Free · Timed papers and practice · One order to work them in
TMUA: Start Here
The TMUA practice page holds over 4,100 practice questions in 110 question types, and a free account there gives you 5 free timed papers, Paper 1 or Paper 2, marked with the full working. There is also a method library and a diagnostic. That is a lot to land on with no order to it. This is the order, dated backwards from the October sitting window.
Not sure where to start? 4 places to go
Start with your question
Why visitors arrive: You have found a large pile of free TMUA material and do not know which part to do first, or when.
Your question: In what order, and by when, should I work through TMUA preparation?
You may also be asking
- When is the October sitting window?
- Should I start with Paper 1 or Paper 2?
- How many mock papers should I actually do?
- What if I am starting late?
- How do I use the method library alongside the papers?
Where to go next
- Take the diagnostic first: A baseline to sequence the rest against
- The TMUA method library: Learn the methods before drilling them
- The TMUA hub: Every paper in one place
- Enquire about one-to-one: Direct TMUA preparation
- Nothing here is new material. Every link goes to a page already published on this site. This page is the sequence, not the content.
- The dates move with the calendar. Each phase is anchored to the sitting window, so the dates below are the ones for the current cycle rather than last year's. Confirm your own sitting on the official test page: this site does not run the test.
- Sitting in January 2027? The plan below is dated to the October sitting window. If your course takes the January sitting, it runs from 4 to 8 January 2027, and booking is open from 26 October to 21 December 2026 at 6pm GMT, with access arrangements due by 7 December (UAT-UK key dates). Counted back from 4 January, the same phases fall like this: Paper 1 technique under the clock until 18 October, Paper 2 reasoning from 19 October, full mocks from 9 November, the last mocks from 30 November and the taper from 21 December. Find the phase that holds today and work forward from it.
- Start late without panicking. If you are arriving part way through, the phase marked you are here is where to pick up. Do not try to catch up on everything you missed: work forward from today.
- The order is deliberate, and it is not the obvious one. The reasoning paper comes before the applications paper, for the reason set out below.
The plan
Seven phases, roughly twenty weeks. Each one names what you are trying to achieve, what to work through, and how to tell when you are done with it.
[01] · 25 May to 14 Jun 2027
Find out which of the two papers is your problem
Before any practice: read what each paper actually asks for, and get a baseline you can measure against later.
- TMUA Guide: Test of Mathematics for University Admission
- Free TMUA Diagnostic: Both Papers, Scored Instantly
Done when you have a diagnostic score written down, split by paper, and you can say which of the two is behind.
[02] · 15 Jun to 5 Jul 2027
Learn the reasoning before you drill the technique
Read the method library, then work one reasoning paper untimed. Paper 2 is the half school does not teach, so it is the half with the most room in it.
- The TMUA Method Library: Technique and Reasoning, Separately
- TMUA Mock Paper 2: Mathematical Reasoning
Done when you can negate a quantified statement, say what a counterexample has to do, and spot an argument that affirms the consequent, without looking any of them up.
[03] · 6 Jul to 26 Jul 2027
Paper 1 technique under the clock
Now build the speed. Work these in order and keep a note of every question where you found the slow route first.
Done when you can name the faster route on a question before you start calculating, more often than not.
[07] · 28 Sep to 11 Oct 2027
Taper
Nothing new. Re-read the methods, re-sit the diagnostic, and stop in time to arrive rested.
- The TMUA Method Library: Technique and Reasoning, Separately
- Free TMUA Diagnostic: Both Papers, Scored Instantly
Done when you can state, from memory, the first thing you will do when a question does not yield in thirty seconds.
363 days until the October sitting window opens on 12 October 2027. That date is this site's projection for the next cycle, taken a year on from the last confirmed sitting, so treat the day itself as approximate and check the official date before you book. The windows below are sized in weeks, so they hold either way.
Three things that decide the score
[01]
Paper 2 first
Paper 1 rewards fluency you are already building at school, so it improves slowly and steadily with practice. Paper 2 rewards a way of thinking school rarely teaches, so it improves quickly once someone shows you what it is. Working them in that order puts the early weeks where the return is.
[02]
Recognition beats calculation
Almost every question has a long route and a short one, and which you take is usually decided in the first ten seconds. That is what the method library is for: it lists the cue that should trigger each method before you have decided anything.
[03]
Read the options before the algebra
In a multiple-choice paper the options are information. A pair differing only by a sign tells you the examiner expects a sign error. A pair differing by a factor of two tells you where the halving goes. Reading the five first often eliminates three of them.
Where to go from here
Every paper, practice question and guide on this site is free to read. These are the things worth doing next.
- Find out where you actually stand - Fifteen questions, twenty minutes, scored instantly, with a worked solution for every one you miss
- Practise by topic at full paper depth - Practice questions in every module, filed by topic and skill, each worked in full
- See what can actually be checked about this tutor - What is published, counted from the pages themselves, and the credentials behind it
- Enquire about one-to-one preparation - For candidates who want the gap closed rather than mapped. Places are limited and taken by application
- Books for admissions test preparation - The ESAT Move Register, a book of shortcuts for the ESAT, with a preview of its pages
The diagnostic and the practice questions linked above are free and stay free. One-to-one places are limited and taken by application, not by the hour.