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NAT
National Achievement Test (تحصيلي - Tahsili)
📝 University Admission In-person at Qiyas-designated centres, available in either paper-based or computer-based format. ⏱ Valid: NAT results are generally referenced for admission cycles within a limited number of years of the test date, with the exact window set by individual universities. Since 2003 (introduction of NAT/Tahsili under Qiyas, established specifically to provide a standardized measure of cumulative subject-content mastery alongside the reasoning-focused GAT) ⚡ Regarded as demanding given its genuine curriculum depth across three full years of coursework in five subjects, a considerably different kind of challenge than GAT's reasoning-based format, since success depends on…
🕐 Last updated: September 8, 2026
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Quick Summary

Saudi Arabia's NAT (Tahsili), administered by Qiyas since 2003, is a university-admission input testing genuine three-year curriculum mastery across five subjects — Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English — the deliberate content-based counterpart to Saudi Arabia's own reasoning-only GAT. Within its single roughly 3-hour, 130-question sitting, NAT weights more recent coursework more heavily — 40% each from second- and third-year material versus 20% from first-year content — rewarding a student's most advanced, most recently studied subject knowledge specifically. Saudi universities combine NAT with GAT's reasoning score and high school GPA into their own weighted admission formula, with competitive science and health-sciences programmes like Medicine typically requiring strong results across all three inputs rather than any single measure alone. Because NAT and GAT test such genuinely different skills — subject mastery versus abstract reasoning — a student targeting a competitive programme needs to prepare seriously for both as separate, complementary exams rather than treating strength in one as sufficient for the other.

📋 Exam Overview
🎯
Score Range
A percentage-based score per subject, combining into an overall NAT result universities reference within their admission formulas.
💳
Fee
SAR 0 — current Qiyas fee policy covers standard sittings for Saudi secondary students at no cost.
📅
Valid For
NAT results are generally referenced for admission cycles within a limited number of years of the test date, with the exact window set by individual universities.
🖥
Mode
In-person at Qiyas-designated centres, available in either paper-based or computer-based format.
🗓
Frequency
Multiple testing windows within Grade 12, letting a student sit NAT more than once if needed
🏛
Conducted By
National Center for Assessment (Qiyas), under the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC)
⚡
Difficulty
Regarded as demanding given its genuine curriculum depth across three full years of coursework in five subjects, a considerably different kind of challenge than GAT's reasoning-based format, since success depends on sustained subject mastery rather than test-day pattern recognition.
🌍 Accepted By
Required by many Saudi universities, particularly for science, health-sciences, and engineering programmes, combined with GAT and high school GPA in the institution's own admission formula.
Saudi Arabia's curriculum-content exam, testing three full years of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English — the deliberate content-based counterpart to the country's own reasoning-only GAT
👤 Who Should Take This Exam?
A Saudi student in Grade 12, typically pursuing a science or health-sciences-oriented university programme, sits NAT (Tahsili) to demonstrate their accumulated mastery of secondary-school subject content — a genuinely different function from GAT, which tests reasoning ability with no curriculum content at all. NAT specifically evaluates cumulative knowledge across the final three years of high school in five subjects (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English), weighting more recent material more heavily, since 20% of questions draw from first-year content and 40% each from second- and third-year material. Because competitive Saudi programmes like Medicine and Engineering typically require both NAT and GAT alongside high school GPA, a student aiming for those fields needs to prepare seriously for two exams that test genuinely different skills rather than treating one as a substitute for the other.
🎓 Education Level
University Admission
🌍 Accepted In
Saudi Arabia and referenced by some Gulf Cooperation Council institutions for Saudi-curriculum secondary-credential equivalency purposes.
📝 Exam Structure & Format
Question Types
Multiple-choice questions throughout, drawing directly on Saudi secondary curriculum content across each of the five tested subjects.
Language / Medium
Arabic for most subjects, with English tested separately as its own subject.
Total Duration
The full test runs approximately 3 hours, covering all five subjects together.
Total Questions
130 questions total across the five subjects.
Sections
Five subjects assessed within one combined sitting: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English.
⚙️ More format details (timing, marking, equipment)See all ▾
Time Per Section
The five subjects are assessed together within the overall roughly 3-hour sitting, without separate fixed time blocks announced per individual subject.
Negative Marking
No
Calculator Allowed
Permitted for Mathematics and quantitative science sections, per Qiyas's stated policy for those specific subjects.
