After deciding to take the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), you need to find a place to actually take the exam. More than 600 CTCs, or Controlled Testing Centers, administer the MAT throughout the U.S. and Canada, and even overseas.
To find a testing center, go to the Miller Analogies Test website and look for a link called something like “Find a MAT Testing Center” that provides a list of testing centers by location. If you live more than 100 miles from the nearest center, you can request an alternate site (if you pay an additional fee).
Each one of these Controlled Testing Centers makes up its own schedule for administering the MAT — and has its own fee. Fees average around $90.
Before you sign up for a certain test date, ask the center how long, on average, it takes schools to receive a test-taker’s official score report. Then find out your desired graduate school program’s admission deadlines so that you can make sure you allow enough time for the official results to be sent to the school.
The center where you sign up can tell you more about the dates the MAT is offered, how to register, and what’s required when you get to the center. But in general, you have to provide a government-issued photo ID and a supplemental form of identification on test day.
Find out whether you’re allowed to bring a watch (highly recommended) and whether you have to supply your own pencils if you’re taking the paper version of the MAT.
Paper vs. computer MAT tests
Each testing center determines whether to offer a computer-based MAT or a pencil-and-paper MAT. The questions on each test are the same — the only difference is the kind of test administration you prefer.
Each version allows the test taker to skip back and forth between questions. If you like using computers, you’ll probably prefer the computer-based version — especially because you won’t have to erase any changed answers.
A downside to a computer-based test may be that it takes longer to skip between questions, since you have to click with your mouse each time (as opposed to just looking at the question you’d like to skip to on a paper test).
Score reporting for the MAT
When you take the MAT, you have the opportunity to send your score to as many as three schools — for free.
If you want score reports sent later, each report costs about $25. In addition to seeing your most recent MAT score, these schools will see every one of your MAT scores within the past five years. If you have a score that’s more than five years old, that one isn’t reported to schools.
The personal score report you receive in the mail isn’t an official transcript; schools receive an official transcript of your scores directly from the test publisher.
Accommodations for taking the MAT
Most testing centers can offer special accommodations: Braille, audio editions, and so on. Be sure to notify the testing center that you need a certain accommodation several weeks before your test date, and fill out the necessary paperwork on the Miller Analogies Test website.