History Aptitude Test (HAT) Guide

How to register for the HAT Test

The HAT is not being used by Oxford University for the 2025-26 admissions cycle. For applicants targeting future years, please check back here in due course for further information.

Tips from a successful Oxford History applicant

HOW CAN I PREPARE FOR THE HAT?

The best way to prepare for the HAT exam is to do lots and lots of practice. There is no set syllabus that you need to know, no list of kings and queens that you need to memorise. The key skills are insight and imagination. What is the source saying? How do its provenance, form, tone, and audience inform how we understand it? What other sources would be useful? What is left unsaid? Practice will reduce the amount of time you naturally spend being puzzled by the source and will mean you can start asking these questions and finding the answers more readily. Students should build their repertoire of tackling such unfamiliar sources using past HAT papers, materials such as our specially-written HAT papers, or setting yourself sources that you find online.

A SAMPLE HAT QUESTION 

To illustrate what we mean, the HAT exam in 2020 was based on an extract from Juvaynī’s History of the World-Conqueror, begun in 1251, about the rise to power of Genghis Khan. The question was:

“What can we learn from this document about the expectations and realities of rulership in the Mongol empire?”

As you can see, the question is not: ‘Explain the expectations and realities of rulership in the Mongol empire.’ You are not required to have any knowledge of the history of the Mongol empire at all. Rather, the question is ‘what can we learn from this document’. You are provided with some notes explaining who the author is and what the context for his history was. Your task is then to draw out some salient features of rulership in the Mongol empire with your analysis focused on how this document shows that. You’ll want to consider both what the author says about rulership, implicitly and explicitly, and possibly what is left unsaid. You’ll also want to think about why the author might be making the points he does. For example, is he trying to impress a current ruler or denigrate a past one? These questions can be answered both with reference to the text, including its tone, and by using a bit of historical imagination. For example, in a diary or a letter to a confidant you are likely to be more candid than in a speech where you might avoid offending your host. The explanatory notes will give you information about what sort of source it is.

HAT PREPARATION MATERIALS

In addition to the past HAT papers, we have written a series of additional mock papers. Our students have 33% more questions to practise with. Our mock HAT papers can be found here and are included with our admissions test tuition. All of our HAT tutors are highly-trained Oxbridge graduates who can share their personally insights of having sat the test. You can contact our Oxbridge-graduate Consultants on +44 (0) 20 7499 2394 or email [email protected] to discuss which of our test training would suit you best. We also have an online testing portal for students who want to sit the exam in timed, test conditions.

HAT TIPS

The best advice we can offer is to begin preparation early and practise often. Most students who don’t get through the HAT to be invited to interview tell us that they didn’t spend enough time familiarising themselves with the type of questions that can arise. They typically say that they were caught off guard by the unfamiliarity of the source and it put their timings off for writing their answer.

HAT FAQs

WHAT IS THE HAT?

The History Aptitude Test (HAT) is a 60-minute examination designed to rank applicants to History courses at the University of Oxford, as part of the admissions process.

WHO NEEDS TO SIT THE HAT exam?

The HAT test is a mandatory part of the application process for everyone applying to Oxford for the following subjects:

- History
- History (Ancient and Modern)
- History and Economics
- History and English
- History and Modern Languages
- History and Politics

HOW IS THE HAT STRUCTURED?

The HAT has a very simple structure: one source, one question. The source will be a documentary source from a period or region that most candidates will be unfamiliar with. They are deliberately chosen such that the majority of syllabuses won’t cover the material in question. To help you understand the source, it will be accompanied by some notes explaining its provenance (when was it written or created, where, and by whom.) There will then be one general question inviting you to consider what the source can tell us about the culture that produced it.

CAN I CHOOSE WHICH QUESTIONS I ANSWER IN THE HAT?

No, there is just one question that all candidates answer.

HOW IS MY SCORE IN THE HAT TEST USED?

Oxford University uses the HAT as a standardised format for assessing and benchmarking their applicants. The exam rewards problem solving rather than historical knowledge, so that students are not advantaged by having studied the period in school.

Oxford University uses students’ marks in the HAT to make decisions about which applicants they should invite to interview. Oxford invites around 70% of applicants to interview for the single honours History course. The HAT is used as an important piece of evidence when shortlisting, and for deciding between interviewed candidates. It is especially important for applicants to joint schools which require another test (MLAT, ELAT, or TSA) to demonstrate aptitude on both sides of the course.

WHAT IS A GOOD HAT SCORE?

Previously the HAT was marked out of 40 with marks over 33 making it into the top band of applicants. The HAT is now marked out of 90 with various criteria being weighted more heavily than others: historical insight, comprehension, and the use of evidence are all relatively more important than prose style and presentation. The mean score in 2020 was 56 and the mode was 60. The highest mark was 87.
Since the HAT test is used as an assessment tool among a wider context of factors, such as your academic grades and teacher reference, there is no fixed pass mark or automatic threshold. However, ranking highly correlates heavily with being awarded an offer.

Before interview, your HAT score and your contextualised GCSE scores count equally for deciding who to invite to interview. After interview, your HAT score still makes up 30% of the overall mark for your application alongside the interview itself, your GCSEs, and your written work. This shows how important it is to ace the HAT.

DO I NEED TO KNOW A LEVEL HISTORY?

There is no set syllabus for the HAT exam. It is designed in such a way that all candidates have an equal chance of showing their historical skill. Of course, plenty of practice will make any candidate better equipped to tackle the challenging sources that you can expect to encounter in the HAT test. If you do happen to recognise the source, or know a bit about the period in question, you should avoid bringing in your own knowledge. Stay tightly focused on the text in front of you and remember that candidates who know nothing about the period may well do better by staying close to the source and using their skills of analysis. The best thing to do is practise, practise, practise!