TMUA Dates in Hong Kong, China and Macau: 15 to 16 October Only

Almost every page about TMUA dates, including our own main dates and registration guide, tells you the October test runs from 12 to 16 October 2026. If you are sitting in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau, that is not quite true for you, and the difference is worth ten minutes of your attention before you book.

The restricted window

UAT-UK runs its tests across a five-day window in October and another in January. In three territories it does not. Its own key-dates page puts it plainly: all three tests run on all days "for candidates in all countries except China, Hong Kong and Macau". For those three, each test gets its own fixed day or days.

So your TMUA is on Thursday 15 or Friday 16 October 2026, and those are the only two options. UAT-UK's wording is unambiguous: candidates "must register to book their test on one of the following days" and it "will be unable to make any exceptions to this". This is not a soft preference or a scheduling default you can ask to change.

The stated reason is test security. Following reports in October 2024 of candidates attempting to obtain and sell test content without authorisation, UAT-UK narrowed delivery in these three territories so that far fewer distinct papers are in circulation at once. It is a restriction on the calendar, not on you: the paper, the format, the marking and the 1.0 to 9.0 scale are all identical to the ones every other candidate sits.

Why booking early matters twice over

Everyone is told to book early. Here the advice carries two separate reasons, and they compound.

Only two days exist. Every TMUA candidate in three territories is competing for seats on the same two dates. Elsewhere, demand spreads across five days, so a late booker usually still finds something. Here, five days of demand is compressed into two, at whatever number of Pearson VUE centres deliver the test near you. Seats at the most convenient centres are the first to go.

The deadline lands in the middle of your night. Booking closes at 28 September 2026, 6pm BST. British Summer Time is seven hours behind Hong Kong, mainland China and Macau, all of which sit at UTC+8. That makes the real cut-off 1am on Tuesday 29 September in local time.

That is a genuinely awkward hour, and it is the single most avoidable way to miss this test. If you plan to book "on the 28th", you have until 1am the following morning, which sounds like more time and is actually a night you will be asleep for. Treat the practical deadline as the evening of Monday 28 September at the latest, and better still, book the day registration opens on 20 July 2026 at 3pm BST, which is 10pm the same evening in local time.

There is no late booking and no appeal. UAT-UK does not accept bookings after the deadline, and since the TMUA can be sat only once per admissions cycle, a missed booking is not something you make up later in the year.

Everything else is the same

It is worth being clear about what the restriction does not change, because it is easy to assume a special window means special rules.

• The fee is the standard international one, £133, the same as for any candidate outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. There is no surcharge for the restricted dates.
• The booking deadline is the same date and time as everywhere else, 28 September 2026 at 6pm BST. It is only your local conversion that differs.
• The test is the same test. Two papers of 75 minutes, 20 multiple-choice questions each, no calculator, no formula sheet, scored 1.0 to 9.0.
• Results arrive on the same day as everyone else's, 16 November 2026, through your UAT-UK account.
• You still sit at a Pearson VUE test centre, and you still need to confirm your chosen centre actually delivers the TMUA. Our guide to TMUA test centres covers how that works.
• The universities do not know or care which day you sat. A 15 October paper and a 12 October paper are the same qualification.

The wider logistics of sitting from outside the UK, including access arrangements and photo ID, are covered in the TMUA for international students. This page is only about the dates.

The January sitting

The January window runs 4 to 8 January 2027 for most of the world. In these three territories the TMUA is on Friday 8 January 2027, and that is the only date.

Two things decide whether January is even available to you. First, applicants to Cambridge and Oxford must sit in October, apart from narrow mature-college and foundation-year routes with January admissions deadlines. If either is on your list, October is your window and this section does not apply. Second, if you are free to choose, booking for January opens 26 October 2026 at 3pm GMT and closes 21 December 2026 at 6pm GMT. GMT is eight hours behind local time in these territories, so that closing deadline falls at 2am on 22 December, the same middle-of-the-night trap as September.

The October versus January comparison sets out who the later sitting genuinely suits. The short version is that October keeps every option open and January closes some, so unless you have a specific reason, October is the safer choice regardless of where you sit it.

What the fixed dates mean for your preparation

There is one small, real advantage in this. Your TMUA falls on the last two days of the October window, so you have three or four more days of preparation than a candidate sitting on 12 October. That is not a lot, but it is a definite extra weekend, and knowing your date months in advance is worth more than the days themselves: you can count backwards from 15 October and build a plan against a fixed point rather than a range.

Use that certainty properly. Work backwards from your date, put your full timed mocks in the final fortnight rather than the final week, and leave the last two days for review rather than new material.

Here is a question from a real past paper, so the thing you are planning for is concrete rather than abstract:

Where to practise for it

Full disclosure, since this is our site: CrackTMUA is our platform, so here is the honest version.

The test is delivered on screen with no calculator and no formula booklet, so the preparation that transfers best is practice under those exact conditions. Free, with no card, you get 10 questions a day, a full specimen mock and worked solutions on everything you attempt, which is enough to work through the official past papers properly. Premium unlocks all 690+ questions and 26+ timed mocks sat in a replica of the real test screen, which matters more than usual when your test date is fixed and you only get one attempt.

Nothing about practising changes because of where you sit. Start at free TMUA resources if you want to see what is available at no cost first, or go straight to practice.

Your checklist

1. Confirm your date is 15 or 16 October 2026, and note that this is fixed rather than chosen.
2. Check the other tests if you are sitting an ESAT or TARA as well, since their days are assigned too.
3. Book on 20 July 2026, or as close to it as you can manage, not in the final week.
4. Convert the deadline properly. 28 September 2026, 6pm BST is 1am on 29 September locally. Do not let it be the last thing you do.
5. Confirm your test centre delivers the TMUA and that you can reach it comfortably on a Thursday or Friday.
6. Count backwards from your date and build the plan against it.

The restriction sounds alarming and mostly is not. It removes some choice and adds one genuinely awkward deadline conversion. Handle the booking in July and it becomes a footnote.

Frequently asked questions