TL;DR: Two NMAT review centers publish their prices and most do not. MSA listed PHP 25,000 to 45,000, depending on classroom or one-to-one tutorial format; BRAINS listed PHP 15,000 for its 124-hour Premier Edition and PHP 13,000 for its 96-hour Short Course, both as published in August 2026. The exam itself costs PHP 1,900, has 240 items over 3 hours 45 minutes, and has no limit on attempts.
The Test You Are Paying to Prepare For
Before comparing centers, know the thing itself. The NMAT is administered by the Center for Educational Measurement and is required for admission to every Philippine Doctor of Medicine programme.
| Part | Subtests | Items | Time limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verbal, Inductive Reasoning, Quantitative, Perceptual Acuity | 120 | 2 hrs 15 min |
| 2 | Biology, Physics, Social Science, Chemistry | 120 | 1 hr 30 min |
| Total | Eight subtests of 30 items each | 240 | 3 hrs 45 min |
CEM publishes a combined registration and test fee of PHP 1,900.00 for candidates testing in the Philippines and USD 60.00 for those testing abroad. There is no limit on how many times you may take it. Scores are reported as percentile ranks, not as a pass or fail.
If you see a description of roughly 200 items per part or a five-and-a-half-hour sitting, that is the retired paper-based test. Our NMAT guide covers registration and scoring in full, and NMAT scores explained walks through the report form.
The Percentile Targets That Are Actually Published
This is where most NMAT review guides do the most damage, this page included until now. It carried a table of "minimum" and "competitive" percentiles for eight medical schools. Not one of those figures came from a school document. The table has been deleted.
Here is what schools state on their own admission pages, and the floor beneath them.
| School | Stated requirement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| UP Manila College of Medicine | 90th percentile and above, described as an absolute requirement | UPCM admissions FAQ |
| Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health | 90th percentile or better, stated as preferred; NMAT taken within the last two years | ASMPH admissions page |
| UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery | At least the 85th percentile, with a scholastic average of at least 2.00 and no failures | UST medicine admission site |
| UERM | Minimum percentile score of 70, taken within two years prior to admission | UERM apply-to-medicine page |
| All schools | 40th percentile floor, or the school's own, whichever is higher | CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, s. 2016 |
CHED's Technical Panel for Medical Education held a public consultation on 30 July 2026 on amending that cut-off provision. The 40th-percentile floor remains in force as of this update. Do not plan around a number that has not been issued.
Why this matters for choosing a review center. If you are targeting UPCM or ASMPH, you are trying to reach the top decile, and the marginal value of expert coaching on the aptitude subtests is high. If you are targeting a school whose stated floor is the 70th, a cheaper structured programme plus disciplined self-study may get you there. Buy against your target, not against a brochure.
What Review Centers Actually Publish
We previously gave a price range for seven centers. Only two of those figures could be traced to the center's own published rates, and one of them was wrong. All of them have been replaced with what the centers themselves publish.
| Center | Programme as published | Price as published |
|---|---|---|
| MSA Academic Advancement Institute | Saturday classroom batch, about 10 weeks, or a one-to-one tutorial format | PHP 25,000 to 45,000 depending on format |
| BRAINS | Premier Edition, 124 hours, face-to-face, live online or self-paced LMS | PHP 15,000 |
| BRAINS | Short Course, 96 hours, face-to-face or live online | PHP 13,000 |
| AHEAD Tutorial and Review Center | Classroom, online and one-to-one tutorial | Not published; quoted per branch |
| Diliman ACCESS | 18 sessions covering all eight NMAT subtests | Not published |
| Legend Review Center | Baguio-based review programmes | Not published |
| Ray Gapuz Review System | Graduate school and NMAT programmes | Not published |
Prices were as published in August 2026. BRAINS was also advertising a time-limited discount on its Short Course when we checked, which is exactly why a price copied from a guide is worthless: get the current figure from the center.
Note the size of the gap. MSA's tutorial format costs roughly three times the BRAINS Short Course. That is a real difference in what you are buying — a one-to-one programme against a large-format course — and it is a decision you can only make if you can see both numbers.
