TARA Guides
The Definitive Guide to TARA Module 3: Writing Task
Written by: Nick Morfidis
If you’re preparing to sit the TARA, you may already know the exam consists of three modules. In this guide, we’ll dive into TARA’s Writing Task module to help you understand what it covers and walk into the test centre with confidence.
1/5
THE BASICS OF THE TARA
Let’s begin with a quick overview to ensure you’re familiar with what this exam is about.
What is the TARA?
The Test of Academic Reasoning for Admissions (TARA) is a 120-minute, computer-based general admissions assessment developed by UAT UK in partnership with Pearson VUE. It is currently used by University College London (UCL) for entry into a range of academic disciplines.
If you’re applying to UCL, it’s essential to check your chosen course page to confirm whether sitting the TARA is a requirement for your programme.
The test itself is divided into three compulsory modules: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Writing Task, each lasting 40 minutes.
Module 1
Critical Thinking: You’ll be assessed through 22 multiple-choice questions, designed to evaluate your critical thinking ability.
Module 2
Problem Solving: You’ll be tested on problem solving through another set of 22 multiple-choice questions.
Module 3
Writing Task: You’ll be presented with three essay prompts and you’ll need to choose one to answer. Your response should be strategic, structured, and concise as there’s a 750-word limit.
This table summarises the TARA structure:
How is the TARA Scored?
When it comes to scoring, Modules 1 and 2 of the TARA exam – Critical Thinking and Problem Solving – are marked on a scale from 1 to 9, with 1 being the lowest and 9 the highest possible score. Your score is reported to one decimal place, giving a more precise reflection of your performance.
There’s no penalty for incorrect answers, so it’s always in your best interest to attempt every question!
Unlike the first two modules, the Writing Task is not scored. Instead, your written response is sent directly to the university or universities you’re applying to. Each university can then use this piece at their own discretion to assess your application.
According to UAT UK, the TARA scoring process is rigorously tested and quality assured at every stage – before, during, and after each exam window. This ensures the process remains fair and consistent for all test-takers, so score appeals are not accepted.
There’s plenty more to learn about the TARA, which you can find in our TARA Basics Complete Guide.
2/5
WHAT IS TARA MODULE 3
When is the TARA sat?
Applicants taking the TARA will sit the exam on either 15th or 16th October (Test Sitting 1), or 12th or 13th January (Test Sitting 2), at a Pearson VUE test centre. You can only sit the TARA once per admissions cycle.
To sit the TARA, you’ll need to register online between 31st July and 29th September for Test Sitting 1 and between 27th October and 19th December for Test Sitting 2.
For some countries, UAT UK has confirmed that only one testing day will be available per test window, so if you’re an international applicant, it’s important to check your available options during registration to avoid any issues.
Let’s take a closer look at TARA’s Module 3 – the Writing Task – to help you understand what this section of the exam is and what will be expected of you in the exam centre.
TARA’s Module 3 is a 40-minute essay-writing task in which you will be given three essay prompts and asked to respond to only one. Each question presents a brief statement and asks you to explain its meaning, provide a reasoned argument challenging it, and discuss the extent to which you agree with it.
The aim of this module is to assess your written communication skills, with a particular focus on how clearly you can articulate and justify your reasoning. The topics may not relate to your chosen field of study or educational background; what matters is your ability to understand and critically evaluate a (likely unfamiliar) statement.
Alongside the 40-minute time limit, there is a 750-word limit for your answer – a reasonable allowance, provided your writing is clear, focused, and purposeful.
Get your TARA Preparation started on the right track with TARA.Ninja!
The TARA Preparation Platform is filled with resources that will get you through your TARA prep and help you maximise your score! With our free demo, you can trial our tutorials, practice questions, and past papers today!
3/5
UNDERSTANDING TARA MODULE 3 QUESTIONS
Unlike other essay tasks that focus on specific academic subjects, TARA’s Writing Task – similar to other admissions tests – asks you to discuss a topic that may be entirely unfamiliar.
For example, the BMAT has used a comparable approach in its Section 3. Let’s look at these sample questions from the BMAT 2015 paper:
1. “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” (Pablo Picasso)
Explain what you think is meant by the statement.
Give a reasoned argument against the statement.
To what extent do you agree with the statement?
2. “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” (Christopher Hitchens)
Explain what you think is meant by the statement.
Give a reasoned argument against the statement.
To what extent do you agree with the statement?
3. Just because a behaviour occurs amongst animals in the wild does not mean it should be allowed within domesticated populations of the same species.