Scratch Paper
Working space is provided for Mathematics and science calculations.
Breaks Allowed
The five subjects are assessed within one continuous sitting, with scheduled breaks at set points rather than between each individual subject.
Home Edition
No — NAT is administered only in person at Qiyas-designated testing centres.
Digital vs Paper
Both paper-based and computer-based formats are offered, with the specific option depending on the testing centre and candidate registration.
📑 Section Details
Unlike GAT's two reasoning-only sections, NAT covers five genuinely distinct subject areas within its single 130-question sitting, with content weighted toward more recent coursework — roughly 20% of questions per subject draw from first-year high school material, and 40% each from second- and third-year material. This weighting means a student's most recent, most advanced coursework in each subject counts for proportionally more of their NAT result than material studied years earlier.
🎯 Scoring System
Score Range
A percentage-based score per subject, combining into an overall NAT result universities reference within their admission formulas.
Good / Passing Score
There's no fixed universal pass/fail threshold — NAT reports a percentage-based achievement result that universities weight within their own admission formulas.
How Scoring Works
Each of NAT's five subjects contributes to an overall result reflecting a candidate's cumulative content mastery, weighted toward more recent (second- and third-year) coursework at 40% each versus 20% for first-year material. Because the content is drawn directly from the Saudi secondary curriculum rather than testing general reasoning the way GAT does, a strong NAT result reflects genuine subject preparation across the full three years of relevant coursework, not test-taking strategy alone.
🏆 Minimum Scores for Top Universities
There's no single minimum NAT score for general admission, since Saudi universities weight it differently within their own formulas combining GPA, GAT, and NAT. Competitive programmes like Medicine at Saudi Arabia's top universities have historically required NAT results in the high 80s to 90s percentage range given intense demand relative to available seats.
📊 Section / sub-scoresSee all ▾
Reading
Assessed within the English subject section as part of its curriculum-based content evaluation.
Grammar
Assessed within the English subject section, contributing to that subject's overall result.
Vocabulary
Assessed within the English subject section as part of its overall curriculum-based evaluation.
Quantitative
Assessed through the Mathematics subject section, testing genuine curriculum content across three years of secondary coursework rather than general reasoning.
Subject
Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English each produce their own independent contribution to the overall NAT result, reflecting genuine subject-specific mastery.
All Sub-Scores
Each of the five subjects — Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English — produces its own contribution to the overall result, allowing universities to weight specific subjects differently for different programmes.
🔼 Score Improvement
No standardized nationwide retake-improvement figure is published by Qiyas.
💳 Registration & Fees
Fee (USD)
SAR 0 — current Qiyas fee policy covers standard sittings for Saudi secondary students at no cost.
Fee (INR)
₹0 for standard eligible candidates under current fee arrangements; specific circumstances may involve separate fees.
📝 Register Now →
📋 Policies (rescheduling, cancellation, verification, waivers)See all ▾
⏰ Register in Advance
Qiyas's official portal handles NAT registration, completed ahead of a specific Grade 12 testing window.
🔄 Rescheduling Policy
NAT is offered across specific testing windows in Grade 12, with dates fixed by Qiyas rather than individually rescheduled outside documented emergencies.
🔍 Score Verification
Qiyas's standard review process lets a candidate formally query their NAT results within a set post-results window.
📋 Score Audit
Runs through that same Qiyas review process rather than a separate dedicated audit channel.
↩ Reinstatement Policy
No
📅 Exam Dates & Schedule
📆 Available Months
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
🔁 Frequency
Multiple testing windows within Grade 12, letting a student sit NAT more than once if needed
📊 Results Declared
Results are typically released within a few weeks of a specific testing window.
🔄 Retake Policy
A student can sit NAT again in a later available Grade 12 testing window to attempt a higher result, with universities generally referencing the best outcome achieved.
⏰ Register By
Qiyas's official portal handles NAT registration, completed ahead of a specific Grade 12 testing window.
✅ Eligibility & Access
🎂 Age Limit
No formal age ceiling applies, since NAT is tied to a student's Grade 12 progression rather than an independent qualifying age.
🎓 Education Required
Enrollment in or completion of Grade 12 of Saudi secondary education (or an equivalent qualification), with the relevant three years of subject coursework, is required to sit NAT.
🛂 Citizenship
Open to Saudi secondary students generally, with specific eligibility for international or equivalent-curriculum candidates set by individual universities.
