicants sit in October.
• The January sitting (early January 2027) exists only for a narrow group: mature-student and Foundation-Year applicants. If that is not you, the October sitting is the one you need.

So for almost everyone reading this, the relevant test is the October 2026 sitting, and the rest of this guide focuses on it.

Note the cycle labelling, because it trips people up every year: the October 2026 test is for entry to university in September 2027. When a university page talks about "2027 entry," that is the cycle this sitting belongs to.

The full timeline for the October 2026 sitting

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

A few things to read off that table carefully:

• Booking does not open until 20 July 2026. Before that date you cannot reserve a seat, so there is nothing to do except prepare. The moment it opens is the best time to act, because that is when you get the widest choice of centre and date.
• The access-arrangements deadline of 14 September 2026 is separate from, and earlier than, the booking deadline. If you need extra time, rest breaks, or any other adjustment, that paperwork has to be sorted by this date, so start the conversation with your school or exams officer well in advance. It governs how you sit the test, so it has to be settled before you can sensibly book a slot.
• The test runs across a window of several days (12–16 October 2026), not a single fixed morning. You choose a specific slot inside that window when you book, and once chosen it is fixed, so check your school calendar for clashes first.

The deadline that ends applications: 28 September 2026

If you remember one date from this entire guide, make it this one. The booking deadline is 28 September 2026 at 6pm BST, and it is hard. There is no informal grace period, no late window, and no way to sit the test if you have not booked a seat by then. Because Cambridge and Oxford applicants must sit in October, missing this deadline can mean an application that simply cannot proceed for those courses.

Do not aim for the deadline itself. Treat the day booking opens (20 July) as your real target and the 28 September cut-off as the absolute last resort. Centres and slots fill up, especially in cities with lots of applicants, and the convenient ones go first.

While you wait for booking to open, the most useful thing you can do is start working through real questions. Our free TMUA practice bank lets you build the habit early so that by October the format feels routine.

What it costs, and help with the fee

The entry fee depends on where you sit the test:

• £78 for candidates in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
• £133 for international candidates.

You pay the fee as part of booking your seat at a Pearson VUE centre. Build the cost into your planning early, because it is due at the point of booking rather than later.

If the fee is a barrier, there may be support available. UAT-UK offers fee assistance for eligible UK students through bursary or reimbursement arrangements. The exact eligibility rules and amounts are set by UAT-UK and can change year to year, so check the official UAT-UK guidance and speak to your school: do not assume you do or do not qualify based on anything you read second-hand. (We are deliberately not quoting figures or criteria here, because those are the kind of detail that goes stale: confirm them at source.)

One practical point on cost: the fee is non-trivial, and because there is no refund for a missed sitting once you are committed, it is one more reason to be certain your course requires the test before you pay. Sorting any fee support also takes time, so raise it with your school early rather than in the final week before the deadline.

How to register, step by step

Registration for the TMUA is something you do yourself online (unlike some older school-coordinated admissions tests). The process, once booking opens on 20 July 2026, looks like this:

1. Sort access arrangements first if you need them. Adjustments such as extra time must be arranged by 14 September 2026, and ideally well before you book, so handle this at the very start.
2. Create or sign in to your account with the official test provider and find the TMUA October 2026 sitting.
3. Choose a Pearson VUE test centre. The test is computer-based and sat at a Pearson VUE centre, so search for one that is realistically reachable for you on a school day.
4. Pick a slot inside the 12–16 October window that works around your school timetable, then pay the fee (£78 in the UK and Ireland, £133 international) to confirm.
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.

The single most important habit here is to book early. The day booking opens you have the full choice of centres and slots; leave it until late September and you may be travelling further than you would like, on a less convenient day, with the deadline breathing down your neck. If you can sit somewhere close to 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 that your specific course actually needs the test (and by which date) on that university's own admissions page before you book. Oxford applicants in particular should read our dedicated guide on the TMUA for Oxford, since the test only replaced the MAT recently.

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 results released on 16 November 2026.

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.

Your next step

Registration mechanics are the easy part once you know the dates: mark 28 September 2026 as your hard deadline, plan to book the moment seats open on 20 July, and confirm your course actually requires the test. 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 with the free CrackTMUA practice bank: every official TMUA question with a full worked solution, filterable by paper, topic, and difficulty, with spaced repetition to lock in your weak spots. Most of it is free; CrackTMUA Premium is a one-time £37 for 12 months of access, with no subscription. Get the logistics done early, then give yourself the months between July and October to be genuinely ready.

Frequently asked questions