Short version: There is no cap on NMAT attempts. CEM's official FAQ says so directly. What constrains a retake is the one-registration-per-cycle rule, the full ₱1,900 fee each time, and the fact that every scored result goes onto the masterlist that CEM sends to all Philippine medical schools.
If you have read elsewhere that the NMAT is limited to three attempts, that is worth correcting first, because it changes how people plan.
There is no attempt limit
CEM's NMAT Frequently Asked Questions asks and answers this plainly:
"Is there a limit on the number of times an applicant can take the NMAT? There is no limit to the number of times an applicant may take the NMAT. Applicants who wish to retake the exam to improve their score may do so, provided they comply with the single registration rule per cycle and register within the specified period announced by the NMAT Secretariat."
CEM's Bulletin of Information reinforces this on the eligibility side. Two of the five listed eligibility categories are retakers: "those who have previously taken the NMAT but failed to reach the minimum cut-off score," and "those with valid NMAT eligibility who want to improve their scores."
So the question is not whether you can retake. It is whether you should, and what a second score does to your file.
What actually limits you
Four real constraints replace the imaginary three-attempt cap.
One registration per cycle. CEM permits registration for a single test day per testing cycle or announced period. Multiple registrations within a cycle are not allowed and duplicate payments are forfeited. Since administrations are usually scheduled in October-November, January-February and April-May, the practical minimum gap between attempts is one cycle.
The full fee, every time. ₱1,900.00 in total for candidates testing in the Philippines, made up of a ₱500.00 registration fee and a ₱1,400.00 test fee, or USD 60.00 for international slots. No retake discount exists. CEM also instructs retakers not to reuse a previous NMAT application number, and a previous payment cannot be carried over.
Slot availability. CEM allots 300 to 500 slots per test session, and a fully booked date simply disappears from the registration menu. A retake is not guaranteed a place in the next cycle if you register late.
The two-year validity window. CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, series of 2016, requires that the NMAT be taken not more than two years from the time of admission to medical school. A score that ages out cannot support an admission, regardless of how good it was.
What medical schools actually see
This is the part that decides most retake questions, and it is a mechanical fact rather than a matter of opinion.
CEM does not only mail you a result. It compiles a Masterlist of Test Results and sends it to all Philippine medical schools, to CHED, to the Higher Education Regional Offices, and to the office of the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges Foundation, Inc. CEM describes the masterlist as "the sole basis for medical schools to verify the accuracy of test scores reported in the Examinee Report Form which you present during the admission process."
Two things follow.
You cannot quietly send only your best result. The verification channel is institutional, not applicant-controlled. A school that wants to check whether you have sat the exam before has a route to do so.
How a school reads multiple scores is that school's policy, not CEM's. Some admissions committees look only at your highest percentile rank. Others look at the pattern. CEM does not publish a superscoring or best-score rule, because scoring practice sits with the schools. This is a question to put to the admissions office of each school you are applying to, in writing, before you sit a second time.
If you are still building a shortlist, how to become a doctor in the Philippines covers the surrounding requirements and where to start looking.
The waiver, and why its timing is brutal
CEM does provide a way to keep a result off the masterlist: the NMAT Waiver form.
The catch is the deadline. CEM says the form "is usually accessible until the day after the last exam date. Once form is closed, request to waive test results will no longer be accepted."
Results, meanwhile, are not released until twenty CEM business days after the last date of the administration for the electronic copy, and six weeks after for the printed Examinee Report Form.
Put those together: the waiver window closes weeks before you know your score. You would be waiving a result blind, on the basis of how the sitting felt rather than how it went. That is a genuinely difficult call, and it is only worth considering if something went clearly wrong on the day, such as a technical failure or an illness you can identify at the time.
For anything short of that, the realistic position is that the score will be reported, and your response is a better second score rather than a suppressed first one.
When a retake makes sense
You did not clear the floor or the school's cut-off. CHED requires medical schools to enforce an NMAT cut-off of at least the 40th percentile, and each school may set a higher one. If your percentile rank does not clear the number your target school uses, a retake is the only route to that school. How the cut-off works, and why we do not publish a table of school-by-school figures, is covered in NMAT scores and percentile ranks explained.
Your score is about to age out. The two-year window is measured against your admission date, not your application date. If you took the NMAT early and then took a gap, check the arithmetic before assuming your score still counts.
One part dragged the composite down. Your report gives you subtest standard scores plus the APT and SA composites, not just the overall percentile. If the SA composite, covering Biology, Physics, Social Science and Chemistry, is what pulled you down, that is fixable with content review. If the APT composite is what pulled you down, expect slower gains, since CEM describes Part 1 as measuring aptitude that "requires more of innate abilities."
