Admissions has a private vocabulary, and half the anxiety in the process comes from not speaking it. Plain-English definitions, no mystique. Each entry links to the fuller guide where one exists.
- Admissions test
- an assessment used by a course during selection, such as the TMUA, ESAT, TARA, UCAT or LNAT. An offer condition is a requirement attached to an offer. STEP commonly appears inside Cambridge Mathematics offers, although universities can use tests differently.
- Which test do I need?
- Collegiate system
- Oxford and Cambridge are federations of colleges: you live, eat and are taught in small groups in a college, attend lectures in the university. You apply to one college (or open); teaching quality is the university's — college choice is about where you'd like to live.
- Oxbridge admissions guide
- Contextual offer / contextual admissions
- universities using school, area and individual circumstances to interpret an application. The effect is institution- and course-specific: some universities have defined reduced-offer routes, while Oxford and Cambridge do not generally lower offer grades on this basis.
- Deciles (UCAT)
- score bands splitting all candidates into tenths, published after each cycle; how "a good UCAT score" is actually defined, and why last year's number needs care after a format change.
- UCAT preparation
- ESAT
- Engineering and Science Admissions Test: modular, multiple-choice, for engineering and sciences at Cambridge, Imperial, UCL, and Oxford from 2027 entry. Replaced the ENGAA and NSAA.
- ESAT preparation
- Gap-year reapplication
- applying again in a later admissions cycle, often with achieved grades. UAT-UK, UCAT and LNAT results are cycle-specific and must be re-sat for a later application. Previous STEP results are treated according to the university, College and course.
- LNAT
- Law National Aptitude Test: a computer-based test used by participating law courses. Section A assesses close reading and reasoning through multiple-choice questions; Section B is a written response sent to universities. Deadlines differ by institution.
- LNAT preparation
- Offer condition
- see admissions test above; the requirements in your offer letter, typically grades, sometimes STEP.
- Open application
- applying to Oxford or Cambridge without naming a College and allowing the university to allocate the application. The allocation method and College conditions differ, so check the relevant university guidance.
- Pooling (Cambridge) / reallocation (Oxford)
- processes that allow other Colleges to consider applicants and help reduce the effect of College choice. Neither process guarantees an offer.
- Super-curricular
- engagement with your subject beyond the syllabus — reading, problem sets, projects, lectures — as opposed to extra-curricular (everything else). What personal statements and interviews are actually built from; depth beats breadth, and honesty beats both.
- Supervision (Cambridge) / tutorial (Oxford)
- the small-group teaching (often one-to-three students with an academic) that defines Oxbridge education. Worth knowing because the interview is a simulated one — which is why interview preparation means practising thinking aloud, not memorising answers.
- Oxbridge admissions guide
- SJT (Situational Judgement Test)
- the UCAT section assessing responses to professional situations, reported in Bands 1–4 separately from the cognitive score. Universities decide how they use it.
- UCAT preparation
- STEP
- Sixth Term Examination Paper: long-form written mathematics normally sat in June. It commonly forms part of Cambridge Mathematics offers and is used in selected Warwick routes.
- STEP preparation
- TARA
- Test of Academic Reasoning for Admissions: a UAT-UK test with Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Writing Task modules. It is used for selected Oxford and UCL courses; requirements must be checked by course each cycle.
- TARA preparation
- TMUA
- Test of Mathematics for University Admission: a multiple-choice mathematics test used for selected Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics and related courses. Course requirements differ by university. Oxford replaced the MAT with the TMUA for relevant 2027-entry courses.
- TMUA preparation
- UAT-UK
- University Admissions Tests UK, the organisation whose ESAT, TARA and TMUA tests are delivered through Pearson VUE test centres.
- UCAT
- University Clinical Aptitude Test: a computer-based test used by participating medicine and dentistry courses. The current format has three cognitive subtests and a Situational Judgement Test.
- UCAT preparation
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