More on accommodations, ID, and special versionsSee all ▾
🪪 ID Required
The testing centre requires a valid Saudi national ID or equivalent identification.
♿ Accessibility
Standard Qiyas registration is where a documented disability's accommodations (extended time, adapted formats) get arranged.
🔀 Special Versions
A separate NAT format tailored to specific programme tracks (such as health-sciences-focused variants) exists alongside the standard version, reflecting different subject emphasis for different degree pathways.
📐 Subject Variants
A candidate's specific NAT content is fixed by the standard five-subject structure, though the relative importance different universities place on each subject varies by target programme.
🤝 Disability Accommodations
Extended time or an adapted format for a documented disability gets arranged through Qiyas's standard registration process.
🗓 Exam Day Guide
✅ What to Bring
Valid national ID or equivalent identification, and a calculator only for the Mathematics and quantitative science sections.
🚫 Prohibited Items
Unauthorized electronic devices, notes, and any calculator beyond what's specifically permitted for the quantitative sections.
📋 Exam Day Rules
Standard identification checks and material restrictions apply uniformly at every Qiyas-designated testing centre.
After the exam: score reporting and deliverySee all ▾
⏱ Score Reporting
Typically within a few weeks of a specific testing window.
📤 Score Sending
NAT results feed directly into Saudi universities' own admission formulas, combined with high school GPA and, for many programmes, GAT results.
🎓 Score Recipients
The candidate receives results directly, and Saudi universities access NAT scores as part of their own centralized or institution-specific admission review.
📚 Preparation Guide
🗓 Avg Prep Months
5 months
Because NAT tests genuine three-year curriculum content across five subjects, effective preparation resembles studying comprehensively for a set of cumulative subject finals, with particular attention to second- and third-year material given its heavier 40%-each weighting. A student targeting Medicine, Engineering, or another NAT-heavy competitive programme should treat NAT preparation as seriously as GAT preparation, since the two exams test genuinely different skills that both matter for admission.
💡 Top Tips & Tricks
Since NAT weights second- and third-year coursework at 40% each versus 20% for first-year material, concentrating revision on more recent, more advanced content tends to move the overall result more than reviewing early foundational material equally. Because NAT and GAT test such different skills, treating them as two genuinely separate preparation tracks — content mastery for one, reasoning practice for the other — reflects how Saudi universities actually use both in their admission formulas.
Full study plan, resources, and common mistakesSee all ▾
📅 Study Plan
A realistic NAT study plan reviews content across all three years of relevant coursework in each of the five subjects, weighting revision time toward second- and third-year material given its heavier contribution to the overall result. Because NAT and GAT test such different skills — subject mastery versus reasoning ability — a student targeting a competitive programme requiring both should budget genuinely separate preparation time for each rather than assuming strength in one will carry the other.
📖 Recommended Books
Saudi Ministry of Education-approved curriculum textbooks for each of the five subjects form the primary preparation base, supplemented by Qiyas's own official NAT sample materials and widely used Tahsili-specific revision guides.
🏫 Popular Prep Courses
Tahsili-specific subject-content courses and private tutoring, particularly for Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, are widely available across Saudi Arabia, distinct from the reasoning-focused tutoring students separately pursue for GAT.
📱 Popular Prep Apps
Saudi-market platforms offering NAT/Tahsili-aligned subject-content practice by topic are commonly used ahead of testing windows.
✅ Official Practice Tests
Sample NAT questions and format guidance covering all five tested subjects are available through Qiyas's official portal. — No cost for Qiyas's official sample materials.
🆓 Free Online Resources
Qiyas publishes official NAT sample questions and format guidance through its portal, freely available to any candidate.
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
Treating NAT preparation the same way as GAT preparation, focusing on general reasoning practice rather than deep subject content review, is a common and costly mismatch against what NAT actually tests. Underweighting first-year material entirely, rather than recognizing its smaller but still real 20% contribution per subject, is another frequent gap in otherwise strong NAT preparation.
💡 EduAtlasHub Exclusive Insights
🔍 Insider Tips
The Analytical section is often the differentiator; practice logic puzzles and Venn diagrams to gain an edge over other candidates.
⭐ Unique Features
Weighting more recent coursework more heavily within its scoring — 40% each for second- and third-year material versus 20% for first-year — is a structural design that rewards a student's most advanced, most recent subject mastery specifically, rather than treating three years of content as equally weighted. Being explicitly designed as the deliberate curriculum-content complement to Saudi Arabia's own reasoning-only GAT, the two together mirroring a reasoning-versus-achievement split, is also a distinctive, intentional pairing within one country's admission system.
