NMAT 2026: Complete Guide for Aspiring Medical Students

TL;DR: The NMAT is administered by the Center for Educational Measurement (CEM) and is required for admission to every Philippine medical school. It is a 240-item test in two parts — Mental Ability and Academic Proficiency — with 3 hours 45 minutes of timed testing. Scores are reported as percentile ranks. CHED sets a floor at the 40th percentile; competitive schools set their own, much higher bar. There is no limit on how many times you may take it.

Introduction

The National Medical Admission Test is the standardized entrance exam for every medical school in the Philippines. Unlike the NLE or CPALE, the NMAT is not a licensure exam — it is an admissions test that determines whether you qualify to begin your Doctor of Medicine studies.

The NMAT has been required for admission to all Philippine medical schools since school year 1986-1987, under DECS Order No. 52 series of 1985 and in consultation with the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges Foundation (APMC). The Center for Educational Measurement, Inc. (CEM) has managed the test since its first administration in December 1985. It now runs entirely as an online computer-based test (OCBT), taken remotely, a format CEM introduced in August 2020.

This guide covers who must take the NMAT, how the test is built, how your score is reported and used by schools, what registration involves, and how to prepare. Every figure below comes from CEM's own Bulletin of Information and FAQs, or from a school's own admissions page. Where a source contradicts itself or where a school does not publish a number, we say so rather than filling the gap with a guess.

Who is required to take the NMAT?

Everyone who intends to enrol in a medical degree programme in the Philippines. CEM lists five eligible groups:

1. College graduates of any degree programme.
2. Graduating college students at the end of the current school year.
3. Second-year students in the UP College of Medicine's Integrated Liberal Arts and Medicine (INTARMED) programme, or in the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery's Bachelor of Science in Basic Human Studies (LEAPMed).
4. Those who previously took the NMAT but did not reach the minimum cut-off score.
5. Those with a valid NMAT score who want to improve it.

CEM notes the test is best suited to applicants who already hold a baccalaureate degree or are graduating, since they have covered the academic subjects the exam assumes. Foreign applicants should read CHED's consolidated implementing guidelines under Executive Order 285 series of 2000, alongside CHED Memorandum Order No. 18 series of 2016.

If you are still choosing an undergraduate path, strand for medicine and medical schools in the Philippines cover the decisions that come before the NMAT.

When is the NMAT scheduled?

CEM does not publish a fixed annual calendar you can plan a year around. What it publishes is a pattern. In the Bulletin of Information, CEM states that test administrations are usually scheduled in October to November, January to February, and April to May. All administrations follow Philippine Standard Time, wherever in the world you are sitting.

Specific dates for each cycle, and the registration window that precedes them, are announced on the NMAT site at cem-inc.org.ph/nmat. Slots are capped — CEM allots 300 to 500 slots per test session — and a date disappears from the registration dropdown once it is fully booked, reappearing only if a reserved slot is released.

Two scheduling rules catch people out. You may register for a single test day only per testing cycle. And you cannot transfer a registration to a different test date or cycle: if you miss your scheduled date for any reason, your registration and testing fees are forfeited entirely. Refund requests are accepted only within five working days of registering.

CEM also notes there are typically two to four months between registration and the test itself, which is the realistic window you have to prepare once you commit. NMAT preparation timeline breaks that down week by week.

Registration requirements and fees

To register for the NMAT you need:

1. A valid, working personal email account. CEM warns against school or office addresses that may be disabled later, since all notices and your test link go there.
2. A verified NMAT account. Multiple accounts are not allowed and duplicates can block your registration.
3. A recent 2x2 digital photo — colour, white background, square aspect ratio, minimum 600x600 pixels, JPG, under 2 MB, taken within the last year, no selfies, and matching how you will look on test day.
4. A valid ID. CEM enforces a No Valid ID, No Exam policy. An ID that expired within the last six months is still accepted.
5. A Philippine mailing address, since printed results are only mailed within the Philippines.
6. Proof of eligibility — a scanned transcript of records, certificate to graduate, or another document listed in the Bulletin of Information, issued or authenticated by your school registrar.

Fees. 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, credit card only. Payments run through Dragonpay, which adds its own service charge on top. Other fees CEM publishes: PHP 50.00 per duplicate Examinee Report Form, PHP 80.00 shipping per package, and PHP 200.00 each for a refund check request, a name correction, or a biographical or photo change outside the registration period.

Registration is online only — CEM does not accept in-person applications. The full step-by-step process is in NMAT registration guide.

The 8 NMAT subtests

The NMAT is a two-part test with four subtests in each part. Part 1 measures aptitudes CEM found to correlate with the academic performance of medical students. Part 2 measures subject proficiency in the areas expected of applicants to a medical course.

