Cadetship Selection Guide
Passing the written exam is one gate of five. Here is the whole process — the medical board, the fitness test, the neuro-psychological examination, and the interview — so nothing on selection day is a surprise.
Everything on this page is compiled from publicly available sources for information only. Magrebyu is independent — we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorised to speak for the PMA, PNPA, PMMA, MAAP, the AFP, the PNP, or any other agency. Requirements, exam structures, physical standards and selection procedures change between application cycles. Figures here were compiled in July 2026 — always confirm against the official bulletin or admissions office for your own application year before acting on them.
🪖 The selection process Free
Typical stages as published as of July 2026. The order, content and number of stages differ by academy and are revised between cycles — confirm the process for your own application year with the academy.
📝Written entrance examination
The academic test — the stage this reviewer prepares you for. It is a screening gate: fail it and no later stage matters. Passing it is necessary, but on its own it does not admit you.
- PMA: Mathematics, English, and Abstract Reasoning (SPMA)
- PNPA: 200 items across five subjects, with a 50% floor in EVERY subject
- PMMA: English, Mathematics, Science, Abstract Reasoning
- MAAP: Arithmetic, Mechanical IQ, Spatial, Non-verbal, English, Science
🩺Complete physical and medical examination
A full medical board evaluation. This stage eliminates more candidates than most applicants expect, and many of the disqualifiers are conditions a person has lived with for years without knowing they matter.
- Vision, including colour vision — a common and absolute disqualifier
- Hearing, dental, cardiovascular and general physical examination
- Height, weight and body-mass assessment against the standards
- Findings are made by licensed medical officers — not by any reviewer or app
💪Physical Fitness Test (PFT)
A timed, scored assessment of strength and endurance. Unlike the medical exam, this one rewards months of preparation — which is exactly why starting early is the single highest-value thing a candidate can do.
- Typically push-ups and sit-ups against a time limit, plus a distance run
- Standards differ by sex and by academy, and are revised between cycles
- This is trainable: consistent progressive practice reliably moves the numbers
🧠Neuro-psychological examination
A battery of written and drawing-based assessments administered and interpreted by licensed psychologists. It looks at personality, emotional stability, and suitability for service life. It is not something you can revise for the way you revise mathematics — but knowing what the day involves removes most of the anxiety that causes candidates to behave unnaturally.
🎙️Panel interview / Aptitude for Service
A board of officers assesses motivation, bearing, communication, and understanding of what service actually demands. This stage genuinely rewards preparation: knowing your own reasons clearly, and knowing the institution you are applying to.
📏 Basic qualifications Free
PMA
- Citizenship
- Natural-born Filipino citizen
- Age
- At least 17 and not more than 22 years old on the day of admission
- Height
- At least 5'0" (152.4 cm) and not more than 6'4" (193.04 cm), barefoot — same for all applicants
- Education
- At least a Senior High School (Grade 12) graduate with a general average of 85% or higher
- Civil status
- Single, never married, never pregnant, and with no legal obligation to support a child
- Character
- Good moral character with no pending administrative or criminal case
- Fitness
- Physically and mentally fit for military training
NTMA
NTMA is a PRIVATE company-sponsored academy (NYK-FIL and the Transnational Diversified Group), not a government academy. Its published criteria are stricter and more specific than the state academies', and are reproduced here exactly as the academy states them — we neither set nor endorse them. Note in particular that NTMA's published intake is male applicants only; PMA, PNPA, PMMA and MAAP all admit women, so check your options before ruling yourself out.
- Citizenship
- Filipino citizen
- Sex & civil status
- Male and single, as published by the academy
- Age
- At least 16 and not more than 21 years old upon enrollment
- Height
- At least 5'4" (162.56 cm)
- Weight
- 100–135 lbs, plus 5 lbs for every inch of height above 5'7"
- Education
- At least a high school graduate; applicants with college background are accepted
- Academic standing
- Belonging to the upper 50% of the graduating class
- English
- Able to speak and write good English
- Vision
- Not worse than 20/30 without corrective eyeglasses; must pass the Ishihara colour-vision test
- Health
- Must pass medical, dental, audiometry and neuro-psychological examinations; no asthma of any kind
- Selection
- Entrance examination, interview, medical screening, briefing and an immersion period
PNPA
- Citizenship
- Natural-born Filipino citizen
- Age
- 18 to 22 years old (check the cut-off date published for your cycle)
- Height
- At least 5'2" (157.48 cm) for men and 5'0" (152.40 cm) for women
- Education
- At least a Senior High School graduate with a General Weighted Average of 85% or higher
- Exam
- Must pass the PNPACAT with at least 50% in EVERY subject
💪 Physical Fitness Test planner Free
The one stage that rewards months of preparation. Track your numbers, see the gap, and close it before the test date instead of discovering it on the day.
Push-ups
reps in 2 minutesHands about shoulder-width, body straight from head to heels. Lower until your upper arms are parallel to the ground, then push up to full extension. Resting is usually allowed only in the up position.
- Train volume, not maximum effort: 5 sets of 60% of your best, three times a week
- If you cannot yet do one, start on an incline (hands on a bench) and lower the bench over weeks
- Practise the exact tempo you will be tested at — control matters more than speed
Sit-ups
reps in 2 minutesKnees bent, feet usually held or anchored, hands crossed over the chest or behind the head. Rise until your elbows or torso reach the required position, then return until your shoulder blades touch the ground.
