Qualifications for the CMA Exam

The Certified Management Accountant (CMA) credential can assist accountants advance their careers by enhancing their management abilities and leadership credibility. If you're interested in completing duties like financial analysis and risk management, working with businesses or other organizations to understand the "why" behind their statistics, and if you're passionate about financial and management accounting, you should consider becoming a CMA as an accountant.

Earning your CMA certification indicates your dedication to the industry and assures your employers and clients that you have the expertise to handle highly specialized work, much like getting your Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license does. In addition, just like CPAs, in order to demonstrate that they have what it takes to do the job and do it well, CMAs must pass an exam as well as meet a variety of initial and recurring CMA Exam requirements.

In this blog, we’ll take a look at the requirements for taking the CMA Exam and maintaining the CMA credential. Let’s get started!  

Educational CMA Exam requirements

There are two paths to fulfilling the educational CMA Exam requirements. The most traditional path is to earn a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Alternatively, you can earn certain professional certifications.  

The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)—the organization that issues CMA credentials—offers a list of approved professional certifications broken down by country in its CMA Handbook (a valuable resource for anyone pursuing their CMA).  

Unlike the CPA Exam, you do not have to finish your educational CMA Exam requirements before you take the exam. You can sit for the exam while you’re still in school or any time after—the only requirement is that you submit verification of your education within seven years of completing the CMA Exam.

Experience CMA Exam requirements

Before you can earn your CMA, you must complete two continuous years of professional experience in management accounting or financial management. As with education, this CMA Exam requirement can be met before or within seven years of passing the CMA Exam.  

However, internships and nontechnical positions do not count towards the CMA test requirements for experience. The IMA recommends that you fulfill the requirement through full-time employment, but there are ways in which part-time work can count toward your total. Review page six of the CMA handbook for further guidance on the experience requirement and a list of tasks and responsibilities your job should include in order to qualify.

CMA Exam eligibility requirements - Passing the exam

To become a CMA, you must pass the CMA Exam. The exam comes in two parts:

• Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics (4 hours – 100 multiple-choice questions and two 30-minute essays)
• Part 2: Strategic Financial Management (4 hours – 100 multiple-choice questions and two 30-minute essays)

You’ll need to get at least 50% of the multiple-choice questions right to be eligible for the essay sections. For the essay sections, you’ll need to answer approximately 10-12 written response or calculation questions about two scenarios, each of which describes a common business situation. Since the essays are graded offline, you won’t get your score right away—results will be posted online and emailed to you about six weeks after your exam.  

You need to earn at least 360 out of 500 possible points in order to pass. The scores of both parts are added together, and your total score determines if you pass or fail—meaning you do not have to “pass” both sections in order to pass the exam.

CPE requirements for CMAs

Once you’ve passed the CMA Exam and earned your credential, you’ll still need to complete Continued Professional Education (CPE) courses to maintain your license and CMA eligibility requirements. CMAs are required to complete 30 hours of CPE per year, including two hours of ethics courses.