Explain what you think is meant by the statement.
Give a reasoned argument against the statement.
To what extent do you agree with the statement?
What links these three questions?
Variation
These questions differ significantly – not only in subject matter but also in the style of question and the type of response they require. Topics range broadly from technology and philosophy to animal ethics, testing your ability to adapt to unfamiliar themes.
Questions 1 and 3 are more narrowly focused and could, in theory, be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” (although this would be insufficient), while question 2 demands a more nuanced exploration, requiring fully developed reasoning.
Argumentative Nature
None of these questions have clear-cut or “right” answers. They all address complex issues that can be examined from multiple perspectives. This means you’ll be expected to take a position and defend it thoughtfully, demonstrating critical thinking rather than relying solely on factual knowledge.
Critical Thinking and Interpretation
All three prompts require you to interpret a statement carefully before responding, highlighting the importance of comprehension and analytical skills. You must demonstrate that you understand the underlying meaning before constructing your argument. This tests your ability to engage deeply with abstract ideas, even if the topic is outside your usual area of expertise.
Balanced Discussion
Each question asks you to argue “to the contrary,” encouraging balanced consideration of different viewpoints. This shows the examiners (or in TARA’s case – your universities of choice) that you can appreciate complexity and avoid one-sided reasoning, which is a key skill in effective academic writing.
Exams.Ninja Tip
TARA questions can have many valid answers, but in essay tasks like this, it’s crucial to have a clear point of view. Essays that “sit on the fence” tend to lack focus and fail to build a compelling argument, making it harder to engage the reader or examiner.
That doesn’t mean you should ignore other perspectives. In fact, acknowledging opposing views can strengthen your argument through effective comparison and contrast. However, the most impactful essays clearly justify one central viewpoint rather than trying to accommodate every angle without reaching a strong conclusion.
How to Choose a Prompt for TARA Writing Task
- Pick the Topic You Understand Best
Even if all topics are unfamiliar, choose the one you feel you can grasp most quickly. Look for a statement or theme that sparks some initial ideas or connects with your general knowledge or interests. This will help you get started faster and write more confidently.
- Consider Which Question Allows for a Clear Argument
Choose the prompt that lends itself to a strong, focused opinion. Some questions may be too broad or vague, making it difficult to develop a clear stance. Selecting a question where you can take a respectfully definitive position will help your essay feel coherent and purposeful.
- Evaluate the Complexity of the Topic
Avoid topics that seem too complex or abstract to explain clearly within the time and word limit. Opt for a prompt where you can reasonably cover key points, provide examples, and address opposing views without getting overwhelmed.
- Think About Your Ability to Address the Task Fully
Make sure you’re comfortable with all parts of the question – explaining the meaning, arguing against the statement, and discussing your agreement level. Sometimes a topic might seem easier but could be harder to tackle completely. Choose the one you feel you can respond to thoroughly and confidently.
4/5
HOW TO EXCEL IN TARA MODULE 3 - TIPS
TARA’s Writing Task can be challenging, but with the right approach, you can maximise your performance. Below are tips to help you write a focused, coherent, and persuasive essay within the time and word limits.
Address All Parts of the Question
- Read carefully: Make sure you fully understand each part of the prompt.
- Answer completely: Your essay should clearly explain the statement’s meaning, provide a reasoned argument against it, and discuss the extent to which you agree. Missing any part can cost you marks.
- Group ideas: Organise similar points together rather than scattering them throughout your essay for clarity and impact.
Plan Your Essay Efficiently
- Take 5-10 minutes to plan: Quickly outline your key ideas, focusing on how you’ll address the three parts of the question.
- Structure your response: Decide your main argument and assign points to paragraphs to ensure logical flow.
Keep it simple: Your plan doesn’t need to be detailed; a clear roadmap helps avoid repetition and ensures coherence.
Be Concise and Focused
- Stick to the word limit: You have up to 750 words – enough to make your points clearly, but not to over-explain.
- Limit your arguments: Select one or two strong points rather than trying to cover everything superficially. Depth beats quantity.
- Avoid repetition: Make each sentence count by expressing precise, distinct ideas.
Engage Critically with the Statement
- Analyze wording carefully: Pay attention to the exact phrasing and any abstract terms.
- Avoid generalities: Don’t drift into vague or unfocused discussion; keep your points relevant and targeted.
- Consider multiple perspectives: Show awareness of counter-arguments and different viewpoints.
