Three different organisations touch your NMAT result, and they do not do the same job. Confusing them is why so much bad advice circulates about the exam.
- CEM builds the test, runs it, scores it and reports the result.
- CHED sets the policy about what the result must be for you to count as a bona fide applicant.
- The medical school decides whether to admit you.
CEM cannot raise or lower your cut-off. CHED does not read your application. The school cannot rescore your test. Knowing which door to knock on saves a lot of wasted effort.
What CEM actually is
CEM is the Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., a non-stock, non-profit, non-government educational testing organisation. It was established on 1 September 1978, launched at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and grew out of the centralised testing programme run by the Guidance and Testing Division of the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE), in response to demand among private schools in the early 1970s for reliable tests for student selection and institutional planning.
Its stated corporate purpose is to provide and develop personnel testing, psychological, guidance and measurement services for educational institutions, businesses, government offices and others needing them. CEM describes its mission as advancing the value of assessment towards quality education for all, and its vision as becoming, by 2028, a transformative leader in educational assessment.
CEM became an affiliate member of the International Association for Educational Assessment in 1979 and hosted the association's 37th annual conference in 2011. Dr. Grace H. Aguiling-Dalisay has served as its president and chief executive since 1 August 2021, the organisation's fifth president.
CEM pioneered locally made educational tests designed to measure the academic proficiency of Filipino students, and it says it now offers more than sixty tests spanning achievement, aptitude and career choice. The NMAT is the one most Filipinos have heard of, but it is a single line in a much longer catalogue that includes law school admission testing and K to 12 achievement tests.
How CEM ended up running the NMAT
The NMAT did not start as a CEM product. It started as a government requirement.
Under the Medical Act of 1959, the Board of Medical Education, acting through DECS Order No. 52 series of 1985 and in consultation with the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges Foundation, Inc. (APMC), required the NMAT as a prerequisite for admission to all Philippine medical schools beginning school year 1986 to 1987.
CEM was commissioned to build it. As CEM puts it, it was authorised to manage the affairs and activities related to the operation of the NMAT from the first administration of the test in December 1985, and was commissioned to develop the test, ensure the reliability and validity of results, and uphold the confidentiality of results and the integrity of its administration.
That word, commissioned, is the whole relationship. CEM is a contracted testing agency executing a government-mandated exam. It is not the regulator.
What CEM controls
Test design. The eight subtests, the item types, the number of items, the time allotments and the two-part structure are CEM's. So is the decision to move the exam to an online computer-based format, which it did in August 2020.
Scoring and comparability. This is the technical work most people never think about. CEM notes that each NMAT form measures the same skills and concepts using different questions, so a form can be slightly easier or harder than another. CEM converts raw scores to a scale that accounts for the difficulty of a given form, which is what makes reported scores comparable across forms. Standard scores run from 200 to 800, benchmarked to a norm group with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100, and the General Performance Score carries a percentile rank running from 1 to 99 and above with a midpoint of 50.
Score reporting and distribution. CEM releases an electronic copy of results twenty CEM business days after the last date of a test administration, and mails the printed Examinee Report Form after six weeks. It also compiles the Masterlist of Test Results, which goes to all Philippine medical schools, CHED, the Higher Education Regional Offices and the APMC office. Those offices are instructed to refer only to the masterlist for official scores, which is how a forged report form gets caught.
Test security and discipline. CEM sets and enforces the rules on prohibited materials and prohibited activities, and it decides whether a violation invalidates a result. Its published position is that violators are disqualified from continuing, that it reserves the right to ban a violator from future testing and to withhold or cancel scores, that cancelled scores are not reported, that fees are not refunded, and that once a final decision on a rule violation is issued, further appeals or requests for investigation are not accepted.
Registration, fees and logistics. Eligibility documentation, photo specifications, payment channels, refund windows, rescheduling and slot allocation are all CEM's, and they are set out in its Bulletin of Information. The mechanics are covered in our NMAT registration guide.
What CEM does not control
The cut-off. This is CHED's. Under CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, series of 2016, a candidate's NMAT score must meet or exceed the minimum percentile required by either the medical school or the Commission, whichever is higher, with the Commission's prescription being the 40th percentile rank. The same order requires the test to have been taken not more than two years before admission. CEM's own description of the process is that the percentile rank is evaluated by the medical school against the cut-off prescribed by CHED or by the school itself.
Admissions. CEM is explicit that its scores are a basis for evaluating an application, not a decision. Medical schools apply their own additional requirements, including interviews and academic records. Meeting the cut-off makes you a bona fide applicant. It does not make you a medical student.
Review centres. CEM states that it is not affiliated with and does not endorse enrolment in any professional review school or any Philippine medical school, and that it does not authorise the sale of reviewers or study materials containing alleged actual NMAT items. It asks that incidents involving anyone claiming otherwise, particularly people previously or currently connected to CEM, be reported to its NMAT Secretariat. It separately warns that review centres and other agencies are not authorised to collect NMAT testing fees.
