CMA-USA-What are the Requirements for the Certification

CMA USA is one of the best certifications you can avail in management accounting that enables any certified professional to work anywhere in the world. The certification is certified by the Institute of Management which is an American based worldwide association for accountant and financial professionals working in the business.

A CMA certification offered by the IMA is globally recognised. Being a CMA certified individual shows that the person has knowledge in various areas such as financial planning, support, analysis control and ethics.

It opens up a lot of career opportunities in various sectors and domains. They also avail better financial compensations when compared to their non- CMA counterparts. They also have more flexibility as they can move across business areas with ease. CMA certified professionals are highly sought after by the big 4 auditing firms. CMA certification is used as a benchmark during the recruitment process.

One of the major attraction to the course apart from its global recognition is its short course duration. Its characteristics like short course duration, affordable fees, flexibility are all reasons why it’s a highly sought after course. The course duration for the course will be between 9-12 months.

The books provided by Lakshya are published by Wiley. They are a 200-year publisher of high-quality content with a mission to help to succeed in their educational and professional endeavours.

Why Wiley?

• They are the only approved and official content partner of IMA. 
• Higher content retention - it will help you to understand the concept in an effortless manner
• Mock exams by Wiley will help you be an expert in the subject
• Validity - the content can be accessed for an entire year
• Largest question bank - The test bank by Wiley has 3800+ MCQ’s and 140 essays make sure that you have adequate practice.

Pre-requisites of earning a CMA certification

• IMA membership
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university
• Two years of relevant experience
• Passing both parts of CMA exam

Students can take up the CMA USA course either before or after graduation. You are required to have a bachelor’s degree but you can attain this within a span of 7 years. Along with passing the examinations students also have to meet the education and experience requirements. 

Professionals who already have 2 years of experience only need to clear the second part of the examination. You can fulfil the work requirement during or after taking the CMA exam. The work experience an individual has should be from a relevant professional setting predetermined by the IMA. 

Career opportunity

The CMA certification opens doors to professionals globally. Some of the roles they can pursue are

• Staff Accountant
• Budget Analyst
• Finance Manager
• Treasurer
• Cost Accountant
• Financial Analyst
• Controller
• Chief Financial Officer
• Internal Auditor
• Senior Accountant etc

Having a CMA USA certification boosts your CV and will help you to stand out from non-CMA counterparts. Having a CMA USA certification shows that you meet the educational requirement and professional credibility.

The CMA USA exam is a two-part exam pattern. A candidate has to clear all papers in order to attain the destination. The course is subdivided into 11 competencies -

Part I - Financial Reporting, Planning, Performance and Control

• External Financial reporting, planning, budgeting and forecasting, performance management, cost management, internal control and ethics
• 100 multiple choice questions and two 30 minute essay questions are included in this part of the exam. You will need to score at least 50% of the MCQ’s right. The examination is scored between a 0-500 mark system. In order to successfully pass the exam, you need to score at least 360 on the exam. 

Part II - Financial Decision Making

• Financial statement analysis, corporate finance, decision analysis, risk management, investment decisions, professional ethics.
• For this part of the exam, the score is tabulated on 500, you have to score a 360 out of 500. There are 100 MCQ’s and two essay questions of 30 minutes each. You will have to get 50% of all the MCQ questions correctly in order to move to the essay part.

CMA USA exam structure

The CMA exam will cover a huge range of topics in management, accounting and finance. There are three different windows during a year so you can choose when you want to write the paper. The three windows are during January-February, May-June, September - October. The examination has 100 questions and two essay questions. The essay part includes 8-10 written responses or calculations for tackling business scenarios. 

Two parts of the CMA USA exams

100 multiple-choice questions, this will form 75% of your final score. Out of these 100 questions, 10 questions are considered as future exam questions and do not determine whether you pass or fail. This means that only 90 out of the 100 are part of your exam score. Students are expected to get 50% in this, in order to be eligible to write the essay questions(this forms 25% of the questions). There may be 4-6 subquestions to each of the essay question.

How are the CMA USA exams graded?

A student has to score a minimum of 50% (45 correct answers in the MCQ). No negative marking. For the essay part, marks will be awarded for the right steps. Partial marks will also be given for the wrong answer if the steps are correct. 

How are the steps tabulated?

The score is tabulated out of 500. In order to clear the exams, a student has to get a minimum of 360 out of 500.

Make the best decision before the year gets over