Build a Persuasive Argument
- Take a clear stance: While acknowledging other views, your essay should defend a respectful, well-justified position.
- Use examples effectively: Support your points with concrete examples, but ensure they’re relevant, clearly explained, and directly support your argument.
- Develop the counter-argument: Present opposing ideas fairly, and then explain why your view holds stronger.
Express Your View Clearly
- State your opinion explicitly: Your position should be evident throughout the essay, especially in your introduction and conclusion.
- Refer back to your arguments: Link your conclusion to the points you’ve made to reinforce your viewpoint.
- Avoid simple summaries: Don’t just restate what you’ve said – synthesise and emphasise your final judgement.
Take the stress out of your TARA Preparation with TARA.Ninja.
With our TARA Preparation Platform, you get access to tonnes of tutorials, hundreds of practice questions and an amazing collection of TARA papers, all available whenever and wherever you need them! Get started now to make the most of your preparation time!
5/5
TARA MODULE 3 EXAMPLE ESSAYS
Now, with all of this in mind, let’s look at three sample essays to see what distinguishes a strong, high-quality response from a weaker one. These examples are taken from BMAT specimen questions and answers, but the reasoning skills they demonstrate are just as relevant to what is expected on the TARA.
1: ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing.’ (Alexander Pope)
Explain what you think is meant by the statement.
Give a reasoned argument against the statement.
To what extent do you agree with the statement?
By stating that ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’ the author is implying that it is safer to know nothing about something than to know a little about it and form the misconception that you actually know more than you do.
There are, however, many situations in which a little learning can be extremely beneficial. A basic knowledge of first aid can help to save a person’s life, even if it is the mere bandaging of a wound. The fact that the individual may not be aware of the need to elevate an injured limb is of negligible importance in comparison to the little knowledge they had of the need to call for an ambulance and to keep the victim calm and reassured.
In other circumstances, an individual who has witnessed a baby being delivered on television, will be better equipped to assist in the emergency delivery of the baby than someone who has not had the same exposure to this ‘little knowledge’. They may not be at all as experienced as a midwife but, in emergency situations, it is better to have a little knowledge than none at all.
The matter that determines whether or not learning is dangerous is the way in which the individual uses their knowledge. As long as they do not become too overconfident of what they have learnt, and do not use it to the harm of others, their knowledge is not dangerous. However, if someone viewing a heart transplant on television believes they are now equipped to perform one themselves, then in this case, the ‘little learning’ has become a danger, particularly if they have no concept of human physiology or surgical procedures. It is essential that knowledge is used cautiously and sensibly and never to the disadvantage of others. In this way, a ‘little learning’ will not be dangerous.
Examiner’s Comments
This response benefits from being clear, simple and focused. It provides a narrow
interpretation – that a little learning is problematic when it makes one overconfident – to give a simple but structured argument. The counterargument is effective, using good counterexamples and sensibly not trying to bring in additional knowledge. But it does not support a properly balanced consideration of the statement and contrasting views.
The last paragraph fails to realise that while the initial statement refers to a little learning, the final part of the question asks to what extent general learning can be a dangerous thing.
2: ‘Our belief in any particular natural law cannot have a safer basis than our unsuccessful critical attempts to refute it.’ (Karl Popper)
Explain what you think is meant by the statement.
Give a reasoned argument against the statement.
To what extent do you agree with the statement?
Belief, according to Plato, is the justified truth that we accept. Thus, if we believe in something, in this case the natural sciences or laws, we accept these laws as justified truth. Hence, Karl Popper puts forward a theory, whereby he states that if a hypothesis in natural law cannot be falsified or proven wrong, then it is accepted as the justified truth that a scientist can believe in. This theory of falsificationism, at least for Karl Popper, ensures that there is a degree of certainty in understanding and comprehending natural laws. The laws are said to be certain because it has not been possible to refute or dispute them. Hence, it is said to be safe to accept these laws as truth.
However, Popper’s theory cannot be applied in certain circumstances or conditions to fully understand and accept natural laws. This is because not all hypotheses in science (which may be true) can be refuted through experiment. For instance, in the field of astronomy, scientists cannot travel to space and actually observe how the solar system and our galaxy respond to experimental manipulation. It is impossible! With reference to Popper’s theory, most of the scientific laws on astronomy postulated by scientists cannot be accepted as our justified truth. Does that mean our Earth is not a sphere just because no one has actually seen or observed it? Or, the claim made by Copernicus that the planets’ orbitals are an ellipse and not perfectly circular cannot be accepted? This simply proves that there must be other scientific methods which can be used to accept and understand scientific laws.