If you are choosing a review programme, read that paragraph twice, then read our roundup of NMAT review centres. A centre can be genuinely good without being endorsed by anyone, but a centre claiming CEM affiliation or actual test items is telling you something about itself.
Rechecking. CEM states its scores are official and guaranteed free of discrepancies, and that it does not entertain rechecking of NMAT answer sheets. There is no appeal on the merits of a score, only on administrative matters through its appeal form.
Your data
The NMAT registration system collects a substantial amount of personal information: contact details, educational background, demographic information, your photograph, parents' information, factors affecting your course choice, account login information, credit card information, technical computer information and website usage information.
CEM and CHED jointly affirm your rights under Republic Act No. 10173, the Data Privacy Act of 2012. Registration data is stored in CEM's authorised information and communications system and accessed only by authorised CEM and CHED personnel. CEM states that NMAT data are the property of CHED and CEM and are kept indefinitely for historical, statistical and educational purposes.
One consent decision is worth reading carefully during registration. CEM asks whether you will allow your contact information and test results to be shared with medical schools that may invite you to enrol or offer scholarship grants. That option is only available during registration, and you can accept or decline it. It is a real choice, not a formality.
On the other side, CEM will not disclose an individual's scores over the phone or by email, which is why a school verifies against the masterlist rather than calling.
The bigger question about test mandates
There is an unresolved policy argument running underneath all of this, and it is worth understanding because it may change the rules you apply under.
The argument is about whether a government body can make a standardised test a mandatory pass-or-fail gate, or whether that intrudes on institutional academic freedom.
The Supreme Court has already ruled on the law school version. In December 2019 it declared the Legal Education Board's memorandum requiring the PhiLSAT for admission to law schools unconstitutional, on the grounds that it usurped each law school's right to determine its own admission criteria, and it affirmed that position in 2021. Notably, the Court did not find an admission aptitude test unconstitutional in itself. It held that the LEB has the power to administer an aptitude test in the same way the government can prescribe the NMAT, and that the problem was making it a mandatory gate rather than one factor among several.
The NMAT version of the argument is live now. CHED's Technical Panel for Medical Education held a public consultation on 30 July 2026 on amending the cut-off provision in CMO 18, s. 2016. Critics argue the fixed cut-off lacks empirical grounding and limits schools' ability to set their own criteria, and point to research finding year-to-year variability in percentile ranks.
Nothing has been decided, and we are not going to guess. What it means for you is straightforward: the cut-off in force is the one CHED publishes for your application cycle. Check CHED and CEM directly rather than relying on a number in an older guide, including ours.
Where to go with which question
| Question | Ask |
|---|---|
| Registration, payment, photo, rescheduling, refunds | CEM NMAT Secretariat |
| Test day technical problems | The NMAT Help Desk numbers in your Candidate Online Assessment Guide |
| Missing or undelivered Examinee Report Form | CEM, using the Contact Us form |
| What percentile my target school requires | The medical school's admissions office |
| Whether my score qualifies me at all | CHED's prescribed minimum, cross-checked with your school |
| Whether I am admitted | The medical school |
For the exam itself, start with what NMAT stands for and who needs it. For where the online test is taken, see our guide to NMAT testing centres. And if you are still shortlisting, our roundup of the best medical schools in the Philippines is the next step.
Sources
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., About CEM: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/about
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., home: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., NMAT Bulletin of Information (July 2025): https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/downloads/NMAT_BOI_OCBT_0725-R.pdf
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., NMAT Frequently Asked Questions (February 2025): https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/downloads/NMAT_FAQs_02122025.pdf
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., Admission to Philippine Medical Schools: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/admission-philippine-medical-schools
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, s. 2016 (Doctor of Medicine programme), hosted by CEM: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/upload/CHED_MO_No__18_Doctor_of_Medicine_Program.pdf
- The Manila Times, "Guarding the gates of academic freedom: Why the NMAT cut-off score imperils PH medical education" (3 August 2026): https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/08/03/opinion/columns/guarding-the-gates-of-academic-freedom-why-the-nmat-cut-off-score-imperils-ph-medical-education/2396583
- Philstar.com, "Citing academic freedom, Supreme Court declares PhiLSAT unconstitutional": https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/12/03/1973949/citing-academic-freedom-supreme-court-declares-philsat-unconstitutional
- Rappler, "SC strikes off PhilSAT as required nat'l law school entrance test": https://www.rappler.com/nation/supreme-court-strikes-off-national-law-school-entrance-test-philsat
- Philippine News Agency, "SC affirms PhiLSAT eligibility requirement unconstitutional": https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1159608