- Two minutes is an endurance event — practise against a clock, not to failure
- Build the hip flexors and core together: planks, leg raises, and full sit-ups
- Pace yourself early; most candidates burn out in the first 30 seconds
3.2 km run
minutesA timed distance run, usually on a track or measured course. Pacing decides your result far more than raw speed — an even pace almost always beats a fast start.
- Run three to four times a week: two easy runs, one interval session, one longer run
- Intervals: 6 × 400 m at target pace with 90 seconds' rest builds speed safely
- Know your target lap time and practise hitting it — do not guess on the day
- Increase weekly distance by no more than about 10% to avoid injury
📓 Log today's session
Saved in this browser only — never uploaded. Re-saving today replaces today's entry.
👁️ Colour vision awareness check Free
This is an awareness check only. Phone and laptop screens vary hugely in colour accuracy, brightness and calibration, and screen filters or night mode change the result completely. It cannot diagnose colour blindness and it is not the test the medical board uses.
Why it is here: normal colour vision is an absolute requirement at these academies, and every year candidates discover a deficiency only at the medical board — after months of preparation. If anything looks unclear below, see an optometrist or ophthalmologist now, while you still have options.
What number do you see?
View in good lighting with night mode and colour filters turned off.
🧠 Neuro-Psychological Examination Familiarization
This section explains what to expect at the neuro-psychological stage. It is not a psychological test, it produces no score, profile or diagnosis, and it cannot predict whether you will pass. We are not psychologists. The actual examination is administered and interpreted by licensed professionals, and only they can assess your suitability.
We also will not teach you to “beat” the evaluation. It is designed to detect inconsistency, so attempting it usually backfires — and these checks exist for good reasons. If you are struggling with your mental health, please speak to a doctor or a licensed professional rather than to a reviewer website.
📋What the day actually looks like
Candidates usually sit the neuro-psychological examination in a large group, in a single long session that can run several hours. You will be given a sequence of different instruments one after another, with instructions read aloud before each.
There is no revision that helps here, and that is the point — the examination is designed to see you, not your preparation. What DOES help is arriving rested, having eaten, and knowing roughly what will be put in front of you, so that unfamiliarity does not read as distress.
- Expect a long session — bring nothing you cannot leave at the door
- Instructions are read aloud; listen rather than rushing ahead
- There is normally no way to 'finish early' and leave
- Sleep the night before matters more than anything you could study
🗂️The formats you are likely to meet
Neuro-psychological batteries vary between institutions and change over time, but they are usually assembled from a small number of recognisable formats. Knowing the SHAPE of each one means you spend the session responding rather than decoding instructions.
- Long personality inventories — hundreds of short statements answered true/false or on a scale
- Sentence completion — you are given an opening such as 'My greatest fear…' and finish it in your own words
- Drawing tasks — for example drawing a person, a house, or a tree; artistic skill is NOT what is being looked at
- Ability and attention measures — timed tasks that look like puzzles or clerical checking
- A short written or spoken interview with a psychologist
🎯The one thing that actually matters: consistency
Long inventories deliberately ask the same underlying question several times, worded differently and scattered far apart. This is not carelessness in the test design — it is a validity check. Answering honestly produces consistent responses automatically, because you are simply reporting the same true thing each time.
Candidates who try to present an idealised version of themselves have to remember what image they were building, across hundreds of items and several hours. They cannot. The inconsistency shows up, and an inconsistent profile is a far worse outcome than an ordinary honest one.
There is also a subtler trap. Some candidates answer every item in the most 'heroic' direction — never afraid, never angry, never tired, never wrong. Real people are not like that, and a profile with no ordinary human variation reads as someone who is not answering truthfully.
- Answer as you actually are, not as you imagine a cadet should be
- Do not linger on items — your first honest response is the accurate one
- Do not try to keep a consistent 'character' — just be consistent by being truthful
- Ordinary human answers are not disqualifying; unbelievable ones are a problem
✅Practical preparation that is legitimate
You cannot and should not study for a psychological evaluation. But several genuinely useful things are within your control, and they are the same things that help at the interview stage.
Most of the value comes from having thought honestly about your own motivation beforehand — not to rehearse an answer, but so that you are not assembling one for the first time while a psychologist is watching.
- Know clearly why you are applying, in your own words
- Be able to describe your family situation and support honestly
- Think about how you have actually handled pressure, failure and conflict before
- Sleep properly for several nights before, not just the night before
- Arrive early enough that travel stress is not part of your day
✍️Sentence-completion practice (format only)With any cadetship reviewer
🚫What we deliberately do not do
We do not give you a personality score, a profile, or any prediction about whether you will pass this stage. Doing so would be dishonest — we are not psychologists, this is not a validated instrument, and no website can assess a person's psychological suitability for service.
We also will not teach you to 'beat' a psychological evaluation. Beyond being unreliable, it would be genuinely against your interests. These evaluations exist to check that a candidate can safely carry a weapon, hold authority over others, and withstand real stress. A person who fakes their way past that check is not being helped by it.