NMIMS Management Aptitude Test

The NMAT by GMAC (earlier known as the NMIMS Management Aptitude Test) is a computer-adaptive MBA entrance exam accepted by NMIMS and many other business schools in India. It is now owned and run by Graduate Management Global Connection (India) Private Limited, a subsidiary of GMAC. The 2026 testing window runs from 2 November to 20 December 2026, and registration is open until 25 October 2026 as per the dates GMAC lists at the time of writing.

This page gives you the key facts for the current cycle: dates, fees, eligibility, exam pattern, syllabus, scoring, accepting colleges and a practical preparation approach. Where GMAC does not publish a detail, such as a topic-wise syllabus or a single national cut-off, we say so plainly instead of guessing.

Table of Contents

• NMAT 2026 at a glance

• Important dates

• Fees

• Eligibility

• How to register

• Exam pattern

• Syllabus

• Scoring, results and attempts

• Accepting colleges and cut-offs

• How to prepare

NMAT 2026 at a glance

Important dates

Dates can be revised, and some third-party pages still show earlier deadlines. Track the official dates and fees page and your candidate dashboard. Slots are first come, first served, so book early.

Fees

Eligibility

GMAC lets anyone who completes registration, pays the fee and follows the published terms sit the exam. The real eligibility conditions come from the colleges you apply to, usually a bachelor's degree from a recognised university with a minimum aggregate, and final-year students are often allowed to apply provisionally. These school requirements differ by programme, so check each college before you register, because the fee is not refunded if you turn out to be ineligible. The details are on our NMAT eligibility page.

How to register

1. Create an account: sign up on the official NMAT page with a valid email address and verify it.

2. Complete your profile and application: your name and date of birth must match your photo ID exactly.

3. Choose score recipients: pick up to five schools, which are included in the fee.

4. Upload a recent photo: it should be taken within the last six months and resemble you.

5. Pay the fee and book a slot: choose a city, centre, date and time from your dashboard.

NMAT registration is separate from B-school applications, which have their own forms and deadlines.

Exam pattern

You can choose the order of the sections at the start, and each section is timed separately. Because the test is adaptive, each question is picked based on how you did on earlier ones. Read the full breakdown on our NMAT exam pattern page.

Syllabus

GMAC names these topic areas but does not publish a detailed topic-wise syllabus, so treat sub-topic lists on other sites as working checklists. Our NMAT syllabus page breaks each area down by what to start with.

Scoring, results and attempts

There is no negative marking and all three sections carry equal weight. Your answers are converted into a scaled score from 12 to 120 for each section, and an unofficial score is shown on screen when you finish. The official scorecard is generally available to download within 48 hours, though GMAC notes it can take five to seven working days in some cases.

You can take the exam up to three times in a testing year, and you decide which schools receive your scores. The mandatory gap between two attempts is quoted differently on different official pages (7 days on the registration page and 15 days in the FAQ), so confirm the current rule on your dashboard before planning a retake.

Accepting colleges and cut-offs

NMIMS, TAPMI, K J Somaiya, SP Jain (Global Management Programme), XIMB, ICFAI Business School and several other institutes accept NMAT scores. There is no single national cut-off. Each school sets its own minimum score or percentile, and many also run a group discussion or case discussion, a written ability test and a personal interview. Cut-offs change every year, so treat last year's figures as a benchmark only. See the NMAT cut-off page for indicative figures.

How to prepare

Start with the three section areas and build accuracy before speed. Quant usually needs the longest, because it has the most time and the widest range of topics, while Language rewards daily reading. Because each section has a fixed time limit and a fixed number of questions, practise pacing by section from the beginning.

• Weeks 1 to 4: revise core arithmetic, algebra and grammar rules, and read one long article daily.

• Weeks 5 to 8: take topic-wise tests and 20-minute sectional tests, and keep an error log.

• Final weeks: attempt full-length mocks in the real 120-minute format and analyse each one the same day.