TSA Thinking Skills Assessment: The Complete Guide
Advice & Insight From TSA Specialists
What is the TSA exam?
- TSA stands for Thinking Skills Assessment, and that is exactly what the exam is designed to test.
- The exam is split into two sections: section one is multiple choice and concerns problem solving and critical thinking, while the second section is an essay.
- The exam is used by Oxford, Cambridge, and UCL as an admissions test for many of its courses. In all cases, this forms just one data point and is used alongside personal statements, GCSE/A-level grades, contextual information, interview performance, and so on. The TSA does not determine who is admitted to the universities, but it is used as one point in guiding admissions decisions.
​Which courses require the TSA?
The following courses in Oxford require both Sections 1 and 2 of the TSA:
- Economics and Management
- Experimental Psychology
- Human Sciences
- Philosophy and Linguistics
- Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)
- Psychology and Linguistics
- Psychology and Philosophy
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Chemistry and the joint-honours course in History and Economics require section 1 but not the essay section. (Note that applicants in History and Economics must also take the HAT, History Aptitude Test.)
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If you are applying to study Land Economy in Cambridge, you will also need to take Section 1 of the TSA. At UCL, applicants for European Social and Political Studies (ESPS) and International Social and Political Studies (ISPS) also require TSA Section 1.
TSA Score Conversion
The score that you are awarded for the TSA is different from the raw mark out of 50 that you achieve in the section 1 paper. Like most A-level and GCSE examinations, the score conversion changes each year, and takes account of how difficult candidates found the paper that year.
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Let’s look at the 2016 and 2015 exam scores to illustrate this:
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In 2016:
1/50 = 12.8Â Â Â Â Â 10/50 = 39.9Â Â Â Â Â 25/50 = 56.3
30/50 = 61.1Â Â Â 38/50 = 70.1Â Â Â Â 50/50 = 107.3
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In 2015:
1/50 = 16.3Â Â Â Â Â 10/50 = 42.4Â Â Â Â Â 25/50 = 57.8
30/50 = 62.5Â Â Â 38/50 = 70.7Â Â Â Â 50/50 = 106.3
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We can see from these two that there is variation in the UMS for each year, and if you look at further score converters (available on the Admissions Testing website) you will see that this is true across all the past papers available.
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It is important to note that this plays to your advantage, because it means that if a paper is objectively more difficult, then your mark will be automatically moved up.
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This is all interesting stuff, but the most important part of preparing for the TSA is not focussing on what number you would have got in a given year, but rather on improving your score out of 50 (and your essay technique, if section 2 is relevant) to ensure that you do yourself justice in the exam and make the most of the time available for you to prepare.
Optimise Your TSA Performance
Learn the best TSA strategies and practice with reflective TSA questions & worked solutions.
What is a good TSA score?
It is likely that, as applicants to the country’s best universities, you are used to getting 100% in school tests, and maybe even 100 UMS in A-level and GCSE exams. It is important to realise that the standard of the TSA means that this is not our goal! Instead, we need to be more realistic about what it is possible to achieve, and equally what it is necessary to achieve in order to get an offer or interview.
- An average score is 60, so roughly 28/50
- If you can score 70, you are in the top 10% of candidates and that equates to about 38/50
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Given this information, it is important not to be disheartened when you mark your work and get lower marks than you are used to getting at A-level. Put those numbers into context, but most importantly, use the mistakes that you make on each practice paper to learn and develop your technique.
Further Reading....
TSA Questions and Answers
Q: What is the TSA and which universities require it?
A: The Thinking Skills Assessment is an admissions test used by Oxford, Cambridge, and UCL as part of their selection process for certain courses. At Oxford, the full TSA, comprising both Section 1 and the Writing Task, is required for courses including PPE, Philosophy and Linguistics, Psychology, and Economics and Management, while other courses such as Chemistry and History and Economics require Section 1 only. Cambridge requires Section 1 of the TSA for applicants to Land Economy. UCL uses Section 1 for a number of social science programmes. The specific courses requiring the TSA and the sections involved can change from year to year, so it is important to check the admissions requirements for each course and university you are applying to rather than assuming the same format applies across all institutions.
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Q: What does Section 1 of the TSA test and how is it structured?
A: Section 1 of the TSA is a 90-minute multiple-choice paper consisting of 50 questions divided between two skill areas: Problem Solving and Critical Thinking. Problem Solving questions assess your ability to work with numerical and spatial information, select relevant data, identify patterns, and reason about quantities without requiring advanced mathematical knowledge. Critical Thinking questions assess your ability to analyse written arguments, identify assumptions, evaluate reasoning, and draw logical conclusions from passages of text. The two skill types are interspersed throughout the paper rather than appearing in separate blocks. Raw scores out of 50 are converted to a scaled score using a statistical method that accounts for question difficulty, producing a score on a scale of approximately 0 to 100.
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Q: What is a good TSA score and what should I realistically aim for?
A: An average TSA score corresponds to a raw score of approximately 28 out of 50, which converts to a scaled score of around 60. Reaching a scaled score of 70 places you in the top 10% of candidates, which is a genuinely competitive outcome. Unlike many school examinations where high marks are consistently achievable with thorough revision, the TSA is calibrated to be challenging even for very able students, and pursuing a perfect or near-perfect score is not a realistic goal for the vast majority of applicants. A more productive mindset is to focus on developing your technique, working through practice papers carefully, and learning systematically from your mistakes. Steady, methodical improvement over the course of your preparation is both more achievable and more likely to produce a competitive result than attempting to eliminate all errors at once.
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Q: How should I prepare for the TSA effectively?
A: Effective TSA preparation combines three elements. First, familiarise yourself with the format and question types of both sections so that nothing on the day comes as a surprise. Second, work through past papers under timed conditions, since the TSA has a substantial archive of past questions that gives you excellent material to practise with. Third, and most importantly, review your answers carefully after each practice session. Identifying why you got a question wrong, whether because of a misread, a gap in your technique, or a conceptual misunderstanding, is what drives genuine improvement between sessions. Simply completing practice papers without this reflective review produces far less progress. For the essay section, practising timed responses to past Writing Task questions and seeking feedback on your argument structure and clarity is the most reliable way to improve.
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Q: Do all Oxford courses that use the TSA require both sections?
A: No. The TSA requirements vary between Oxford courses, and some courses require only Section 1 while others require both Section 1 and the Section 2 Writing Task. Courses such as PPE, Psychology, and Economics and Management require candidates to complete the full TSA including the essay. Other courses, including Chemistry and History and Economics, use only Section 1 of the test. This distinction matters for your preparation, since candidates required to sit only Section 1 do not need to invest time in practising the essay. Checking the specific TSA requirements for your chosen course on the Oxford admissions website before you begin preparing ensures that your preparation is correctly targeted and that you are not either under-preparing for a component you will need or spending time on one you will not.