Admissions Testing centre requirements & application form

Question papers and associated test materials must be stored under secure conditions at the centre’s registered address. Your arrangements for material storage must meet the following specifications:

• All question papers and test materials must remain unopened and be locked away in a highly secure place (ideally a safe).
• If a safe is not available or is of insufficient capacity, a non-portable, lockable, reinforced metal cabinet, or similar robust container must be used.
• The safe or container must be in a securely locked room, with access ideally restricted to only two or three key holders.

Please use the following table as a guide to help assess whether your secure storage meets our requirements:

Please ensure you have considered the following before the date of the test:

• Ensure suitable room temperature, ventilation and lighting.
• Make sure outside noise will not disturb candidates during the test. 
• Ensure each candidate has a desk or table big enough to hold question papers and/or answer sheets/booklets side by side (two A4 sheets; 42cm x 30cm).
• You must have rooms large enough to hold candidates with a minimum distance of 1.25m (from the centre of one candidate’s working area to the centre of the other candidates’ working areas in all directions).
• Candidates can share desks but they must still be at least 1.25m apart so that their work cannot be seen by other candidates and they cannot communicate or cheat in any way.
• Candidates must all face the same direction and must not sit with their backs to the invigilator.
• Space for the Invigilator to carry out their duties at the front of the test room.  An invigilator must stay inside the room throughout the test session - candidates must never be left unsupervised.
• You must designate an area where candidates can leave their belongings during the test (either inside or outside the test room). If storing belongings inside the test room, they must not be in the reach of candidates.
• If you have any candidates who have special access needs you must ensure that they can access the test room.
  You will need the following for the test:
• a clock
• a whiteboard/flipchart scissors to open question paper envelopes
• spare black pens and HB pencils

 

All tests are paper-based in 2023. 

Please ensure you adhere to the following when arranging invigilation staff for the test:

• There must be at least one suitably qualified and experienced invigilator for each group of up to 25 candidates.
• Invigilators must be given and have read the current version of the test-specific instructions booklet before the date of the test - a copy of these instructions will be sent to you prior to the test date and available online from the entry window opening. You must ensure that invigilators are familiar with the form, conduct and timing of the test.
• Invigilators must be adults experienced in the administration of the tests. They must not be current students at the centre and must not be related to any candidates taking the test.
• Invigilators can be a candidate’s teacher but must not have taught them the subject being tested, if the test is subject specific. For example, a candidate’s history teacher must not invigilate their HAT test, but their physics teacher can.
• The invigilators must be familiar with the detail of any access arrangements made for individual candidates and ensure that those candidates are appropriately accommodated. 

An invigilator must stay inside the room throughout the test session - candidates must never be left unsupervised. The role of the invigilator is to ensure that the tests are conducted in accordance with the test-specific instructions booklet, in order to:

• Ensure the security of the test materials before, during and after the test(s).
• Prevent possible candidate malpractice.
• Prevent possible administrative failures.
• Ensure all candidates have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.

Candidates are entered for all our admissions tests through our secure online Entries Extranet. You will only be provided with an Entries Extranet account once you have received written confirmation from Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing that your application has been successful. You must then register your candidates by making entries on the Entries Extranet.

You must register candidates within the registration window as late entries cannot be accepted. After submitting an entry you must provide the candidate with his/her entry number (this will be a letter followed by 5 digits e.g. B12345) as confirmation that the entry has been made.   

Please ensure you are familiar with the registration deadline for each test session.  

The date and start time for all tests are decided by location, and are published on the support site and in the test-specific instructions booklet prior to a test session.  If you are unable to run the test/assessment at the scheduled time, you must complete an online timetable variation request form. This includes scenarios where a candidate has a timetable clash and/or needs to take more than one admissions test/assessment. Candidates are not allowed to take tests on any dates other than the published admissions test dates. 

Most centres will be administering more than one test at the same time. Invigilators will need to be aware of specific start/finish times along with test sections.  For example, centres could have 5 candidates sitting the BMAT, 3 sitting TSA and 4 sitting TMUA - these tests all have their own sections that need to be handed out in the right order for the correct amount of time.