🎓 How This Score Impacts Your Application
Because NAT tests genuine curriculum mastery rather than general reasoning, it functions as a direct measure of subject preparation within Saudi universities' admission formulas — particularly consequential for science and health-sciences programmes that need confidence in a candidate's actual content knowledge before admission. Combined with GAT's reasoning measure and high school GPA, NAT gives Saudi universities a genuinely three-part picture of a candidate rather than relying on any single input alone.
More insights: country notes, comparisons, myths, examiner tipsSee all ▾
🌍 Country-Specific Notes
NAT is specific to Saudi Arabia's university-admission system, administered by Qiyas since 2003 specifically to provide a curriculum-content-based measure alongside the country's reasoning-focused GAT and school GPA.
⚖️ Comparison with Alternatives
Unlike GAT, which tests verbal and quantitative reasoning with zero curriculum content, NAT tests genuine three-year subject mastery across Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English — the pairing closely mirrors the historical distinction between the US SAT's reasoning-focused general test and its separate subject-specific tests, applied within Saudi Arabia's own admission system. Against the UAE's EmSAT Achieve, which similarly tests genuine subject content across seven independent subjects a candidate chooses individually, NAT differs in covering all five of its subjects together within one combined sitting rather than letting candidates register for subjects separately.
🆕 Recent Changes
Specific NAT question banks and the first-year/second-year/third-year content weighting have seen continued refinement from Qiyas in recent cycles, without any change to the fundamental five-subject, cumulative-content structure.
🔜 Upcoming Changes
No major structural changes to NAT's five-subject cumulative-content format have been announced for upcoming cycles beyond routine question-bank updates.
🧐 Myths vs Facts
Assuming NAT tests general reasoning ability the way GAT does is a common misconception — NAT draws directly on three years of Saudi secondary curriculum content across five specific subjects, testing genuine subject mastery rather than abstract reasoning. It's also easy to assume all three years of coursework count equally toward the NAT result, but second- and third-year material is specifically weighted more heavily (40% each) than first-year content (20%).
📋 Post-Exam Steps
Once results are released, a student should check their specific target university programme's admission formula to see how heavily NAT is weighted relative to GPA and GAT, since the balance varies meaningfully by institution and programme, particularly for science and health-sciences fields. A student with a weaker-than-hoped NAT result should consider a later available Grade 12 testing window rather than assuming the result is final.
🎯 Score Uses Beyond Admission
NAT's use is essentially confined to Saudi university admission, functioning as one specific input within that broader formula rather than carrying standalone credential value outside the admission context.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the NAT score valid?+
NAT results are generally referenced for admission cycles within a limited number of years of the test date, with the exact window set by individual universities.
How much does the NAT cost?+
SAR 0 — current Qiyas fee policy covers standard sittings for Saudi secondary students at no cost.
How often can I retake the NAT?+
A student can sit NAT again in a later available Grade 12 testing window to attempt a higher result, with universities generally referencing the best outcome achieved.
When are NAT results declared?+
Results are typically released within a few weeks of a specific testing window.
Which universities accept the NAT?+
Required by many Saudi universities, particularly for science, health-sciences, and engineering programmes, combined with GAT and high school GPA in the institution's own admission formula.
Is a calculator allowed in the NAT?+
Permitted for Mathematics and quantitative science sections, per Qiyas's stated policy for those specific subjects.
How should I prepare for the NAT?+
Because NAT tests genuine three-year curriculum content across five subjects, effective preparation resembles studying comprehensively for a set of cumulative subject finals, with particular attention to second- and…
📝
Register for NAT
Saudi Arabia's curriculum-content exam, testing three full years of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and English — the deliberate content-based counterpart to the country's own reasoning-only GAT
Register Now →
📊 Quick Facts
Official Site →
Conducted ByNational Center for Assessment (Qiyas), under the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC)
Year Started2003 (introduction of NAT/Tahsili under Qiyas, established specifically to provide a standardized measure of cumulative subject-content mastery alongside the reasoning-focused GAT)
CategoryUniversity Admission
Emailhttps://www.etec.gov.sa/en/Pages/ContactUs.aspx
Last UpdatedSeptember 8, 2026
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