What is a Good Admissions Test Score? Cambridge Edition

If the course you’re applying for at Cambridge requires an admissions test, you will want to prepare to make sure you get the best possible score. But what kind of score should you be aiming for? Without official grade boundaries as in the GCSE or A-level system it can be hard to know what mark will impress admissions tutors. In this blog post, we’ll take you through what constitutes a good score for a few admissions tests using data from the most recent admissions cycles (2021 and 2022 entry). We have this data for every test taken for Oxford and Cambridge entry for the past several years, so get in contact with us if you would like to discuss your specific situation.

It is important to bear in mind that no score will guarantee you an interview or an offer. Academic grades are also essential in determining whether you will be selected for interview, and ultimately admissions tutors will consider your application as a whole. Moreover, what constitutes a “good score” will vary year on year depending on the scores of that year’s cohort, so it is difficult to know in advance if your score is among the best for that year. It’s also the case that certain courses put more weight on the admissions test score in the admissions process. For example, the TSA, PAT, and MAT tests at Oxford all have a long history, and tend to be very good predictors of whether applicants reach interview and eventually get a place. For Cambridge, there are fewer pre-interview tests, and more college-dependent tests at interview. Nevertheless, it is useful to consider the scores of successful applicants from recent years in pre-interview tests so you know roughly what to aim for.

The BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT)

At Oxford and Cambridge, applicants for Medicine will sit the Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT); you may also have to sit the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT), depending on which other universities you are applying to. Not all sections of the BMAT are weighted the same, and weightings can change year on year. If you want to know which universities to apply to with your particular BMAT score, check out our handy resource on it. For the writing task, scores are awarded from 1-5 and given a letter. For the other two sections, included below, scores are given between 1 and 9. The BMAT marks for the last two application cycles for Medicine applicants at Cambridge were as follows:

The Law National Aptitude Test (LNAT)

New for 2022 applicants, Cambridge will be using the LNAT exam rather than the Cambridge Law Test (CLT), as in previous years. The LNAT exam is also used by a range of other competitive Law schools in the UK, including Bristol, Durham, KCL, LSE, Nottingham, Glasgow, and SOAS. 

Accordingly, no data is available for Cambridge Law applicants sitting the LNAT. For Oxford Law (Jurisprudence) applicants in the past two years, the multiple choice section averages for deselected, shortlisted, and offered applicants was as follows:

It is reasonable to assume the data for Cambridge this year will look slightly different. Though it is a well-established (and therefore reliable) test, Cambridge may not be able to judge how well LNAT performance correlates with degree performance for a couple of years. Moreover, Cambridge invites a higher proportion of candidates to interview to begin with, and so the difference seen above between deselected and shortlisted candidates may be less stark for Cambridge.

The Test of Mathematics for University Admissions (TMUA)

In recent years, the TMUA has been used by Cambridge for Computer Sciences. For 2022, the TMUA will also be used for the Economics application process. The TMUA contains two parts, each worth 20 marks, and the total raw score is converted to a scaled score between 1 and 9. The statistics for Computer science applicants sitting the TMUA in the most recent two years, by section (out of 9), were the following:

Engineering Admissions Assessment (ENGAA)

The ENGAA is used by Cambridge for applicants to Engineering and also Chemical Engineering (via the Engineering Tripos). Each section contains 20 questions, and the total raw mark (/60) is scaled to a mark between 1 and 9. The section marks for candidates applying for Engineering at Cambridge for the past two application cycles were as follows:

Natural Sciences Admissions Assessment (NSAA)

Cambridge’s NSAA exam has changed in format a couple of times since its (relatively recent) inception. Applicants for Natural Sciences and for Chemical Engineering (via Natural Sciences), and Veterinary Medicine take the NSAA. 

The most current format of the NSAA features two sections: section one requires applicants to take Maths along with one other option out of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and section two – containing more advanced questions - requires applicants to pick one option out of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Each option is marked out of 20 and then scaled to a mark between 1 and 9. The average scaled marks applicants sitting the NSAA in its most recent format (2021) were as follows:

At-Interview Tests 

Cambridge uses ‘at-interview’ tests for Classics, courses involving Languages, Architecture, Archaeology, History of Art, Philosophy, Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion, and college-dependent tests for most remaining courses. 

These vary widely in format and weighting, but share the similarity that they aim to assess skills and potential rather than knowledge. Core skills and competencies take longer than knowledge to build, and so we encourage applicants to work on these as soon as possible.