The US Certified Management Accountant (CMA) exam has two parts.
- CMA Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics
- CMA Part 2: Strategic Financial Management
In this article, we are going to give detailed insights into the US CMA part-1 exam.
US CMA Part 1 Syllabus:
| Topics | Coverage Percentage |
| External Financial Reporting & Decisions | 15% |
| Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting | 20% |
| Performance Management | 20% |
| Cost Management | 15% |
| Internal Controls | 15% |
| Technology and Analytics | 15% |
Part-1 of the US CMA exam is all about financial planning, reporting, internal control, and performance. If you go through the insights of the US CMA part-1 exam it looks more like the CPA-FAR exam, also consists of CPA-AUD in terms of internal control, and has a more in-depth version of CPA-BEC.
Sub-Topics:
Here are the sub-topics of the US CMA part-1 exam:
A. External Financial Reporting & Decisions
- Financial statements
- Recognition, measurement, valuation, and disclosure
B. Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting
- Strategic planning
- Budgeting concepts
- Forecasting techniques
- Budgeting methodologies
- Annual profit plan and supporting schedules
- Top-level planning and analysis
C. Performance Management
- Cost and variance measures
- Responsibility centers and reporting segments
- Performance measures
D. Cost Management
- Measurement concepts
- Costing systems
- Overhead costs
- Supply chain management
- Business process improvement
E. Internal Controls
- Governance, risk, and compliance
- System controls and security measures
F. Technology and Analytics
- Information systems
- Data governance
- Technology-enabled finance transformation
- Data analytics
US CMA Part-1 Exam Duration:
The US CMA part-1 exam is 3 hours long for MCQs and the second section is of one hour, which consists of essay-type questions. So, the total testing duration is 4 hours.
| Question type | No. of Questions | Duration | Avg Time per Question |
| Multiple choice | 100 | 3 hours | 1.8 minutes |
| Essay | 2 | 1 hour | 30 minutes |
US CMA Part-1 Exam Format:
On the US CMA part-1 exam, there are 3 parts for the Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs).
- The question stem includes all the necessary details for answering the questions and rarely gives irrelevant information as well.
- The correct answer choice responds to the stem well compared to other option answers.
- The 3 distractors occur to be correct but actually, they are not the correct answers.
The US CMA part-1 exam consists of 2 essay scenarios. The essay questions may ask one to write paragraphs or to perform certain calculations. While answering a conceptual essay question, the candidate should write as much as they can about the topic and maximize the points.
US CMA Exam Format:
The US CMA exam is completely computerized, and you can take this exam at many Prometric centers all over the world. It’s essential to schedule the exam dates in one of the testing windows. You can choose whichever one suits you accordingly.
| Testing Window | Exam Dates |
| Jan-Feb | 1st January to 28th February |
| May-Jun | 1st May to 30th June |
| Sep-Oct | 1st September to 31st October |
Here you can watch US CMA course details by Sripal Jain(CFO of Simandhar Education)
Conclusion:
US Certified Management accountant is a highly sought-after certification for many individuals who are career-minded and who are looking for proper advancement in the world of finance and accounting. If you are planning to choose this as a career option, you need to know all about the CMA USA examination. Hope this article helps you get a detailed insight into the US CMA part-1 exam format, syllabus, exam duration, and testing windows. Although, if you still have any queries related to US CMA, please comment below & we are here to help you with the right solutions.
Need more information on the US CMA Course? please feel free to Contact Simandhar Education @+91 7780273388 or mail us at info@simandhareducation.com.
