CMA Exam Questions

Work through the MCQ parts systematically
Start the process of answering by reading the actual question, which is usually the last sentence of the stem. Use the question to determine what amount of information in the stem is important and what is non-essential. Write down the important information so it is easier to separate it from everything else in the stem.

Apply your exam time-management strategy when you answer practice MCQs
If you allot 1.5 minutes per question to complete all 100 MCQs on each exam part, you’ll have 30 minutes that you can either spend reviewing your MCQ answers or carry over into the essay portion of the exam. On the exam, you should use as much of this time to review as you need and then move on to the essays. During your study sessions, you should simply stick to answering each MCQ in 1.5 minutes.

Learn from your mistakes
You need to answer a lot of practice questions to prepare for the 200 total multiple-choice questions on the CMA exam, and each question you get wrong gives you the opportunity to avoid making the same mistake when it counts. You learn more from your mistakes than you do from getting everything right, so you should review answer explanations as you complete practice questions. Whether you answered correctly or incorrectly, review the answer explanations for all of the answers. The detailed answer explanations included in Gleim CMA Review will help you understand why the original answer you chose is wrong and why the correct answer indicated is right.

Focus on what the question is asking
Read the question stem first, then go back and read the rest of the information provided to pull out what is needed. Don’t focus on all of the data that a question may provide until after you determined what the actual question is. This will help you filter out misleading information and save you valuable test-taking time.

Be on the look out for questions that ask for an exception. These questions will usually use words such as not, except, false, least, etc. These words will usually be bold on the CMA exam, but do not assume they all will be.

Predict the answer
Right after you’ve read the question, your mind will be the most focused. Make a prediction about what the right answer should be before you read the answer choices. Once you have an answer in mind, scan the answer options to see if your answer is present. Even if your predicted answer is present, it’s a good idea to read the other options to ensure none of them are better.

Read all of the answer choices carefully
Sometimes a question will have multiple answers that could be argued to be correct. Remember, you’re always looking for the answer choice that best answers the question.

In addition, sometimes reading the answer choices can clue you into what the question is asking. If all of the answer choices seem wrong based on your understanding of the question, you should probably reread the question to make sure you’re not missing something.

Watch for qualifying words like “always” or “never.” These words leave no room for exceptions and can often make an otherwise good answer incorrect because exceptions usually exist.

Answer every question on your first pass
You don’t lose points for answering questions wrong on the CMA exam, so never leave any question blank. Even if you don’t know the answer, select one of the possible answers. This will at least give you a 25% chance of answering correctly, and if you’re able to first eliminate two answer choices through educated guessing, you can increase your odds to 50%.

If you don’t know the answer, use your educated guessing skills and mark the question for later review. If you have time remaining in your 3 hours, you can go back and review questions you’ve marked to see whether you’re able to determine the answer. If you still aren’t sure, stick with your first choice and don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it.

Don’t be afraid of making an educated guess
The CMA exam covers a large amount of information, and even a well-prepared CMA candidate is likely to encounter some questions they don’t know the answer to. In these cases, an educated guess can make all the difference.

Follow these steps to improve your educated guessing technique:

• Rule out answers you think are incorrect right away. Many questions, including calculation questions, will have one or two answers that are easy to eliminate if you’re familiar with the material.
• Ask yourself whether one of the remaining answers more completely addresses the question than the others. You can usually narrow it down to two choices. Pick the best one of the two.
• Once you’ve narrowed your options down, trust your instincts. Unless you realize you read the question incorrectly or made a calculation error, your gut is usually correct. Talking oneself out of a correct answer is a common reason for selecting the wrong answer, so select the one that makes the most sense and move on. Use that time you would have spent deliberating where it can make a difference.

1. Question and Section Number
Indicates which question you are answering and the section of the exam you currently have on-screen.

2. Time Remaining
Displays the time you have remaining in the current section. Clicking it will display the total exam time remaining.

3. Progress
Tracks the percentage of questions complete in the current section.

4. Finish
Don’t click this button until you have responded to or flagged all of the essays. Clicking it will take you to a review showing questions unanswered or flagged, and from there you can move on to the voluntary survey section of the exam.

5. Navigation Menu
A visual representation of where you are on the current section of the exam. You may use this menu to quickly move between questions. The numbered buttons change appearance according to their status (see below for more details).

6. Essay Scenario
Displays a new screen with all of the information you will need to answer the questions. It will open as a PDF (see below for more details).

7. Answer Box
Where you type your response to the current question.

8. Word Processing Tools
These icons, when selected, enable you to select headings, bold, italicize, underline, left align, center, right align, undo, redo, and/or save your progress (much like a standard word processing program).

