After the TMUA: Preparing for Your Oxford Computer Science and Philosophy Interview

The TMUA for 2027 entry is sat on 12–16 October 2026, and Oxford makes its shortlisting decisions in November 2026. Computer Science and Philosophy interviews then run on Monday 14, Tuesday 15, Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 December 2026, online, with some colleges starting the week of Monday 7 December. In the 2025–26 cycle, the last run on the MAT, the course drew 118 applications, 46 shortlisted candidates and 15 offers.

What happens to your TMUA score after 16 October 2026?

Three things, and none of them is reversible. UAT-UK, which runs the test, states plainly that it does not accept appeals of test scores: “The scoring process is rigorously tested, and quality assured at every stage before, during and after each testing window. For this reason, we do not accept appeals of test scores.” There is also no second attempt. UAT-UK runs two sittings a year, in October 2026 and January 2027, but an Oxford applicant must take the October one, and its own deadlines page adds that “you can only sit once within an admissions cycle”.

The score also reaches Oxford without you. UAT-UK: “Your results will be sent to any participating institutions included in your UCAS application. This happens automatically shortly after your test date.” It adds that candidates cannot choose which institutions see the score. So by the time the December interview begins, the tutors have it in front of them, alongside your UCAS form.

What they do not have is a pass mark. Oxford’s Mathematical Institute, which runs the TMUA for every Oxford course that needs it, says: “There is no ‘pass’ mark for the TMUA; we will use the information about the test, together with all the details of your UCAS application and information about school background to decide who to shortlist.” The reported score is a single overall figure on a scale running from 1 at the low end to 9 at the high end, recorded to one decimal place. UAT-UK also tells candidates, in terms, not to read their own reaction as a verdict: “Candidates should not expect to score as highly on these tests as they have in their school exams.”

One practical warning about timing. UAT-UK publishes two different answers to the question of when results arrive: its results page says they are released “approximately four weeks after the test sitting”, while its TMUA page says “approximately six weeks after your test sitting”. Rather than pick one, plan against Oxford’s own published dates, which do not move: shortlisting decisions in November 2026, and a letter or email either way that Oxford says arrives “usually between the middle of November and early December”.

Why is Computer Science and Philosophy two interviews, not one?

Because Oxford assesses the two halves against two separate lists, and publishes both. On its own course page it says: “In Computer Science: we look for proven mathematical talent, the ability to think and work independently, the capacity to absorb and use new ideas, and enthusiasm. In Philosophy: we look for a critical and analytical approach to abstract questions, the ability to think logically and express thoughts clearly”, and a wish to look harder at how we think. It then adds the sentence most candidates need to read twice: “We do not expect applicants to have formally studied either subject.”

That second criterion is not a softer version of the first. Mathematical talent is assessed by watching you make progress on a problem; a critical and analytical approach to abstract questions is assessed by watching you hold a position and improve it under objection. A candidate can do one well and the other badly in the same afternoon, and the two interviews are structured so that Oxford finds out.

The Department of Computer Science describes the arrangement this way: “If you are applying for a joint degree, you might have single-subject interviews for each part of the degree, or there may be an interview with tutors from both disciplines.” Hertford College, which publishes its own arrangements for this course, is more specific: “Each CS and CS&P candidate at Hertford will have one online interview in Computer Science lasting around 40 minutes, with CS&P candidates having one additional interview in Philosophy of approximately the same duration.” Hertford adds that every candidate is also interviewed by at least one other college, and that admissions are coordinated centrally by the department, which takes “your collective performance at the interviews” into account rather than any single one. That is one college’s published practice, not a universal rule, but it is the most detailed account any Oxford college publishes for this course.

One point of orientation that trips up candidates comparing courses: Oxford does not offer Philosophy on its own. The Faculty of Philosophy states that “it is not possible to study philosophy at undergraduate level as a single degree subject; all courses containing philosophy are joint courses.” Computer Science and Philosophy is one of those joint courses, which is why the Philosophy half carries its own interview and its own criteria rather than being folded into the Computer Science one.

What is the Philosophy reading exercise, and is it marked?

It is not marked, and Hertford College says so directly. Before the Philosophy interview, candidates are given “a reading exercise consisting of four or five short questions”, which Hertford describes as concerning “puzzles (e.g. apparent paradoxes), arguments (e.g. asking you to assess whether the logic is correct), or imaginary scenarios to think about (e.g. raising some moral issue)”. It then says: “This pre-reading is not a ‘test’, and we won’t be giving a mark to your responses to the questions. Rather, its point is to introduce you to topics which we can then discuss in the interview, thus enabling us to cover much more in the limited time available.”

That changes what the exercise is for. If nobody scores your written answers, then polishing them is wasted effort; what earns you the interview you want is arriving with a position you can defend and a clear sense of which of the four or five questions you found hardest. Hertford says the interview “will focus mainly on the pre-reading topics”, so the questions you read are the questions you will be asked about.

Hertford also removes the most common misreading of a philosophy interview: “Whatever view you take, we will raise objections, so don’t take this as a sign that you have made a mistake! Be prepared to argue in defence of your position, but also willing to change position if you realise that it has become indefensible.” An objection is the interview working, not the interview going badly. The skill being watched is whether you can tell the difference between an objection that damages your position and one that does not, and say which it is.

