Once the dMAT certificate is in hand, the next document most applicants sit down to write is the motivation letter, and a question follows almost immediately: should the result go in it? Some candidates want to lead with a strong score. Others want to explain a weaker one before anyone asks. Both instincts are understandable, and both can work against you if they take over the letter. The certificate already reports your result, in a form the university can read for itself. The letter has a different job, and the useful question is whether mentioning the dMAT helps it do that job. This article covers when it does, how to phrase it if you include it, and when to leave it out.
The certificate speaks for itself
A motivation letter exists to show what the documents cannot: why this programme, why now, and how your background prepares you for it. Your transcripts carry your grades. Your degree certificate carries your qualification. Your dMAT certificate carries your module scores and percentile ranks, which our guide to the dMAT score, percentile rank and certificate explains in detail. Whoever reads your application will see the certificate wherever the programme asks for it.
That changes what a sentence about the dMAT can add. Repeating the figures adds nothing, because the reader already has them, and it uses up space a letter rarely has to spare. Worse, a number typed into a letter is a number that can disagree with the official document — a transposed digit, a rounded percentile, a module score copied from the wrong line. As using your dMAT certificate in applications points out, verification is largely a matter of comparing documents against each other, and a letter that contradicts the certificate creates exactly the kind of question you do not want asked.
So the default is simple. Do not restate your scores. Mention the dMAT only when you have something to say about it that the certificate cannot.
When a mention earns its place
There are a few situations where a short reference to the result genuinely strengthens a letter.
The programme asks for it. Some universities give specific instructions for the motivation letter, and a few may ask applicants to comment on test results or on how they meet the admission requirements. If the programme's page or its admission regulations say this, follow the instruction exactly. Our guide to checking what each university asks of your dMAT covers where those instructions usually sit, including the linked regulations that are easy to miss.
A module result supports the case you are making. The certificate reports your Core and subject module scores separately, and the gap between them can be part of a story. If you are moving into a quantitative programme from a less quantitative degree, a solid Core result can sit beside other evidence — coursework, a project, work experience — as one sign that you are ready for the analytical load. The emphasis there is on "beside". The result supports an argument you are already making from your own record; it should not carry the argument on its own.
You are explaining a change of direction. Candidates who are changing fields for their Master's often need to show that they can handle the reasoning a new discipline demands. A standardised test sat by applicants from many backgrounds can be a reasonable point of reference, provided you describe it accurately and do not claim more for it than it measures.
In each case, one or two sentences is enough. Name the test, point to the certificate, and say what the result shows in relation to the programme. Then move on to the parts of the letter only you can write.
If your result is weaker than you hoped
The pull to explain a disappointing result is strong, and it is usually best resisted. A paragraph of explanation draws attention to the one part of your application you would rather the reader did not dwell on, and it shifts the letter's tone from motivation to defence. Unless a programme asks you to address your result, the letter is generally better spent on your interest in the subject and the evidence that you will do well in it.
Keep the other procedures in view as well. For applicants in the APS India route, APS India states that a low dMAT result does not by itself cause refusal of the APS certificate, and the official dMAT information says universities decide individually how they use results. A weaker score may matter a great deal to one programme and very little to another, which is a reason to check each programme's rule rather than to apologise for the result everywhere.
If something genuinely went wrong on test day, that belongs with the official dMAT channels and whatever process they set out, not in a letter written months later. And if you believe the result itself is wrong, the steps in our guide to a result that looks wrong apply. A motivation letter is not a route for either.
How to phrase it accurately
If you do mention the dMAT, write about it the way the official sources do. Describe it by its own name and modules rather than comparing it with other tests. Refer to "my dMAT certificate" rather than quoting figures from memory, or, if you must give a number, copy it directly from the certificate and check it twice. Avoid describing your result in terms the certificate does not use: a percentile rank is not a pass mark, and "above average" means something specific on a standardised scale. If you are unsure what the test measures, our overview of what the dMAT is is a good refresher before you write about it.
Keep the claim modest and tied to the programme. "My Core Module result, reported on the attached certificate, sits alongside my statistics coursework as evidence that I am prepared for the programme's quantitative courses" does more than a paragraph of praise for your own score, because it connects the result to something the reader cares about.
Write the letter first
The simplest approach is to write the letter as if the dMAT did not exist: your reasons, your preparation, your fit with the programme. Then read it back and ask whether one sentence about the result would make any of those points stronger. If the answer is yes, add that sentence and check it against the certificate. If the answer is no, leave it out. The certificate is already in the file, and the letter is the one document where every line can be about you.
