Short version: Review the NMAT by subtest, not by subject. Each of the eight subtests carries 30 items. Part 1 gives you 2 hours 15 minutes for its 120 items; Part 2 gives you 1 hour 30 minutes for its 120 items. That difference in pace, not the syllabus, is what most reviewers get wrong.
Most people searching for an "NMAT reviewer" want a book. The more useful thing is a map of what the test actually asks and how much time you get to answer it, because the Center for Educational Measurement publishes both, in detail, for free.
This guide turns CEM's published test specification into a review plan.
Start with the only official material
CEM develops and administers the NMAT. Once your registration is marked paid, two things unlock inside your NMAT account: the Practice Set and the Demo Test.
- The Practice Set reflects the content of the NMAT and comes with an answer key. It is your diagnostic.
- The Demo Test is untimed and unscored. Its only job is to make the testing website familiar before test day.
CEM attaches three warnings to these. The Online NMAT has fewer items than the Practice Set. The actual test will not repeat Practice Set questions, so do not memorise them. And in the Bulletin of Information, CEM states that it does not authorise the sale of reviewers or study materials containing alleged actual NMAT items. The Examinee Agreement goes further: you agree that you will not obtain or purchase such materials, and that you may be disqualified for doing so.
That rules out one whole category of "leaked reviewer" sold on social media. Everything else, from commercial review books to a college biology textbook, is legitimate third-party material and you choose it on quality.
What you are actually reviewing for
CEM's Bulletin of Information lays out the Online NMAT as 240 multiple-choice items across five sections:
| Section | What it is | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Important reminders and certifying statement | 12 minutes |
| 2 | Part 1, 120 items | 2 hours 15 minutes |
| 3 | Test break | 10 minutes |
| 4 | Part 2, 120 items | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| 5 | End test page | 1 minute |
Within those parts, all eight subtests carry 30 items each. CEM also prints a recommended time allotment per subtest:
| Part | Subtest | Items | Recommended time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verbal | 30 | 30 minutes |
| 1 | Inductive Reasoning | 30 | 35 minutes |
| 1 | Quantitative | 30 | 40 minutes |
| 1 | Perceptual Acuity | 30 | 30 minutes |
| 2 | Biology | 30 | 30 minutes |
| 2 | Physics | 30 | 30 minutes |
| 2 | Social Science | 30 | 30 minutes |
| 2 | Chemistry | 30 | 30 minutes |
One thing to know before you build a schedule around that table: the Part 1 recommendations add up to exactly the 2-hour-15-minute limit, but the Part 2 recommendations add up to 120 minutes against a stated Part 2 limit of 1 hour 30 minutes. The two figures in CEM's own table do not reconcile. Treat the 90-minute limit as the binding number, because that is what the section timer enforces, and check the current Bulletin of Information before your cycle in case CEM revises the table.
Practically, that means:
- Part 1 pace: roughly 60 to 80 seconds per item, depending on subtest.
- Part 2 pace: roughly 45 seconds per item, flat.
Part 2 is the faster half of the exam, which is the opposite of what most people assume, since Part 2 is the "content" half. Build that into your practice from week one.
Where your hours actually pay off
CEM is unusually direct about this. In the Bulletin of Information it says Part 1 "requires more of innate abilities" and that the items in its four subtests primarily measure aptitude. Part 2, by contrast, requires application and analysis, and is where "references and note taking" matter.
Read that as a budgeting instruction. Content review raises Part 2. Timed drilling raises Part 1, but with a ceiling. Neither is zero, and neither is everything.
A workable split for someone with the typical two to four months between registration and test day:
- 60 to 65 per cent of study hours on Part 2 content, weighted toward whichever science you took earliest in college.
- 25 to 30 per cent on Part 1 timed drills, spread thin and daily rather than in blocks.
- 10 per cent on full timed simulations of both parts back to back, including the 10-minute break.
Part 1, subtest by subtest
Verbal, 30 items
Two item types: word analogies and reading comprehension. CEM notes that the reading passages are drawn from published material across a wide range of topics, including social, scientific, medical, philosophical and literary.
Review action: analogies respond to vocabulary breadth and to recognising relationship types, so drill relationship categories rather than word lists. For comprehension, practise on unfamiliar subject matter deliberately. A pre-med student who only reads biology passages will lose time on a philosophy passage.
Inductive Reasoning, 30 items
Number series, letter series, figural series, and figure grouping. CEM describes this as measuring induction, drawing a logical conclusion or inferring a general rule from incomplete information.
Review action: this subtest gets the most generous recommended time in Part 1 after Quantitative, at 35 minutes, because the item types reward a systematic scan rather than a flash of insight. Build a checklist habit for number series, differences, ratios, alternating patterns, and second-order differences, and apply it in the same order every time.
Quantitative, 30 items
Three item types: fundamental operations or direct computation, problem solving, and data interpretation. CEM frames it as organising and applying basic mathematics, not advanced mathematics.
Review action: no calculator is permitted, so mental arithmetic speed is worth real points. Rebuild fluency with fractions, percentages, ratio and proportion, and reading values off tables and graphs. This gets the longest recommended allotment of any subtest, 40 minutes, which tells you CEM expects the items to take working time.
Perceptual Acuity, 30 items
Hidden figure, mirror image, and identical information. CEM calls these visual recognition tasks complicated by distractions, solved through accuracy, attention to relevant detail and visualisation.