The practical preparation for that is narrow and it is not reading. It is holding a position out loud while somebody attacks it, conceding the points that genuinely land, and refusing the ones that do not. Written model answers help by showing where an argument is expected to move once it is pushed; they cannot supply the pushing.

What could 40 multiple-choice answers not show?

The TMUA is two papers. Oxford’s Mathematical Institute sets out the format: “The test lasts 2½ hours in total. It is divided into two papers. Candidates have 75 minutes for each paper. Each paper contains 20 multiple-choice questions. No calculators are permitted for the test.” Paper 1 is Applications of Mathematical Knowledge and Paper 2 is Mathematical Reasoning, and the two are combined into a single overall score.

Nothing in that design records how you reached an answer. There is no working to mark, no partial credit and no record of the route you took; a lucky guess and a complete proof produce the same mark. The December interview is built around exactly the material the test threw away. The Department of Computer Science describes it as a short tutorial in which you work a problem aloud, and says: “Each interview lasts around 30 minutes, usually with two interviewers. Most of the interview time will be taken by tutors asking you to solve a Computer Science problem.”

And the working is what is scored. The department’s own published admissions summary describes the mechanism: “The applicant’s performance in each interview is judged according to the admissions criteria, codified on a numeric scale against agreed descriptors, and shared among all tutors involved in admissions, together with the applicants’ UCAS forms and their test results.” A second number is produced in December, from the part of you the October test could not see.

This is also why the preparation that got you through the test is the wrong preparation for the interview. Speed on bounded multiple-choice questions and the habit of answering only once you are sure are both useful in October and both actively harmful in December, where silence gives the tutor nothing to score.

When are the Oxford interviews for 2027 entry?

Oxford publishes a timetable for each course. The row for Computer Science and Philosophy is identical to the rows for Mathematics and for Mathematics and Computer Science, so a candidate holding an offer of interview for any of the three is working to the same diary.

The row worth setting an alarm for is the additional-interview notification. Oxford publishes it as a deadline it will meet, not a window: you will be told by 2pm on Wednesday 16 December whether another college wants to see you, and any such interview falls on the 16th or 17th. If you have travel, an exam or a job in that window, that is the hour at which you find out.

The interviews themselves are online. Every one of Oxford’s course pages for these degrees says: “Shortlisted candidates will be invited to at least one online interview. Interviews are expected to take place in December and should take place where you feel able to perform at your best.” That last clause is doing more work than it looks: the room is your choice and your responsibility.

So is the equipment, and it is the one piece of December preparation that can be finished in an afternoon. Hertford College sets out what is expected: “For Computer Science interviews, the University recommends that you have access to a Miro whiteboard and a touchscreen device and stylus to write out scientific/mathematical notation in addition to the device you use to access Microsoft Teams.” If that is not available to you, Hertford is explicit that it does not matter: “If you cannot use Miro for whatever reason, that is perfectly fine, you can just use a dark pen and white paper to display your working up to the camera when needed.” Whichever you choose, choose it in November and practise on it, rather than meeting it for the first time with two tutors watching. Our Mathematics and Computer Science page covers the same set-up for that course.

How many people are in the room: Oxford’s published numbers

The Department of Computer Science publishes an admissions summary each January. The most recent, covering the 2025–26 cycle, gives raw counts for all three of its courses. That cycle was run on the Mathematics Admissions Test, not the TMUA — the department’s own note records that the MAT ran “from 2007 to 2025” and that for the 2026 admissions round it does not take place — so the test column of that report does not transfer. The interview arithmetic does.

Source: University of Oxford, Department of Computer Science, admissions feedback summary for the 2025–26 cycle, published January 2026. That cycle used the MAT; the TMUA replaced it for the 2026 admissions round.

Read the Computer Science and Philosophy row on its own. Of 118 applicants, 46 reached an interview and 15 received an offer — just under a third of those interviewed. The shortlist is deliberately kept near that ratio: the department states “usually we shortlist between 2 and 3 for each offer”, and the Mathematical Institute puts the same policy the other way round, “we shortlist around three applicants per place to interview”. An invitation is therefore not a formality and not a long shot. It is the point at which the odds stop being about the test.

Oxford’s course page gives a longer view, as a three-year average across 2023–25: “Interviewed: 32% Successful: 10% Intake: 14”, with 1% of applicants successful for a different course. The entry requirement is A*AA including A*A in Maths and Further Maths if available, the UCAS code is IV15, and the application deadline is 15 October 2026 for a course lasting 3 or 4 years.

Two further published facts explain why the college on your UCAS form may not be the college that interviews you, or the one that makes the offer. Colleges with an unusually high number of shortlisted applicants per place must move some of them: “In December 2025, 25 shortlisted applicants were reallocated via this procedure, and 10 of those applicants were subsequently offered places by the colleges to which they were reallocated.” And across the same cohort, “28.2% of offers made were either open offers or made by a college other than the first college considering the applicant”. Being moved is not a signal about your application, and it is not rare.

Across our own students, 95%+ receive an offer from a selective university. The work that produces that is not more content: it is rehearsal of the thing the interview measures. Our Oxford Mathematics page sets out the equivalent published figures for the single-honours course, and our Oxford Philosophy interview page works through philosophy questions in full.

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