Congratulations on becoming a CMA candidate. Passing the exams and receiving your certification will be a major accomplishment and should further your career significantly. The material presented below is designed to help you prepare for the exams. We discuss certification exams in general as well as characteristics of the CMA exams. The discussion is intended to give you a general understanding of the purpose of the CMA and how the exams are constructed. Also discussed are the different types of exam questions, the cognitive levels tested, and how the exams are scored.
CERTIFICATION TESTING
The Certified Management Accountant (CMA) examination program is a certification test. The primary purpose of certification tests is to establish and maintain a standard of professional competence within a profession, with the ultimate aim of protecting the public. The requirements of the CMA Programs have been established to recognize those who can demonstrate that they possess a sufficient degree of knowledge and skills in the areas of management accounting and financial management. In this way, the ICMA helps identify practitioners who have met certain predetermined professional standards.
Like most occupational certification tests, the CMA exams are examples of criterion-referenced tests. A criterion-referenced test is one in which a candidate’s performance is compared to a predetermined standard or passing score. In criterion-referenced testing, the interpretation of an examinee’s score does not depend on the performance of other examinees. Pass or fail status is instead determined by comparing the individual candidate’s score with the passing or “cut” score. If a score at or above the cut score is achieved, the examinee passes the test; if a score is below the cut score, the examinee fails the test.
EXAM CONSTRUCTION AND CHARACTERISTICS
The CMA exam parts 1 and 3 consist of 110 multiple-choice questions and the CMA exam part 2 consists of 140 multiple-choice questions, which are often referred to as items. The items that comprise the exam part you will be taking are randomly selected from a large database of items. The CMA part 4 is a written-response exam consisting of 4-7 essays/problems. Your particular test is referred to as a “form” and has been selected in accordance with preset instructions to provide adequate coverage of all topics and cognitive levels. The principles that are used in the construction and administration of the exams are discussed below.