9. Question
Displays the content of the current question.

10. Calculator
A basic tool for simple computations. It’s similar to calculators used in common software programs.

11. Time Value Tables
This gives you access to Time Value Tables for questions that require them. It will open as a PDF.

12. Preferences
The gear icon leads to a preference menu with options for adjusting the text and background colors of the exam screens. If you experience discomfort or difficulty reading the exam screens due to the default color scheme, this menu is helpful for finding a more visually accessible palette.

13. Help
Contains explanations of exam functionality, but you’ll be familiar with everything if you prepare with Gleim’s exam-emulating Review System.

14. Flag
Mark a question for later review.

15. Back
Move to the previous question.

16. Next
Move to the following question.

1. Zoom
Using the “+” and “-” buttons (top left) you may manually zoom in or out, adjusting how large or small the essay text appears. You may also click on “Automatic Zoom” and quickly jump to a preset zoom distance.

2. Navigate
In order to move to the next page of the essay scenario, simply click the “>” button (top right); to move to a previous page, click “<“. Similarly, to quickly jump to the final page, click “>|”, and to jump to the first page, click “|<“.

3. Scroll
The gray scroll bar (right edge of the screen) allows you to scroll up and down the page. If you are zoomed in, and essay texts runs off-screen to the right, you are also able to scroll horizontally using the gray scroll bar at the bottom edge of the screen.

4. Grab
Clicking on the green button with the hand icon (top left) will activate the ability to “grab” and move the essay page using the mouse. To “grab” the page, click and hold the left mouse button, then drag the page in any direction you wish.

5. View Page Thumbnails
By clicking the green button with the double rectangle icon (top left), you are able to see thumbnail images of all pages of the essay scenario in a gray panel that appears to the left of the essay scenario screen. Opening this panel enables you to click on a thumbnail image of any page of the essay scenario to quickly open it in the main viewing area.

6. View Table of Contents
By clicking the green button with the “bookshelf” icon (top right), you are able to view and open links to the Essay Scenario as well as all of the Time Value Tables.

Skim the essay scenario before you read the questions
By skimming the scenario, you’ll have context to help you understand the questions. Then you can read the questions to determine which areas of the scenario need your focus (this will help you avoid extraneous information).

Read the question to determine the requirements for the answer
Focusing on the requirements of the question will let you identify the important information in the scenario. You will only get full credit if you answer all of the components of the question, so checking off requirements as you work through the essay can ensure you don’t miss anything.

Answer the easiest questions first
Within any essay scenario, some questions will be easier than others. Getting a few easy questions solved before you tackle a tougher one can help you build your confidence and get your essay started. You can pick up a lot of points quickly. If you have to spend a lot of time on the other questions in the scenario, you won’t lose the opportunity to earn the easy points if you begin running out of time later.

Make sure your solution answers the question being asked
It’s easy to get caught up in writing an explanation, and this can cause your essay to go off topic. Be sure to rein in any off-topic explanations and focus on answering the question that is being asked. Off-topic information won’t earn you any credit.

Show as much of your work as possible in your essay solution
You can receive partial credit for any part of your CMA essay, so including all of your work allows graders to follow your analysis and assign all of the points you deserve. Even if your final answer is wrong, you could receive the majority of the credit for it if the bulk of your work is correct. For example, if your final answer is wrong because of a calculation error, but you showed your work and the grader was able to determine you used the correct formula and chose the correct numbers, you can get partial credit. Graders will not penalize you for a mistake multiple times. Even if the mistake you made appears throughout your response, you’ll only be marked off for it once.

Organize your reasoning so the graders can understand it easily
Writing in an organized manner will ensure the graders can follow along with your process and thoughts. If a grader has to reread a section multiple times to understand what you’re trying to explain, that will probably cost you some points. Remember, the reason there are essay questions is to ensure candidates can effectively communicate the reason behind the numbers and make recommendations based on their calculations to management. Your communication skills are just as important as your ability to calculate the answer. This really boils down to writing short sentences, staying on topic, and organizing your essay in a logical manner.

Go above and beyond the question requirements when time allows
Adding additional, on-topic content can be a great way to earn points on a CMA essay. If you have time and your essay’s organization allows it, adding more detail to a topic demonstrates that you understand the topic and might help improve the grader’s understanding of your essay. However, it’s easy to go too far, so be sure you have a plan for what additional detail you’d like to add. If you just start adding random or off-topic sentences to an otherwise well-organized essay, it could cost you.

Quickly proofread your responses to verify that they make sense
Spending a few minutes rereading your responses will help you catch obvious errors that can cost you points. In addition, it’s a great opportunity to notice if anything is introduced out of order or doesn’t make sense.