TSA and BMAT practice papers for TARA
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TARA is scored on a new 1.0 to 9.0 scale using a Rasch model after each sitting, and no one has published a link between TSA or BMAT papers and that scale.
Questions people ask
Can I convert a TSA score into a TARA score?
Not exactly. TARA is scored on a new 1.0 to 9.0 scale using a Rasch model after each sitting, and no one has published a link between TSA or BMAT papers and that scale. We estimate one from your accuracy: the same accuracy out of 22, read through our TARA score calculator.
Are TSA past papers still useful for TARA?
UAT-UK lists past TSA and BMAT papers among TARA preparation materials. The question styles overlap, but the papers were not written to TARA's difficulty or 22-question length.
Why does the same TSA raw mark give different scores in different years?
Each TSA paper had its own conversion. 20 out of 25 in Critical Thinking was 73.4 in 2021 but 70.8 in 2022, because the papers differed in difficulty.
How much time do I get per TARA question?
Each module is 40 minutes for 22 questions, about 109 seconds a question on average. In 2026, 217 of 2,626 candidates left at least one Problem Solving question unreached.
What is the TSA test?
The Thinking Skills Assessment, the thinking-skills test Oxford and other universities used before TARA. Its Critical Thinking and Problem Solving questions are close to TARA's, so UAT-UK still links its past papers for practice.
What is TSA test in medical?
The TSA is the Thinking Skills Assessment, a thinking-skills test, not a medical one. It and the Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT) Section 1 share a history with TARA, which Oxford and UCL now use.
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How we work this out
What it does
Turn a TSA, BMAT or TARA practice mark into an estimated TARA score, with the TSA's own score kept on its own scale.
Marks from TSA 2021 and 2022 Section 1, BMAT Section 1, the TARA specimen and sample papers, or any practice set, by module or whole paper. TSA 2023 and BMAT raw-to-score tables were not found.
Method
- Accuracy is correct answers divided by every question in the set, with blanks counted as wrong.
- Same accuracy out of 22 is accuracy times 22, the length of one TARA module. 20 out of 25 is 80%, which is 17.6 out of 22.
- The estimated TARA score takes that figure to the nearest whole mark and reads it through the TARA score calculator's middle assumption (20 out of 25 in Critical Thinking: 18 out of 22, about 5.8). A whole paper gets one estimate per module.
- For a full TSA 2021 or 2022 module or Section 1, the original reported score is read from Oxford's own conversion table for that year.
- Time per question is minutes divided by questions, compared with TARA's 40 minutes for 22 questions (109 seconds each on average).
- The range if the questions were interchangeable is an 80% Wilson interval for accuracy.
Published figures
Original TSA score conversions, 2021 and 2022
The same raw mark gave different scores in different years. These are TSA scale scores and have no TARA equivalent.
| Raw mark | CT 2021 | CT 2022 | PS 2021 | PS 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 99.4 | 96.7 | 106.0 | 99.2 |
| 24 | 92.1 | 89.5 | 98.6 | 91.8 |
| 23 | 84.5 | 81.9 | 90.9 | 84.1 |
| 22 | 79.8 | 77.2 | 86.1 | 79.3 |
| 21 | 76.3 | 73.7 | 82.4 | 75.6 |
| 20 | 73.4 | 70.8 | 79.4 | 72.6 |
| 19 | 70.9 | 68.2 | 76.7 | 69.9 |
| 18 | 68.7 | 65.9 | 74.3 | 67.6 |
| 17 | 66.6 | 63.8 | 72.1 | 65.4 |
| 16 | 64.7 | 61.9 | 70.0 | 63.3 |
| 15 | 62.8 | 60.0 | 68.0 | 61.3 |
| 14 | 61.0 | 58.1 | 66.1 | 59.4 |
| 13 | 59.3 | 56.3 | 64.2 | 57.6 |
| 12 | 57.5 | 54.5 | 62.2 | 55.7 |
| 11 | 55.8 | 52.7 | 60.3 | 53.8 |
| 10 | 54.0 | 50.9 | 58.3 | 51.9 |
| 9 | 52.2 | 49.0 | 56.3 | 50.0 |
| 8 | 50.3 | 47.0 | 54.1 | 47.9 |
| 7 | 48.2 | 44.9 | 51.8 | 45.7 |
| 6 | 46.0 | 42.7 | 49.3 | 43.3 |
| 5 | 43.6 | 40.1 | 46.6 | 40.6 |
| 4 | 40.7 | 37.2 | 43.3 | 37.5 |
| 3 | 37.3 | 33.7 | 39.4 | 33.7 |
| 2 | 32.7 | 29.1 | 34.1 | 28.6 |
| 1 | 25.2 | 21.5 | 25.8 | 20.4 |
| 0 | 18.0 | 14.3 | 18.1 | 12.8 |