Nobody Accredits Review Centers
In 2006 Executive Order 566 put review centers under CHED supervision. In Review Center Association of the Philippines v. Ermita, decided en banc on 2 April 2009, the Supreme Court declared EO 566 and CHED Memorandum Order No. 30, s. 2007 unconstitutional, holding that regulation of review centers could not be moved to CHED without legislation.
So there is no permit list, no minimum standard, and — crucially for the NMAT — no official publication of review center performance. CEM publishes percentile ranks to individual candidates. It does not publish a table of how each review center's students did. Any center claiming a measurable NMAT track record is making a claim nobody can check.
The Centers Worth Knowing
MSA Academic Advancement Institute in Loyola Heights, Quezon City was founded in 1988 and runs its NMAT programme in two formats, a Saturday classroom batch and a one-to-one tutorial approach, plus a separate online practice test product. It is the only major NMAT reviewer that prints a price. Branches include Makati, Alabang, Greenhills, Taguig and Antipolo.
BRAINS runs its NMAT review at Ang Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman, in face-to-face, live online and self-paced formats, and publishes both hours and prices for each edition. If you want to compare cost per contact hour rather than cost per brochure, BRAINS is the only center that gives you the arithmetic.
AHEAD has the widest branch network of any NMAT reviewer in our directory, including Quezon City, Magallanes, Global City, Greenhills, Alabang, Lipa and Baguio. It also offers one-to-one tutorial as an alternative to classroom review. Prices are quoted per branch.
Diliman ACCESS has run NMAT review since 2005 in Katipunan, Pioneer, España and Lipa, and describes an 18-session programme covering all eight subtests. It publishes the structure but not the price.
Legend Review Center in Baguio and TLA, The Learning Atrium in Davao City are the regional options in our directory for candidates outside Metro Manila.
Ray Gapuz Review System in Manila runs graduate-school and NMAT programmes alongside its better-known nursing reviews.
Several other names circulate in NMAT listicles, including on this page in earlier versions. We could not verify that all of them run a current NMAT programme, so we no longer name them. If a center is recommended to you, ask it directly for its NMAT syllabus, contact hours and price, and judge it on the answer.
How to Choose
Work out your target first. The 90th percentile and the 70th are different projects. Buy the programme that closes your specific gap.
Compare cost per contact hour, not headline price. BRAINS publishes 124 hours for PHP 15,000. If another center will not tell you its hours, you cannot compare it at all — and that is itself information.
Prioritise Inductive Reasoning and Perceptual Acuity coaching. These are timed pattern tests that almost no pre-med curriculum drills, and they are the hardest part of the NMAT to fix alone. If a center's programme is mostly science lectures, it is duplicating what your degree already gave you.
Count the full-length timed mock exams. A 240-item test with per-section timers punishes people who have never sat one end to end.
Take the free things first. CEM publishes the Bulletin of Information and sample material. Read those before paying anyone, so you know your baseline.
Remember there is no attempt limit. Planning for two cycles is a legitimate strategy, and it changes how much you should spend on the first.
Sources
- NMAT Bulletin of Information, Center for Educational Measurement
- NMAT Online Registration System, Center for Educational Measurement
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, s. 2016 — Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Doctor of Medicine Program (PDF)
- MSA Academic Advancement Institute — official site
- BRAINS — NMAT Review programmes, hours and prices (the center's own page)
- Diliman ACCESS — NMAT review programme and locations (the center's own page)
- Review Center Association of the Philippines v. Executive Secretary Ermita, G.R. No. 180046, En Banc, 2 April 2009 (full text)
- Guarding the gates of academic freedom, The Manila Times, 3 August 2026 (on the 30 July 2026 CHED consultation)
- SchoolFinderPH — NMAT 2026 Guide
- SchoolFinderPH — NMAT Scores Explained
- SchoolFinderPH — Review centers directory
Disclaimer: review center prices, programme hours and schedules are set by each center and were as published in August 2026. Medical school percentile requirements are quoted from each school's own admission page and change between admission cycles. Confirm every figure at the source before you pay or apply.
Ready to find the right school? Browse schools or compare programmes, tuition and reviews across hundreds of Philippine schools on SchoolFinderPH.
