How to register for the dMAT: every step, before the 15 September deadline

Before you open the portal

Registration takes about fifteen minutes if your details are ready and an evening if they are not. Have these to hand before you start:

• Your passport. Every field you type, the name and the address included, has to be exactly what the passport says. Same spelling, same order, no initials, no shortened names. This is the one error that cannot be fixed for you on test day.
• A current, unedited photo of your face, as a file you can upload. No filter, no group photo cropped down, nothing older than you look now.
• A card that works for international payments in euros. The fee is charged in Germany, so a card blocked for foreign currency fails at the last step. PayPal and Alipay are also accepted.

If you are not sure the test applies to you, check that first in our dMAT guide, which covers who is exempt, what is on the test and how it is scored. This post is only about filling the registration in.

The steps, in order

The whole registration is in the video at the top of this page if you would rather watch it than read it. The same ten screens are below, in the order you meet them, so you can keep this open in a second tab while you fill yours in.

The portal walks you through six stages, shown across the top of every screen: shopping cart, login, your data, overview, payment, confirmation. You pick the exam first and make the account second, which catches people out.

1. Open the test-centre search and choose Weltweit

The registration arrow on the dMAT page lands you on a region choice. India is not in the German list, so take Weltweit. Ignore the Reservierungsnummer box on the right unless a test centre has already given you a reservation number.

2. Search for a centre in India

Choose General Academic Module, set the country to Indien, and leave both date fields empty so you see every sitting rather than a window you guessed at. Press Suche starten. One warning: this part of the site stays in German even on the English URL, so Termine means dates and Suche starten means start search.

3. Pick a centre, a date and a session

Open the centre nearest you. Each one lists its sittings with the seats left. Vormittag is the morning session and Nachmittag the afternoon, both sitting the same exam on the same day. Ausgebucht means full and greys the button out; a number next to Anmelden means you can still book. Cities usually have more than one centre, so check the others before you write off the city.

4. Log in, or register

Now the portal asks who you are. If you have sat TestDaF, onSET, TestAS or DUO, one g.a.s.t. account covers all of them and this login already exists. Otherwise press Register.

5. Create the account

Title, first and last name, date of birth as DD.MM.YYYY, country of origin, email address, username and password. Use an email address you will still be reading in October, because your certificate lands in this account, and tick the data privacy box before you submit.

6. Fill in Your data, copying the passport

Street and number, postal code, city, country, all exactly as the passport prints them. Then the identification block: choose Passport as the type, or residence permit if that is what you will bring, and type the number character for character. The photo goes here too, a current unedited shot of your face.

7. Choose the module and the exam language

At the bottom of the same page, select General Academic Module as the subject module and English as the language. Then Continue.

8. Tick the confirmations

The data privacy policy and the dMAT terms and conditions are both required. The third box, agreeing to receive research questionnaires from g.a.s.t., is optional and you can withdraw it at any time.

9. Check the overview

The overview repeats your name, date of birth, email, exam date and session, test centre, module, language and the 150 euro price. This is the last screen where a wrong date or a wrong centre still costs nothing to fix, so read it properly rather than scrolling past it.

10. Pay

Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB or Diners), PayPal or Alipay. The charge is in euros from Germany, so a card that is not enabled for international transactions fails here. Confirmation follows straight away and by email.

After that, the exam on 26 September and the certificate on 12 October, which you download from the same account and submit to APS India with the rest of your documents.

The test centres in India

Book travel only after your centre is confirmed in the portal, not while you are choosing it.

The dates that decide everything

The registration date is the hard one. Miss 15 September and there is no late window: you wait for the next sitting, and a Master's application built around summer semester 2027 slips a semester.

Who has to do this at all

The dMAT applies to Master's applicants whose previous degree sits in engineering, in commerce, accounting, finance or economics, or in business and management, applying for the summer semester 2027 intake and later.

You are exempt if you completed your APS registration before 29 June 2026, if you shipped your documents before that date, if you already hold an APS certificate, or if you are on an officially confirmed exchange or double-degree programme. Two German universities, RWTH Aachen and the University of Goettingen, also require the dMAT for specific Master's programmes regardless of the APS route.

Five mistakes that cost people the sitting

Registering on the last day. Payment failures are common with Indian cards on European gateways, and a failed payment on 15 September is a missed sitting rather than an inconvenience.

Entering a name that does not match the passport. Test centres check identity on the day. A middle name you left out becomes a problem at the door.

Giving up on a city because one session shows Ausgebucht. Morning and afternoon are booked separately, and most cities have more than one centre. Check the afternoon and the other centres in the same city before you start looking at flights.

Assuming the APS fee covers it. It does not. The 150 euros is separate.

Treating the certificate as the finish line. The certificate does nothing until it reaches APS India attached to your file. Download it on 12 October and submit it with your documents.

What to do with the rest of your timeline

The dMAT is one item in a longer sequence, and it is not the one that takes longest. Keep the others moving in parallel: the APS certificate itself, your language proof, and your applications through uni-assist. If you are still choosing where to apply, start from Masters in Germany, and the full picture sits in our complete guide to studying in Germany.

Sources

• APS India: dMAT dates, fee, centres and registration steps
• d-mat.de: what the dMAT is and who requires it
• g.a.s.t.: dMAT registration and test-centre search