Certified Management Accountant (CMA)

Certified Management Accountant (CMA) is the globally recognized, advanced-level credential appropriate for accountants and financials in business.

The CMA is an advanced professional certification specifically designed to measure the critical accounting and financial management skills that are of extreme relevance to candidate and corporate advancements in today’s business environment.

Achieving the CMA credential demonstrates the candidate’s mastery of financial planning, analysis, control, decision support, and professional ethics.

The CMA program has been designed to meet the evolving needs of business – today and tomorrow.

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA)

The ICMA has overall responsibility for developing, administering and grading the CMA examinations.

CMA Exam Content

Candidates for CMA certification must pass the following two examination parts:

Part 1: Financial Reporting, Planning, Performance, and Control

(a) External Financial Reporting Decisions
(b) Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting
(c) Performance Management
(d) Cost Management
(e) Internal Controls

Part 2: Financial Decision Making

(a) Financial Statement Analysis
(b) Corporate Finance
(c) Decision Analysis
(d) Risk Management
(e) Investment Decisions
(f) Professional Ethics

CMA Exam Pattern

Each exam part will consist of 100 multiple choice questions and two 30-minute essay questions. The candidate will have 3 hours to complete the multiple choice section and one hour to complete the essays.

The essays will be presented after the candidates completes the multiple choice section of the exam or after 3 hours, whichever comes first. Once the candidate completes and exits the multiple choice section of the exam, he/she cannot go back.

The candidate must remain in the essay section to complete the exam.

The candidate must answer at least 50% of the multiple-choice questions correctly to be eligible to take the essay section.

Testing Windows

The exam can be taken from any prometric center located in the U.S. or at designated international locations. Exams are offered in the following 3 testing windows:

1. January and February
2. May and June
3. September and October

Once registered for the exam, the candidate must take the exam part during the assigned testing window. Appointments cannot be rescheduled to another testing window though rescheduling is allowed within the testing window upon payment of additional fee.

Test Results

Because grading essay questions takes time, exam scores are released after six weeks from the end of the month in which the exam was taken.

All CMA candidates have three years to pass Parts 1 and 2 of the exam from the date of enrollment into the program.

Failure to pass the two-part exam within three years, credit for the part passed will expire, and the candidate has to retake the exam.

For more information on CMA, please visit http://www.imanet.org


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