Review action: this is the subtest most affected by screen fatigue and by doing it on an unfamiliar monitor. Practise on the screen you will actually test on. It is also the one subtest where slowing down does not help much, because errors come from missed detail, not from insufficient reasoning.
Part 2, subtest by subtest
CEM limits Part 2 items to concepts "common and basic to the curricula of college introductory courses, particularly the degree programs considered as premedical courses." That is a ceiling as much as a scope. You are not being asked graduate-level material, and reviewing beyond the introductory course level is wasted time.
CEM publishes the content areas for each of the four:
| Subtest | Published content areas |
|---|---|
| Biology | Unity and diversity of life; cells and cellular processes; genetics; the world of plants and animals; development; life processes, regulation and homeostasis; organisms and their environment |
| Physics | Mechanics; thermodynamics; vibrations, waves and optics; electricity and magnetism; modern physics |
| Social Science | Sociology and anthropology; psychology |
| Chemistry | General chemistry; analytical chemistry; organic chemistry; biochemistry |
Two things fall out of that table.
Physics and Chemistry are broader than most pre-med students expect. Physics runs all the way to modern physics, and Chemistry includes analytical alongside general, organic and biochemistry. If your degree was BS Biology or BS Nursing, these two are usually the gap.
Social Science is a full 30 items, the same as Biology. It is routinely under-reviewed because it sounds easy. It is worth the same as any other subtest.
A sensible order of attack for Part 2: start with your weakest science, not your favourite. Because every subtest carries equal weight, moving a weak subtest from poor to competent is worth more than polishing a strong one.
Review the way you will test
The NMAT is an online computer-based test taken remotely, so several exam conditions are easy to replicate and worth replicating early.
- No calculator. Physical calculators are prohibited.
- No paper or pen. CEM's prohibited list includes paper, tissue, pencils of any kind, pens and permanent markers. Scratch work must go on authorised easily-erasable writing materials, in practice a small whiteboard with a whiteboard marker. Doing chemistry stoichiometry on a small whiteboard for the first time on test day is a self-inflicted problem.
- No watch. Watches are prohibited. The testing website shows a section timer and a total timer, so practise reading your pace off a screen clock.
- You cannot leave the screen. Navigating away from the test website is a prohibited activity. Practise sitting a full 2-hour-15-minute block without opening another tab.
Simulate at least two full sittings before test day: Part 1, the 10-minute break, then Part 2, in one go. Endurance is a separate skill from knowing biology.
Self-review or a review centre
Both work. The honest difference is structure, not secret content, and CEM says outright that it is not affiliated with and does not endorse enrolment in any professional review school. Review centres are also not authorised to collect NMAT testing fees, so never pay your exam fee to one.
A review centre is worth considering if you graduated more than a year or two ago, if you need an externally imposed schedule, or if you want diagnostic exams you did not write yourself. If you are still in your final year with your science courses fresh, the official Practice Set plus your own textbooks covers the ground.
If you are weighing it up, we compare the trade-offs in self-review versus a review center, and there is a roundup of NMAT review centers if you decide to enrol.
A four-phase plan
Keyed to events rather than dates, since NMAT cycles move:
Phase 1, as soon as your registration is paid. Take the Practice Set cold and untimed. Score it by subtest. Take the Demo Test to learn the interface. You now have a ranked list of weaknesses.
Phase 2, the long middle. Content review on Part 2, worst subtest first, at introductory-college level. Ten to fifteen minutes of Part 1 drills daily, rotating subtests.
Phase 3, roughly the last three weeks. Switch to timed sets. Part 2 at 45 seconds per item. Part 1 at its per-subtest pace. Re-take the Practice Set timed and check against CEM's 75 per cent benchmark.
Phase 4, the final week. Two full simulations. Run the system compatibility check for the testing platform. Confirm your valid ID, your whiteboard and marker, and your room setup. Stop learning new content and start protecting sleep.
What not to do
- Do not buy anything advertised as containing actual NMAT items. Beyond being worthless, CEM's Examinee Agreement says it can disqualify you.
- Do not over-invest in Perceptual Acuity and Inductive Reasoning drills at the expense of Part 2 content. Aptitude subtests have a lower ceiling on improvement.
- Do not review at a level above introductory college courses. That is the stated scope.
- Do not skip the timed Part 2 simulation. Ninety minutes for 120 items is the tightest constraint on the exam.
Where this fits
The NMAT is one requirement among several for Philippine medical school, alongside a baccalaureate degree and, for foreign applicants, a Certificate of Eligibility for Medical Education from CHED. Our guide to becoming a doctor in the Philippines covers the whole sequence, and what the NMAT covers goes deeper on the content areas above. If you are still choosing where to apply, we also list medical schools in the Philippines.
Sources
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., NMAT Bulletin of Information (July 2025 edition), covering the test description, Table 1 overview of the Online NMAT, preparing for the test, prohibited materials and prohibited activities: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/downloads/NMAT_BOI_OCBT_0725-R.pdf
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., "Brief Description of the Test," NMAT Online Registration System: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/brief-description-test
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., NMAT Frequently Asked Questions (July 2025), on preparation, test-day requirements and prohibited items: https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/downloads/NMAT_FAQs_072025.pdf
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., "Background on NMAT": https://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/background-nmat
- Center for Educational Measurement, Inc., Candidate Online Assessment Guide for laptop and desktop users: http://www.cem-inc.org.ph/nmat/files/downloads/COAG-LD_0425-B.pdf
