The National Medical Admission Test (NMAT) is a standardized test designed to upgrade the selection of applicants seeking admission to Philippine medical schools. You are encouraged to do well in the test and obtain your best scores to increase your chances of being accepted in the best medical schools in the Philippines. This section will provide you with all the tools, tips, and strategies to help you prepare and excel in the NMAT.

Eligibility

• You must be a GRADUATE or a GRADUATING STUDENT of any college (bachelors) degree course at the time of testing. If you are currently enrolled in the UP College of Medicine INTARMED program, you must take the NMAT on your second year.
• For Foreign applicants, please read the CHED Executive Order 285 series of 2000 Consolidated Implementing Guidelines on the Entry and Stay of Foreign Students in the Philippines and CHED Memorandum Order No. 18 series of 2018.

Coverage

The NMAT is a standardized test designed to evaluate both your cognitive and academic skills. It is divided into two parts:

• Part 1 are tests of mental ability. The four subtests that compose Part 1 measure aptitudes that were found to have significant correlations with academic performance of medical students.
• Part 2 are tests of academic proficiency. The four subtests that compose Part 2 measure subject proficiency in areas which are part of the academic background required of applicants to the medical course.

During the actual test, there is a total of 2 hours and 15 minutes for Part 1, while 1 hour and 30 minutes for Part 2 with a 10-minute break after Part 1. You can choose which subtests you want to answer first.

Scoring

Each batch of NMAT measures the same basic skills and concepts but uses different questions. Because of this, there is a potential for a batch to be either easier or slightly more difficult than another. Hence, an examinee’s raw scores are converted to a scale that takes into consideration the level of difficulty of the test questions on a given form. This conversion makes possible the comparison of reported scores across test forms.

The NMAT yields the following set of scores: (1) Part 1 subtest scores and a composite score called APT, (2) Part 2 subtest scores and a composite score called SA, and (3) a full composite score derived from the eight subtests called the General Performance Score (GPS).

Sample Examinee Report Form

The score on each of the eight subtests is expressed as a standard score (SS). The SS has a range of 200 – 800. The test results of examinees are compared to those of the norm group which has mean scores of 500 and standard deviations of 100.

The NMAT GPS is reported with a corresponding percentile rank (PR) that ranges from 1- to 99+, with a midpoint of 50. The PR indicates the percentage of NMAT examinees who have NMAT scores the same as or lower than the examinee.

Cut-Off Scores

The PR will be evaluated by the medical school against the PR cutoff prescribed by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) or by the school itself. This PR cutoff is the minimum score that qualifies an examinee as a bonafide applicant for admission into his/her preferred medical school. Here’s an updated list of the cutoff scores for each med school as of 2025:

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To safeguard the authenticity of the results, your score will also appear on the masterlist of test scores which will be sent to all Philippine medical schools, Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Higher Education Regional Offices (HERO), and the office of the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges Foundation, Inc. (APMC). These offices must refer only to the masterlist for official scores.