Each of the eight subtests carries 30 items, for 240 items total.

A note on Part 2 timing: CEM's own table lists a recommended 30 minutes per subtest, which adds to 120 minutes, but states the Part 2 time limit as 1 hour 30 minutes. The stated limit is what the platform enforces, so plan around 90 minutes for all four Part 2 subtests and treat the per-subtest figures as rough guides. Total timed testing is therefore 3 hours 45 minutes. The timer starts on the first item and excludes the system check and identity verification beforehand, and it restarts for each section.

If you see figures of roughly 200 items per part or a five-and-a-half-hour exam, those describe the retired paper-based NMAT, not the current online test. NMAT coverage and subjects goes deeper on what each subtest actually asks.

How NMAT scoring works

Different NMAT forms use different questions, so raw scores are converted to a scale that accounts for how hard a given form was. That is what makes scores comparable across administrations.

The NMAT yields three levels of result:

• Part 1 subtest scores plus a composite called APT (aptitude).
• Part 2 subtest scores plus a composite called SA (subject achievement).
• A full composite across all eight subtests, the General Performance Score (GPS).

Each subtest score is expressed as a standard score (SS) on a 200 to 800 range, benchmarked against a norm group with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100. The GPS is then reported with a percentile rank (PR) running from 1- to 99+, with a midpoint of 50. Your PR is the percentage of NMAT examinees who scored the same as or lower than you.

For admissions, the percentile rank is what matters. CEM does not recheck answer sheets, and scores as reported are final. NMAT scores explained walks through reading an Examinee Report Form line by line.

How medical schools actually use your score

This is the part most guides get wrong, so it is worth being precise about the mechanism.

CHED sets a floor, not a passing score. Under CHED Memorandum Order No. 18 series of 2016, the NMAT must have been taken not more than two years before admission, with a percentile score equal to or higher than the one prescribed by the school or by the Commission — the 40th percentile rank — whichever is higher. So the 40th PR is the national minimum below which no Philippine medical school may admit you. It is not a target.

Each school sets its own bar above that floor. A school's published minimum is its own policy, it applies only to that school, and it can move between intakes. Many schools also publish the specific NMAT administration dates they will accept for a given school year, which is a stricter constraint than the two-year validity rule.

Your score is verified centrally. CEM sends a Masterlist of Test Results to every Philippine medical school, to CHED, to the Higher Education Regional Offices and to the APMC. Schools check the Examinee Report Form you submit against that masterlist, which is the only official source of your score. If you would rather your score not appear on the masterlist at all, CEM has a waiver form that stays open until roughly the day after the last exam date of a cycle.

A cut-off is a filter, not an admission. Clearing a school's NMAT bar makes you a bona fide applicant. Selection then runs on your academic record, interview, essays, recommendations and the school's own ranking formula. Ateneo, for example, ranks applicants on a composite admissions score built from GWA or QPI, NMAT, interview, essay and other credentials.

One thing that has not changed. CHED's Technical Panel for Medical Education held a public consultation on 30 July 2026 on amending the NMAT cut-off provision in CMO 18 series of 2016. As of this update the 40th-percentile floor remains in force. Treat any claim that it has been lifted or raised as unverified until CHED issues an amending order.

Published NMAT cut-offs at selected schools

The table below only includes schools whose NMAT requirement we could read on the school's own admissions page. Figures a school does not publish are not listed here, because there is no honest way to state them.

Two cautions. First, these are the requirements published at the time of writing; schools revise them between intakes, and several also restrict which NMAT administration dates they will accept for a given school year. Always confirm with the school before you plan around a number. Second, meeting the bar does not secure a seat — it only puts your application in the pile.

For a wider comparison of programmes and costs, see best medical schools in the Philippines and medical school tuition in the Philippines.

Retaking the NMAT

There is no cap. CEM's FAQs state directly that there is no limit to the number of times an applicant may take the NMAT, and applicants who want to retake it to improve a score may do so. Two conditions apply: you must comply with the single-registration-per-cycle rule, and you must register within the period the NMAT Secretariat announces for that cycle.

CEM's own advice is to take the test in the earliest cycle you are ready for, precisely so you can see whether your score clears your target schools and still have a later cycle available if it does not. Note that each retake is a fresh registration and a fresh fee, and each score appears on the masterlist for its own cycle.

NMAT retake guide covers how to decide whether a retake is worth it in your situation.

Study strategies for the NMAT

Understand the two-part structure

Part 1 measures aptitude and, in CEM's own words, "requires more of innate abilities." Part 2 rewards recall plus application and analysis, and CEM explicitly says this is where you will need references and note-taking. Weight your preparation towards Part 2, especially if you took your pre-med sciences several years ago.

