What Are University Entrance Exams?

When applying for university, there are many things that you need to take into account. One of these are university entrance exams. When applying on your UCAS, it is important to hand applications in before the deadline, but also ensure that you are ready for all entrance exams. However, what exactly are the university entrance exams?

University entrance exams are exams needed by the university to see whether the applicant would be suitable for the course, but also so the university can spot students who are more able than others. Different courses have different exams, and some courses do not even require exams. However, you do not need to apply for some tests, as the university may automatically put you into one.

Read on for more information about university entrance exams. From this article, you will learn about the main university entrance exams, which universities use entrance exams and even about how hard they are.

What are university entrance exams?

University entrance exams, or admission tests, are tests that are sometimes needed by the university you are applying to. They can also be used to distinguish the top students from that exam.

Not all of the tests are run by the university. There are some generic tests that are sometimes required by certain universities. Examples of the most common are:

• LNAT (Law National Aptitude Test)
• BMAT (Biomedical Admissions Test)
• UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test)
• MAT (Mathematical Admissions Test)
• STEP (Sixth Term Examination Paper in Mathematics)
• TMUA (Test of Mathematics for University Admissions)
• TSA (Thinking Skills Assessment)

However, not all of the tests are like this. For example, at Cambridge University, there is the Cambridge Law test.

You will need to register to take this exam separately from your UCAS application. You can learn more about this by checking out this guide by UCAS. Each test shows that you have a certain ability in that field.

Some of these tests require subject knowledge, like the MAT, STEP, BMAT and UCAT. However, the TSA, LNAT and Cambridge Law Test do not, and test other qualities like critical thinking, so you do not necessarily need to revise for this.

The tests would be considered along other factors. Some universities may see it as a way of seeing exceptional students, while some universities have a cut off grade, as a minimum requirement. To find out more about this, you can click on this link for a full guide on admission tests by Target Careers.

Do you have to do entrance exams to get into university?

This depends on your university and your course. For a lot of universities, there is no school-based entry test. This means that one test will not give you access to all of the university’s courses.

Instead, there are tests depending on each course. As a result, you should look at your universities course list, and see if there are any entrance exams for you.

If there are, you should follow the instructions given by the university. Usually, you will have to sign up for a test before the deadline at an exam centre. You can find out more about deadlines and course specific test, by clicking on this link to go to the UCAS page.

Which universities require entrance exams?

As a general rule, it is expected that Oxford University and Cambridge University have entrance exams for most of their courses. The University of Cambridge have even listed a few tests as requirements for applying.

To view the entry requirements for Cambridge University, you can click on this link to go to their website. Or you can click on this link to view the courses for Cambridge. For Oxford, you can click on this link for entry requirements, and this link for the courses.

Otherwise, you should look on your university’s website and list of courses to view the required entry exams for the course.

How hard are university entrance exams?

Many people agree that university entrance exams are very hard. Some go as far as to say that it’s the hardest test they have taken. These exams test high level academic progress and thinking, so would not be easy.

The exams are also used to identify top students, so would be used to stretch the ability of exam takers to the hardest possible. Test takers also say that revision is key. There are actually some past papers available online so revising would help.

What happens if you fail your university entrance exam?

If you have failed your entrance exam, there is very little that you can do, unfortunately. You will also need to meet the cut-off point that the university declared as a minimum. then there is not much more that you can do, apart from move on.

It could also be that there is not a cut-off point but you didn’t perform as well as you’d hoped. In this scenario, the university will probably not see this as a strong application and may choose other candidates with stronger applications.

However, if you got just above the cut of point, or just performed not as well, but did not completely fail, you will have to be perfect in other exams, your personal statement and performance in interviews to see yourself have hope of being admitted into the university.

Generally, if you did bad on a test it will be down to many factors. Don’t beat yourself up about it. You should use these test results as a point of learning.

What are your strongest and weakest points? What factors caused you to fail?

As these tests can only be taken once an academic year, you will have to wait for the next year to think about re-taking exams.

If you want to read more about this, you can click on this link to find Target Careers’ guide on university entrance exams.

In this article we have discussed the entrance exams for universities. There are many different exams, and each university and course require different tests, and some may not need any. If you are looking at these tests, we wish you good luck for your results.