TMUA 2026 DATES

booking, deadline, sitting, results

The October 2026 sitting is the one that matters for 2027 entry. Booking opens 20 July 2026, registration closes at 6pm on 28 September 2026, the test window runs 12 to 16 October 2026, and results are released on 16 November 2026.

Those four dates are the whole administrative story, and the third of them is the one candidates get wrong: registration closes roughly two weeks before the sitting, and it closes at 6pm, not at midnight.

THE FOUR DATES

20 July 2026: booking opens through UAT-UK. Centres can begin registering candidates.

28 September 2026, 6pm: registration closes. There is no late window and no fee that reopens it.

12 to 16 October 2026: the test window. Your centre chooses the exact day and session within it.

16 November 2026: results released to candidates and shared with universities.

ONLY THE OCTOBER SITTING COUNTS FOR OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE

There is a January sitting, and it is valid for some universities. It is not valid for Oxford or Cambridge, whose deadlines have already passed by the time January results exist.

If Oxford or Cambridge is on your list, October is the only sitting available to you, and 28 September is a hard stop on your application rather than a soft one.

The UCAS deadline for Oxford, Cambridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary courses is 15 October 2026, inside the test window. Register for the TMUA and submit UCAS as two separate tasks with two separate deadlines.

THE DEADLINES BEFORE THE DEADLINE

Access arrangements, for example extra time or a modified paper, must be requested well before the booking deadline and require evidence from your school. Requests submitted late are not processed for that sitting.

Bursary applications, which cover the entry fee for eligible candidates, also close earlier than booking. Ask your exams officer in the first week of September rather than the last.

Private candidates have the earliest real deadline of all, because open centres set their own internal cut-offs and charge their own administration fees. Find and contact a centre in the summer, not in September.

HOW TO USE THE CALENDAR BACKWARDS

Count back from 12 October rather than forwards from today. Twelve weeks out is the point at which a full diagnostic paper is still useful, because there is time left to act on what it shows.

A workable shape: weeks twelve to nine on content gaps found by that first paper, weeks eight to four on timed single papers with full error classification, weeks three to one on full pairs sat back to back in the morning, and the final week on nothing but re-reading your own error log.

Anything that has not been sat under the clock by the last week is not preparation, it is reading.

THE FULL CYCLE

Registration is only one line of the 2027-entry cycle. Personal statement, reference, UCAS submission, admissions test, interview windows and offer dates all interlock, and the TMUA sits in the middle of the busiest fortnight of the year.

The full cycle, month by month and verified against the UAT-UK course list and university pages, is on the Key Dates page.