Something concrete went wrong. A connection failure, an illness, or running out of time on Part 2, which gives 1 hour 30 minutes for 120 items and is the tightest section on the exam.
CEM frames the electronic result exactly this way. It says the e-copy "is intended solely to assist you in understanding your scores, helping you determine which Philippine medical schools to apply to and whether you should retake the test."
When a retake does not make sense
You already clear every cut-off you care about. A higher percentile does not admit you on its own. CEM describes the cut-off as what qualifies you as a "bona fide applicant," with the school's own evaluation and interview on top.
You have not changed anything about your preparation. Sitting the same exam the same way produces roughly the same result, minus another ₱1,900 and a cycle of time.
Your deadline does not allow for it. Working back from a school's application deadline through the six-week ERF lag is the first thing to check. The NMAT preparation timeline sets out how to do that arithmetic.
What to change before attempt two
A retake is only worth the fee if the preparation is different. Use your own score report as the plan.
| What the report shows | What to change |
|---|---|
| Weak SA composite, strong APT | Content review, worst science subtest first, at introductory college level |
| Weak APT composite, strong SA | Daily short drills on Verbal, Inductive Reasoning, Quantitative and Perceptual Acuity; expect a lower ceiling on gains |
| One badly weak subtest | Concentrate there. Every subtest carries 30 items, so a weak one costs as much as any other |
| Ran out of time in Part 2 | Timed sets at roughly 45 seconds per item, well before test day |
| Technical or setup failure | Compatibility check early, wired connection if possible, whiteboard and marker ready, valid ID checked |
How to review for the NMAT turns the eight subtests into a study plan and lists the published content areas so you are not reviewing above the tested level. If you self-studied the first time and it did not work, NMAT review centers covers the alternative.
One warning that applies especially to retakers, because it is when people get desperate: CEM does not authorise the sale of reviewers or study materials containing alleged actual NMAT items, and the Examinee Agreement you accept states that you may be disqualified from taking the NMAT for obtaining or purchasing them.
The rules that trip up retakers
No rescheduling, no transfer. Rescheduling to a different test date is not allowed, and moving your registration to a different testing period will not be processed. Your payment binds to one date.
Missing the date forfeits everything. Failure to take or complete the test on your scheduled date, under any circumstances, totally forfeits registration and test fees, and your name is excluded from that cycle's masterlist.
Refunds close in five working days. Requests are accepted only within five working days of your registration date, the registration fee is strictly non-refundable, and only ninety per cent of the testing fee is refundable inside that window. CEM also lists failing the exam as an automatically non-refundable condition.
No rechecking. CEM states scores are official, guaranteed free of discrepancies, and that it does not entertain rechecking of answer sheets. A retake is the only remedy for a score you disagree with.
Use your existing account. CEM tells previous takers to register with the account they already have. The system blocks duplicate accounts, and a block is a delay you do not need in a short registration window.
A note on how this compares elsewhere
The NMAT's open-ended attempt policy is unusual. The MCAT, by contrast, is capped by the AAMC at three attempts in a calendar year, four across two consecutive calendar years, and seven in a lifetime, with no-shows and voided scores counting toward the lifetime total. NMAT compared with the MCAT covers the other differences if you are weighing a Philippine route against a US one.
Unlimited attempts sound generous, and in one sense they are. But cost, cycle spacing, the two-year validity clock and the masterlist all push in the same direction: plan for one good sitting, treat a retake as a considered correction rather than a default, and change something real between attempts.
Sources
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., NMAT Frequently Asked Questions (July 2025), on the absence of an attempt limit, single registration per cycle, rescheduling and refunds, waiver form, masterlist and schedule of fees: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/downloads/NMAT_FAQs_072025.pdf
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., NMAT Bulletin of Information (July 2025 edition), on eligibility categories, validity period and minimum cut-off score, registration and test fees, refund policy, release of results, and distribution of the Masterlist of Test Scores: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/downloads/NMAT_BOI_OCBT_0725-R.pdf
- Commission on Higher Education, CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, series of 2016, Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Doctor of Medicine Program: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/upload/CHED_MO_No__18_Doctor_of_Medicine_Program.pdf
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., "Admission to Philippine Medical Schools": https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/admission-philippine-medical-schools
- Association of American Medical Colleges, "Testing Attempt Limits": https://students-residents.aamc.org/register-mcat-exam/publication-chapters/testing-attempt-limits