All test rooms should meet the following criteria:

• Suitable room temperature, ventilation, and lighting. Consideration needs to be given to the position of desks close to any large windows where sunlight could cause reflection issues.
• Outside noise will not disturb candidates during the test. No fire alarm drill is scheduled during any of the tests.
• A designated area where candidates can leave their belongings during the test (either inside or outside the test room). If storing belongings inside the test room, they must not be in the reach of candidates.
• If you have any candidates who have special access needs, you must ensure that they can access the test room.
• To assist invigilators, and to reduce disturbances, we strongly recommend that candidates are grouped by test.

Paper-based and computer-based test rooms must meet the following additional criteria:

Paper-based	Computer-based
Ensure each candidate has a desk or table big enough to hold question papers and/or answer sheets/booklets side by side (two A4 sheets; 42cm x 30cm).	Candidates must be seated in a way that they cannot see another candidate’s screen.
You must have rooms large enough to hold candidates with a minimum distance of 1.25m from the centre of one candidate’s working area to the centre of the other candidates’ working areas in all directions.	The minimum distance between the edge of one screen and the edge of the next must be 1.25m, unless the monitors are positioned back-to-back or separated by dividers.
Candidates can share desks, but they must still be at least 1.25m apart so that their work cannot be seen by other candidates and they cannot communicate or cheat in any way.	If you are using dividers, you must make sure that they are both high and long enough on all sides to prevent candidates from seeing each other’s screens. If you use privacy filters, please make sure that candidates cannot see each other’s screens or talk to one another. In all cases, you must be able to see all candidates at all times.
Candidates must all face the same direction and must not sit with their backs to the invigilator.	To assist invigilators, and to reduce disturbances, we strongly recommend that candidates are grouped by test.

Centres must despatch all scripts, completed attendance registers and room plans within 24 hours of the test day. Failure to return test materials promptly can lead to a delay in candidates’ results being released to institutions and thereby put a candidate’s place at university at risk. Admissions Testing currently provide an account to return materials, and centres need to use this account to book a collection using MyDHL+. This should be done the week leading up to the test.

If you are applying to become an open centre, please consider how you will handle contact from external candidates wanting to register for a test.

• Your centre must have the ability to handle contact from multiple candidates during the registration period. All entries MUST be made before the entry deadline closes.
• Your centre must be easily contactable e.g. the advertised email/phone number is frequently monitored by staff.
• External candidates should be sent clear information and instructions prior to the test date - e.g. directions to the centre, a reminder to bring a valid form of ID, what to expect on the test day etc.
• If your centre reaches maximum capacity then you must refer any additional candidates who you cannot accommodate back to the Find a Centre website or the Admissions Testing Helpdesk immediately.  

Authorised centres:

• register test-takers for our tests* within the booking window
• collect registration fees from test-takers (please see the Fees section below)
• run our tests at your venue on the scheduled dates and at the scheduled times under secure examination conditions
• provide experienced and trained invigilators to oversee the secure administration of the tests
• receive, store and return test materials in a timely and secure fashion.

* This information refers to all of our tests which are booked via centres. Currently, this covers:

June:

• Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP)

October/November: 

• The Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT) - October/November session only
• University of Cambridge pre-registration assessments
• University of Oxford admissions tests
• Test of Mathematics for University Admission.

All tests are paper-based. 

Open Centre: Your contact details will appear on our Find a centre page and test-takers will be able to contact you directly about registering to take a test at your centre. As a public facing exam centre, excellent customer service and the ability to handle large numbers of candidates at one time is crucial.

Internal Centre: Your contact details will not appear on our website and you will only administer tests for your own students.

For existing Cambridge centres, please be aware that this status only applies for Admissions Testing.

There are currently no fees for becoming a centre, but there are candidate registration fees for some of our tests. Currently the tests with registration fees are STEP in June, BMAT and the Test of Mathematics for University Admission. As a centre, it is your responsibility to collect these fees from the test-takers. We will then invoice you at the end of the booking window. Please see the test-specific sections of our website for the latest fees.

We do not pay centres to run these tests. You may charge test-takers a reasonable administration fee to operate. Accessibility to our tests is important.

After submitting the form, you will receive an email confirming receipt of your application. We will then contact you as soon as possible to inform you of the outcome of your application. We may need to conduct a remote inspection of your premises. If this is the case, we will inform you by email. Please note, the length of time it takes for your application to be processed depends on a range of factors and we cannot specify how long the approval process may take.

The deadline to apply to run the October admissions tests was 15 September 2023 at 12 noon (BST). 
Please refer any candidates to our Find a Centre webpage where they will be able to locate a centre authorised to run tests for private candidates.