Use CEM's own practice set as your benchmark

Once your registration is paid, you get access to a practice set and a demo test through your NMAT account. The practice set reflects NMAT content; the demo test is untimed, unscored and exists purely so you can navigate the platform. CEM offers a concrete benchmark here: get 75% of practice set items correct and you are in reasonable shape. Below that, your base knowledge needs work before you refine technique. Note that the actual NMAT has fewer items than the practice set, and none of the practice questions appear on the real test.

Simulate the real timing

CEM advises taking the practice set under the actual limits — 2 hours 15 minutes for Part 1, 1 hour 30 minutes for Part 2. The timer restarts per section, so learn the pace of a 30-item section rather than an overall pace.

Strengthen your weakest science subject

All eight subtests carry 30 items, so each weighs the same in your composite. Most pre-med students are strong in Biology and weaker in Physics or Chemistry. Because the weighting is flat, a gain in your weakest subtest moves your GPS exactly as much as the same gain in your strongest.

Do not skip Social Science

It is 30 items — the same as Chemistry — drawn from sociology, anthropology and psychology. Candidates from pure science backgrounds routinely leave points there.

Practise Inductive Reasoning and Perceptual Acuity for speed

These reward pattern recognition under time pressure. Inductive Reasoning gets 35 minutes for 30 items and Quantitative gets 40; Perceptual Acuity gets 30. Drill these against a clock.

Be careful about review materials

CEM states it does not endorse any review school and does not authorise the sale of reviewers containing alleged actual NMAT items. Anything marketed as real leaked questions is not legitimate. A structured programme can still help with pacing and accountability — best NMAT review centers and is a review center worth it weigh that honestly.

What test day looks like

Because the NMAT runs remotely, the logistics sit with you. CEM requires:

• A laptop or desktop running Windows 7 or above, with a working webcam and microphone.
• A stable internet connection of at least 5 Mbps, an up-to-date browser, and the Mettl Secure Browser installed.
• A small whiteboard and marker, or other easily erasable material, for scratch work.
• Your original valid ID — no photocopies.
• A well-lit, quiet room where you can sit the test alone.

You verify your identity by webcam snapshot of your face and ID before starting. Phones and watches are prohibited; a countdown timer on screen shows both total and per-section time remaining. Bottled water may stay near you, but food belongs in the 10-minute break between Part 1 and Part 2, which is also the only window for a restroom trip without notifying your proctor. A disconnection of more than 20 minutes can expire your test link, so treat your connection as part of your preparation.

Choosing the right pre-med degree

While any bachelor's degree qualifies you to take the NMAT, certain pre-medical courses give you a stronger foundation for both the exam and medical school itself.

Popular pre-med courses

• BS Biology — the most common pre-med course, directly covering the Biology subtest.
• BS Nursing — clinical exposure plus anatomy, physiology and pharmacology.
• BS Pharmacy — strong chemistry and pharmacology grounding.
• BS Medical Technology / Medical Laboratory Science — laboratory and pathology knowledge that transfers directly. See BS Medical Technology guide.
• BS Biochemistry — excellent preparation for the Chemistry and Biology subtests.

Less common but viable

• BS Psychology — covers a meaningful share of the Social Science subtest.
• BS Physical Therapy — anatomy and physiology background transfers.
• Non-science degrees — you remain eligible, but you will need to self-study the Part 2 sciences far more intensively.

Pre-med coursework

Most medical schools require specific prerequisite subjects regardless of your degree, typically General Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and General Physics with laboratories, plus Mathematics, English and Social Sciences. If your programme did not include these, you can take them as additional units before applying. Requirements differ by school, so check each one directly.

Begin your journey to medicine

The NMAT is the first real hurdle on the path to becoming a Filipino doctor. It is a knowable test with a published structure, a published fee, an unlimited number of attempts and a floor set by regulation rather than rumour. Prepare against the official materials, verify every school requirement at the source, and give yourself more than one cycle if you need it.

Explore medical schools on SchoolFinderPH to compare programmes and admission requirements.

Find medical schools on SchoolFinderPH →

Sources

• NMAT Bulletin of Information (OCBT), Center for Educational Measurement
• NMAT Frequently Asked Questions, Center for Educational Measurement
• NMAT Online Registration System, Center for Educational Measurement
• CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, series of 2016, Doctor of Medicine Program
• Frequently Asked Questions, UP Manila College of Medicine
• Admissions, Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health
• Admission, UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
• Apply to Medicine, University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center
• Guarding the gates of academic freedom, The Manila Times, 3 August 2026