CMA Exam Tips

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

NOTE: 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.

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.

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 yourself 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.

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).

Within any essay scenario, some questions will be easier than others. Getting a few easy questions solved before you tackle a tougher question can help you build your confidence and get your essay started. You can pick up a lot of points quickly, so 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.

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.

NOTE: Graders will not penalize you for a mistake multiple times, so even if the mistake you made appears throughout your response, you’ll only be marked off for it once.

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.

NOTE: It is easy to go too far with this, 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.

With 100 questions on both parts of the CMA exam, spending an average of 1.5 minutes per question will leave you 30 minutes before you have to move onto the essays. This will allow you to spend a few minutes reviewing any flagged questions and any extra time will roll over to the CMA essay section.

NOTE: We suggest you limit your review to 15 minutes. This will leave you 15 minutes to carry over to your essay questions.

Time is your most valuable resource on the CMA exam, so don’t let any go to waste. Spending an extra 10 or 15 minutes proofreading your essay or adding extra details can earn you valuable points.

You will have two essay scenarios on the CMA exam, but each scenario will have multiple questions. Resist the urge to allocate more time to the essay with more questions. These essays have been designed to take 30 minutes each to answer, so a scenario with fewer questions will likely require more detail or calculations than one with many shorter questions.

NOTE: You will have 1 hour to complete both essays, at minimum. Any time you did not used during the multiple-choice section will be added to this hour. In addition, you will be able to freely travel between the two essay scenarios (but you cannot return to the MCQ section).

If you’re dehydrated, you’ll be prone to headaches and have a harder time thinking clearly. Drinking plenty of water the day before the exam will help hydrate you. Pace your water intake on the day of the exam so you don’t need to use too much time on bathroom breaks.

You will have a difficult time concentrating if you are fatigued during the CMA exam. Some people experience pre-test anxiety that can make it difficult to fall asleep, so it is often a good idea to plan to go to bed a bit earlier than you normally would. If you fall right asleep and wind up waking up early, you’ve got time to make yourself a nice breakfast.