How to Prepare for CMA Exam Questions and Essays

"Practice, practice, practice" might bring you to Carnegie Hall, but "preparation, preparation, preparation" is what it takes to become a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and acquire respect and job advancement.  

It takes a lot of preparation, focus, and effort to pass the CMA Exam with a score of 360 (out of 500). The exam is divided into two halves, each consisting of a three-hour segment with 100 multiple-choice questions and a one-hour essay component with 10–12 problems requiring a written answer or computation based on actual business scenarios.

As with other things in life, studying for the CMA Exam requires both smart and hard effort. Here are a few pointers to assist you in making the most effective and efficient preparations for the CMA Exam questions and essays.

CMA Exam prep tips

1. Know the CMA Exam topics
   Before you begin CMA Exam prep in earnest, it’s a good idea to review the Content Specification Outlines from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) in their entirety. This will ensure you have a comprehensive grasp of the topics covered by the exam and give you a foundation on which you can build your study plan.
   
   Here are the Core Competencies of the CMA Exam, which you can review in greater detail in the outlines:
   
   Part 1 – Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics
   Topics covered:
   - External Financial Reporting Decisions
   - Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting
   - Performance Management
   - Cost Management
   - Internal Controls
   - Technology and Analytics
   
   Part 2 – Strategic Financial Management
   Topics covered:
   - Financial Statement Analysis
   - Corporate Finance
   - Decision Analysis
   - Risk Management
   - Investment Decisions
   - Professional Ethics
   

2. Use a CMA Exam review course
   You don’t have to do this alone! A CMA Exam review course can help you study more effectively and better retain information through interactive modules, digital flashcards, practice tests, online resources and more.
   

3. Build a study plan
   Now that you know what’s on the test and you’ve brought in some backup, you’ll want to create a study plan to better organize your efforts.
   
   Your plan should include specific times dedicated to studying each topic on the CMA Exam. This helps prevent procrastination and ensures you have enough time to cover everything—as well as review your weakest topics until you’ve got them down. If you’re currently working a full-time job, building a detailed study plan is even more critical.
   
   Everyone’s study plan will be different, and your plan will likely evolve as you discover the topics for which you’re already proficient and those where you need the most work. But be careful of using that as an excuse not to create a plan at all. Don’t “wing it”—unless you want to crash and burn.
   
   Instead, include flexibility and room for changes within your plan. For instance, you might want to leave increasingly more study slots empty as you get closer to the exam date, with the intention of filling them in as you gain a greater understanding of the topics that require the most work and repetition for you to master.
   

4. Take CMA practice exams
   The more practice tests you take, the more confident and comfortable you’ll be on the day of the CMA Exam.
   Taking practice tests helps you grow more familiar with the testing environment, enables you to retain more knowledge and sharpens your overall test-taking skills and multiple-choice strategy—which is especially important if you’ve been out of school for a while.  

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