Oxford HAT Retired: What History Applicants Sit Now

Oxford's Faculty of History states on its current admissions pages that applicants to History, Ancient and Modern History, History and English and History and Modern Languages do not take an admissions test, which means the History Aptitude Test, known to generations of applicants as the HAT, no longer forms part of the process for those courses. Two joint schools are the exception: History and Economics and History and Politics now require the Test of Academic Reasoning for Admissions, or TARA, a test set by the university's shared testing provider and administered independently of the history faculty.

For most history applicants Oxford no longer sets an admissions test, so weight rests on the elements of the application that always sat alongside the HAT: the submitted essay, predicted grades and the interview. Parents and Year 12 students used to a fixed test date and a bank of past papers may find the current position less familiar, since preparation now centres on essay-writing and source analysis, with no timed paper sat under exam conditions.

What was the History Aptitude Test?

The History Aptitude Test was a timed, source-based written test that Oxford history applicants once sat alongside their UCAS application, working from an unfamiliar primary-source extract and building a short argument about it under exam conditions, before Oxford retired it. It sat outside the school curriculum by design, since the faculty was testing how a candidate read and reasoned with evidence, independent of what they had already been taught, and no reading list or fixed syllabus governed it. Oxford now sets no admissions test for straight History, while joint courses such as History and Economics and History and Politics require the Test of Academic Reasoning for Admissions, TARA, run by UAT-UK and sat at Pearson test centres.

The test applied across Oxford's history courses, pure and joint, for many years, functioning as a common filter before candidates reached written work and interview. Its removal from the current cycle, confirmed on Oxford's own admissions test pages, means the question of what history applicants sit now has a different answer to the one it would have had a few years ago.

Does Oxford still set a history admissions test?

For most history applicants, no: Oxford's Faculty of History confirms that History, Ancient and Modern History, History and English and History and Modern Languages do not take an admissions test at all. Selection for these courses runs on written work, predicted grades and interview alone, with no separate test sitting to prepare for or register in advance.

Which joint history courses now require a test, and which one?

History and Economics and History and Politics both carry a test requirement at Oxford, along with several other joint schools, among them Economics and Management and Philosophy, Politics and Economics; all sit TARA, which replaced the old HAT. TARA is run by UAT-UK, a testing organisation separate from the faculty that interviews candidates, so applicants should check UAT-UK's official TARA website for the module structure and specification.

Applicants weighing up these joint schools against single-honours History should treat the test requirement as a genuine point of difference in preparation, not a formality; TARA is set and marked by a separate testing organisation from the faculty that interviews them.

What does the TARA test assess?

TARA is a non-subject-specific test of general reasoning and written expression, according to UAT UK, the organisation that develops and delivers it; it does not test historical knowledge or method. It runs as three 40-minute modules: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, both sets of 22 multiple-choice questions, followed by a Writing Task in which candidates choose one of three essay prompts.

UAT UK scores Critical Thinking and Problem Solving on a nine-point scale and reports the results to one decimal place, while the Writing Task itself is not scored by the provider; a copy goes directly to the universities the candidate has applied to, for them to weigh alongside the rest of the application. No prior subject knowledge is assumed in any module.

How are history applicants assessed without a written test?

Applicants to History, Ancient and Modern History, History and English and History and Modern Languages are assessed through written work, predicted grades and interview, with the written work carrying particular weight in the absence of a test. Oxford's Faculty of History asks for an argument-driven essay on a historical topic, produced as part of normal school or college work instead of written specially for the application, capped at 2,000 words and submitted with a staff-signed cover sheet confirming it is the candidate's own work.

Predicted grades are read by the faculty alongside GCSE results and contextual data about a candidate's school; there is no single fixed cut-off. Interviews follow, usually one 30-minute conversation with two tutors, sometimes two shorter sessions depending on the college, held online and designed to test how a candidate thinks under gentle pressure, not to catch anyone out; a candidate's own submitted essay is a common starting point for questions.

No History test at Oxford: where should old HAT prep time go?

Time once set aside for HAT past papers now transfers most naturally into the written work and interview preparation that still decide a history application. Redrafting the submitted essay several times, tightening its argument and checking that every claim is supported by evidence, does more for a candidate's file than any amount of test practice would have done under the old system.

Reading and discussing primary sources with a teacher or tutor, and practising the kind of unscripted, evidence-based conversation an Oxford interview involves, prepares candidates for the interview stage in a way that maps directly onto what tutors are assessing: curiosity, flexibility of thought and the ability to reason from unfamiliar material. Applicants to History and Economics or History and Politics should set aside separate time for TARA preparation, since its reasoning and problem-solving format has little in common with either the essay or the interview.

How does the Oxford position compare with Cambridge history admissions?

Cambridge does not set a pre-interview admissions test for History either, according to its central undergraduate admissions pages, which list History among courses with no advance-registration test. Cambridge differs from Oxford's current arrangement in setting a college-run assessment after interview invitations go out, not before them, with no registration required from the applicant.

Cambridge's Faculty of History describes this as the History Admissions Assessment, a source-based task in which candidates compare a pair of historical extracts in a short piece of writing, run by some colleges, not uniformly across the collegiate university. Written work is also required at both universities, though Cambridge generally asks for two prior essays instead of the single purpose-written piece Oxford requests, with most Cambridge colleges accepting accredited school or college essays complete with teachers' comments.

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