This brings my argument to the basic scientific method called ‘naïve inductivism’ which is applied by many scientists to explain natural laws. In this basic scientific method, careful observations are made using our senses, the visual, olfactory, auditory, taste and touch that is. From careful and detailed observations, data is collected and a generalization is made from repeated experiments. These generalizations are made based on inductive reasoning. Hence, a theory is formulated and is then used to explain and make future predictions of natural laws using deductive reasoning. Nevertheless, I must acknowledge that this method has its own weaknesses and flaws. For instance, can our senses be fully trusted? Different scientists have different ways of interpreting those senses. Some may even choose to accept which senses they believe the most. Hence, defeating the purpose of an independent truth.
In conclusion, both these types of scientific methods can be used to explain natural laws, depending on the purpose and conditions that go with it.
Examiner’s Comments
This response misconstrues Popper and Plato, setting the tone for a logically structured but rather confused argument. It brings in relevant but misunderstood terminology, fails to explain the statement and does not explain what ‘other scientific methods’ must be available.
The conclusion is confused and unstructured, offering incorrect definitions of relevant terms and wandering off topic with a discussion about relying on the senses.
3: It is ridiculous to treat the living body as a mechanism.
Explain what you think is meant by the statement.
Give a reasoned argument against the statement.
To what extent do you agree with the statement?
This statement implies that the living body can not be treated as a mechanism but must be viewed as something different. One could argue, however, against this statement as the living body functions through different mechanisms i.e. pumping of the heart. With respect to medicine, it is necessary for the majority of cases to treat the living body as a mechanism. For example when diagnosing a patient’s illness, the doctor has to take into account the symptoms of the patient and various other factors. By diagnosing on the basis of symptoms, the doctor is treating the body as a predictable mechanism as the symptoms have been matched with the corresponding disease or illness.
On the other hand, however, just as we are saying that the body is predictable it can be just as unpredictable and the mechanism definition of the living body seems useless. It is apparent that the living body responds to countless stimuli. This means that the body can not be viewed as a mechanism, as a mechanism is predictable and the living body is not.
In order to resolve this apparent contradiction it is necessary to take all the arguments into consideration. By doing this we can see that in fact the conclusion of this argument lies very much between the two extremes.
The living body is an extremely complex collection of mechanisms which interact and work with each other on an incomprehensibly complex level. Furthermore these mechanisms are influenced by countless factors that present themselves in everyday life. The result of these mechanisms working together is a living body. It is necessary to underline that as yet, science has not discovered and understood all of the mechanisms by which the living body functions, therefore, I believe we can not treat the body as a mechanism until this is the case.
Examiner’s Comments
This response does not follow the same order as the question, but does address all aspects of the question. It explains that as the living body responds to countless stimuli, it is unpredictable and so cannot be treated as a mechanism.
The opening paragraph presents a good counterargument, that the body is composed of different mechanisms and that it is often necessary to treat the body as a predictable mechanism to be able to make a diagnosis. But the argument loses force by making unsupported assertions, e.g. that the living body is not predictable. The third paragraph does not add to the argument.
The conclusion touches on the idea that complexity and unpredictability are due to so many components interacting, but overall it is weak as it only states that, as not all of the components of the body are currently understood, we cannot treat the whole body as a predictable mechanism.
Remember, there’s no right or wrong answer to the question. Examiners will mark your essay completely objectively, so it will be judged solely on your writing ability.
Strong essay writing skills aren’t just useful for the TARA – you’ll be using them throughout your university studies. While the TSA essay may be one of the most constrained pieces you’ve ever written, tackling such a focused and thought-provoking question is a great introduction to university-level thinking. Start building these skills now, and you’ll set yourself up for success in the years ahead.
Are you prepared for the TARA? Exams.Ninja will get you prepared in no time!
When you sign up for the TARA Preparation Platform, you’re signing up for everything that you will need to get prepared for the TARA! Our amazing features include:
Training Temple- Our collection of TARA tutorials will ensure that you know every aspect of the exam before you get to the testing centre!
Practice Dojo- With over 500 TARA questions from each section of the exam, you’ll have enough practice resources to become a TARA master. Don’t forget to check our detailed worked solutions for each question.
Exam Arena- Test everything you’ve learnt with our realistic exam simulator. There are plenty of papers to choose from and you’ll get an accurate TARA score when you’re done!
Create your free account now to begin your journey to TARA success!
