This book, written by an Oxford tutor and writer, covers all aspects of the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA), including problem-solving, critical thinking, and the writing task. It should also prove useful for other aptitude tests such as the BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT).
The TSA is an admission test for an increasing number of courses at an increasing number of universities, including and originally Oxford and Cambridge. The emphasis of the TSA is very much on thinking skills, and the amount of knowledge required is minimal. This means that the best way to prepare is to develop your thinking skills by working through a large number of TSA-style questions, and the bulk of this book consists of three full-length mock papers, each followed by detailed explanations of the answers.
You should look upon the TSA not only as a means to stand out from your competition, but also, and indeed mostly, as an opportunity to hone your thinking skills, which are going to be far more important to your future impact and wellbeing than any facts that you could ever learn. As BF Skinner once put it, 'Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten.'
