Introduction to CMA Program
US Certified Management Accountant (CMA) program aims to provide an objective measure of a student’s skills, knowledge ion the field of management accounting. ICMA (Institute of Certified Management Accountants) is tasked with the unique responsibility of ensuring that the curriculum offers the most up-to-date topics which are equally relevant in the practical world. It aims to develop students with necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities that an accounting professional need today.
In order to ascertain presence of relevant skills, US CMA conducts examinations under two parts across the year on a rolling basis. These examinations are conducted using most advanced technologies and test students on industry/practice relevant skills.
Course Overview
US CMA certification requires you to clear only 2 parts(papers) namely:
- Financial Planning, Performance and Analytics
- Strategic Financial Management
Students can appear for these parts in any order of their choice, thus offering a lot of flexibility to everyone.
Structure
Each part consists of 100 MCQs and two essay-type questions conducted over a total time of four hours. Students will have three hours to complete the MCQ section and remaining one hour to complete the essays. Essays typically consists of around 10-12 written response or calculations based on multiple scenarios using a business situation.
A student must correctly answer at least 50% of the MCQ to be eligible for the essay section.
Section on essays will only appear to students once they have completed attempting MCQs section. Essentially, once a student enters essay section, they cannot revisit MCQs for revision or any other changes.
Passing Score
Students must score a minimum of 360 out of a total of 500 in each part to successfully clear CMA exams.
Time Limit
A student must clear these two papers within a time frame of 3 years to be eligible for CMA certification.
Testing Window
CMA exams are conducted round the year in three different cycles as below. Students can choose to appear on any day across each cycle subject to seats availability.
- May-June
- September-October
- January-February
Tested Skills
CMA course is designed to be the most advanced and forward-looking course to meet the industry demands of not just today, but also of future. It is thus uniquely designed to test below skills in a candidate:
- Knowledge
- Comprehension
- Application
- Analysis
- Synthesis
- Evaluation
CMA Course Specifications
As part of testing students across two papers, CMA examinations assess students’ capabilities in below areas:
- Paper 1: Financial Planning, Performance and Analytics
| Topic | Weightage |
| External Financial Reporting Decisions | 15% |
| Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting | 20% |
| Performance Management | 20% |
| Cost Management | 15% |
| Internal Controls | 15% |
| Technology and Analytics | 15% |
- Paper 2: Strategic Financial Management
| Topic | Weightage |
| Financial Statement Analysis | 20% |
| Corporate Finance | 20% |
| Decision Analysis | 25% |
| Risk Management | 10% |
| Investment Decisions | 10% |
| Professional Ethics | 15% |
Details of Concepts Covered
We will now get into details of concepts covered in each paper so that a student can make an informed decision according to their strengths and weaknesses.
| Topic | Concepts Covered |
| External Financial Reporting Decisions | Financial Statements; Recognition, measurement, valuation, and disclosure |
| Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting | Strategic planning; Budgeting Concepts; Forecasting techniques; Budgeting methodologies; Annual profit plan and supporting schedules and Top-level planning and analysis |
| Performance Management | Cost and variance measures; Responsibility centers and reporting segments and Performance measures |
| Cost Management | Measurement concepts; Costing systems; Overhead costs; Supply chain management; Business process improvement |
| Internal Controls | Governance, risk, and compliance and System controls and security measures |
| Technology and Analytics | Information systems; Data governance; Technology-enabled finance transformation and Data Analytics |
- Paper 1: Financial Planning, Performance and Analytics
| Topic | Concepts Covered |
| Financial Statement Analysis | Basic financial statement analysis; Financial ratios; Profitability analysis and Special issues |
| Corporate Finance | Risk and return; Long-term financial management; Raising capital; Working capital management; Corporate restructuring and International finance |
| Decision Analysis | Cost/volume/profit analysis; Marginal analysis and Pricing |
| Risk Management | Enterprise risk |
| Investment Decisions | Capital budgeting process and Capital investment analysis methods |
| Professional Ethics | Business ethics; Ethical considerations for management accounting and financial management professionals and Ethical considerations for the organization |
FAQs
Q. Which parts required to be cleared by a student to obtain US CMA certification?
A. Students are required to successfully clear below two parts to obtain US CMA certification:
- Financial Planning, Performance and Analytics
- Strategic Financial Management
Q. What is the duration of US CMA examinations?
A. Each part of US CMA is required to be completed within 4 hours.
Q. What is the pattern of questions in each part of US CMA exams?
A. Each part of US CMA exams test students on a mix of 100 MCQs and two essays.
Q. What is the time split for questions in US CMA exams?
A. Students are allotted 3 hours to complete 100 MCQs and one hour to complete the essays.
Q. Can a student attempt MCQs and essays in any order?
A. No, a student must first attempt MCQs and then move to the essay section.
Note: A student must correctly answer at least 50% of the MCQs to be eligible to take the essay section.
Q. Who will schedule my US CMA exam?
A: Each student is individually responsible to schedule their examinations by using the Prometric/ICMA portal. If a student fails to schedule an appointment or do not appear for a scheduled appointment in the selected testing window, then the exam fees are forfeited.
Q. What the rescheduling or cancellation policies?
A: Students can only opt to reschedule their examination from one date to another within the same testing window.
If cancellation made 72 hours prior or more of appointment = Reschedule to another date after deduction of a charge by Prometric for processing.
If cancellation made less than 72 hours of appointment = Exam fees with ICMA forfeited and student will be required to obtain a new registration.
Q. What the available refund policies?
A: CMA entrance fees are not refundable. Meanwhile, the examination fee is refundable if the cancellation is made within 30 days of registration but without any appointment with Prometric.
Q. What are the types of topics tested in Part 1 of US CMA examinations?
A: Below are the topics and applicable weight assigned to each topic in Part 1 of US CMA examinations:
| Topic | Weightage |
| External Financial Reporting Decisions | 15% |
| Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting | 20% |
| Performance Management | 20% |
| Cost Management | 15% |
| Internal Controls | 15% |
| Technology and Analytics | 15% |
A: Below are the topics and applicable weight assigned to each topic in Part 2 of US CMA examinations:
| Topic | Weightage |
| Financial Statement Analysis | 20% |
| Corporate Finance | 20% |
| Decision Analysis | 25% |
| Risk Management | 10% |
| Investment Decisions | 10% |
| Professional Ethics | 15% |
Ans: No, there are not any negative marking for incorrect answers in US CMA examinations.
Q. What is the passing mark in examinations?
Ans: Passing score in US CMA exams is set at 360.
Q. What do you mean by exam equating?
Ans: In order to ensure that the passing scores on all forms of the exams are equivalent in terms of levels of difficulty, CMA Institute uses techniques of statistical equating to determine the equivalency of exams.
Q. Are CMA exam scores scaled?
Ans: CMA exam scores are expressed as scaled scores ranging from 0 to 500 by way of transforming the raw scores into scaled numbers to ensure a level playing field for all candidates.
Q. What are Examination Awards awarded by CMA?
Ans: Students receive an email from Prometric mentioning their results once the results are declared by ICMA.
